Give away old steam games??

[overclocking101]

my son got a steam account today, got him the ati free pack (TF2/HL2)and alien swarm. i have like 30 games I bought but dont even like/play is there a way to give them to another steam user?? say my sons steam account??

 

[sneekypeet]

AFAIK the games are tied to a specific account forever, no way to "gift" them after they got tied to the account once downloaded/key entered.

 

[overclocking101]

DAMN thats what I thought

 

[BondExtreme]

Yep. No switching games on accounts. :/

 

[RejZoR]

Only way to do it is to give away the entire account. Which is not exactly per TOS but can be done.

 

[skaterdu76650]

U give ur account ??? i can have it ?

 

[scaminatrix]

^ ^
na, can I haz staem plz?

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Theres no way i'd give my steam account away, i've spent more than £300 on it :O

But yer games are locked to it.

 

[qubit]

my son got a steam account today, got him the ati free pack (TF2/HL2)and alien swarm. i have like 30 games I bought but dont even like/play is there a way to give them to another steam user?? say my sons steam account??

Nah, you can't gift it or sell it, unfortunately. There's no technical reason for this, it's just policy - enforced by the delights of DRM.

They do this to deny you the basic right under the first sale doctrine, to sell on what you've bought. Remember how all the games publishers are bitching about used games, because they don't get a cut of the sales and it supposedly reduces new game sales? This is what happens if we let them have their way.

There is no good DRM. Period.

 

[skaterdu76650]

if i understand He can give the account XD ?

 

[RejZoR]

Remember how all the games publishers are bitching about used games, because they don't get a cut of the sales and it supposedly reduces new game sales?

Actually here is just their own fault as they just refuse to adapt to new style of gamers. They are bitching about not getting their cut from the games. Why don't they start "re-heating" the old games. For example NFS4 or NFS Porsche with refreshed HD graphics using NFS Hot Pursuit engine? Maybe a HD conversion of System Shock 2 using CryEngine 2 or 3. Or even Unreal Engine 3. Or Quake 2 using id Tech 5 engine. Remake it and sell it for half the original price again. I'm sure it would sell like hot cakes to new and existing players. I know i'd buy loads of them. I can't imagine a better way of doing this as nothing can beat an existing experience with a game that you know but then again it feels completely different. They already have everything, they just have to put a bit of a work in it to remake stuff. It's easier and faster than making a brand new game from scratch as you already have everything. They could employ a "HD team" which would only work on older, existing titles and bringing us refreshed "old" games.

As for the new games, the sales would not be getting reduced if they stopped releasing crappy direct ports and dumbing down the existing series and show some respect to the customers.

I'm saying these 2 things for ages and so far no one has listened to this. When that day will come, i'll point you this very post!

 

[brandonwh64]

You can give away the WHOLE account but thats really up to you

 

[Chryonn]

don't give it away, sell it.

 

[qubit]

don't give it away, sell it.

You can't, it's tied to the account...

 

[overclocking101]

yeah i wont be giving the whole account away,i have some games i like on it lol

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I know, I so wish I could do this.

 

[slyfox2151]

don't give it away, sell it.

pretty sure he ment "sell the whole account"

 

[digibucc]

you can have your account on multiple computers, and leave one in offline mode. it can play all the single player games, and the other installation can play anything as it is online.

he can just sign into his account for his games, and yours offline when he's playing your old ones.

I go one step further and simply vnc into my main machine, and close steam if i am using my secondary. then i can update and go online, and don't have to pre-emptively shut it down.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Did'nt know that digi thx.

 

[RejZoR]

you can have your account on multiple computers, and leave one in offline mode. it can play all the single player games, and the other installation can play anything as it is online.

he can just sign into his account for his games, and yours offline when he's playing your old ones.

I go one step further and simply vnc into my main machine, and close steam if i am using my secondary. then i can update and go online, and don't have to pre-emptively shut it down.

Actually you automatically get signed out of already signed in account if you try to log in on another computer. So you don't even have to close ongoing session before you can sign it.

 

[digibucc]

Actually you automatically get signed out of already signed in account if you try to log in on another computer. So you don't even have to close ongoing session before you can sign it.

lol yeah , but it makes you type in your password. if you have it saved on both machines, you have to be logged out of both for it to be automatic. otherwise you will have to type it in.

My steam account is worth quite a bit of money, i have a very long and complicated password, and i hate typing it in all the time.

but you are right, other than my laziness there is no need to close it before opening the second

 

[H82LUZ73]

Actually here is just their own fault as they just refuse to adapt to new style of gamers. They are bitching about not getting their cut from the games. Why don't they start "re-heating" the old games. For example NFS4 or NFS Porsche with refreshed HD graphics using NFS Hot Pursuit engine? Maybe a HD conversion of System Shock 2 using CryEngine 2 or 3. Or even Unreal Engine 3. Or Quake 2 using id Tech 5 engine. Remake it and sell it for half the original price again. I'm sure it would sell like hot cakes to new and existing players. I know i'd buy loads of them. I can't imagine a better way of doing this as nothing can beat an existing experience with a game that you know but then again it feels completely different. They already have everything, they just have to put a bit of a work in it to remake stuff. It's easier and faster than making a brand new game from scratch as you already have everything. They could employ a "HD team" which would only work on older, existing titles and bringing us refreshed "old" games.

As for the new games, the sales would not be getting reduced if they stopped releasing crappy direct ports and dumbing down the existing series and show some respect to the customers.

I'm saying these 2 things for ages and so far no one has listened to this. When that day will come, i'll point you this very post!

So your saying is what Valve did with Half Life and then ported it to the source engine....System Shock 2 on cry engine would scar the crud of me even more .....

 

[kbozz71]

Actually here is just their own fault as they just refuse to adapt to new style of gamers. They are bitching about not getting their cut from the games. Why don't they start "re-heating" the old games. For example NFS4 or NFS Porsche with refreshed HD graphics using NFS Hot Pursuit engine? Maybe a HD conversion of System Shock 2 using CryEngine 2 or 3. Or even Unreal Engine 3. Or Quake 2 using id Tech 5 engine. Remake it and sell it for half the original price again. I'm sure it would sell like hot cakes to new and existing players. I know i'd buy loads of them. I can't imagine a better way of doing this as nothing can beat an existing experience with a game that you know but then again it feels completely different. They already have everything, they just have to put a bit of a work in it to remake stuff. It's easier and faster than making a brand new game from scratch as you already have everything. They could employ a "HD team" which would only work on older, existing titles and bringing us refreshed "old" games.

As for the new games, the sales would not be getting reduced if they stopped releasing crappy direct ports and dumbing down the existing series and show some respect to the customers.

I'm saying these 2 things for ages and so far no one has listened to this. When that day will come, i'll point you this very post!

Agreed. UT 99 rewritten with the U3 engine, Quake2, Carmageddon, System Shock.....The list goes on and on. The sales would be there, and the games themselves would be far better than the crap they spew out today. But this just makes too much sense. So that means it will probably never happen.

 

[stinger608]

Agreed. UT 99 rewritten with the U3 engine, Quake2, Carmageddon, System Shock.....The list goes on and on. The sales would be there, and the games themselves would be far better than the crap they spew out today. But this just makes too much sense. So that means it will probably never happen.

Yep your probably correct Kbozz! I would imagine the only way such a thing would happen, would be for a team of people to get with the companies and talk them into allowing the team to remake the title using the current technology.

 

[qubit]

Agreed. UT 99 rewritten with the U3 engine, Quake2, Carmageddon, System Shock.....The list goes on and on. The sales would be there, and the games themselves would be far better than the crap they spew out today. But this just makes too much sense. So that means it will probably never happen.

Yep your probably correct Kbozz! I would imagine the only way such a thing would happen, would be for a team of people to get with the companies and talk them into allowing the team to remake the title using the current technology.

+1 I'd love my old games to be made with modern engines. The two classics I played a lot are UT99 and Half-Life (the source remake doesn't count, because the game runs just the same and doesn't look any different).