Cant install from DVD with valid Steam CD Key

[thatwaseasy]

I purchased the retail game on DVD cost me £30 but cannot install it now cause Steam installer on DVD don't work with new Steam client and blocks it from the installer. My key is also not recognised. Steam expects me to take it back to shop like 8 years ago I bought it. Nothing to do with the shop or software publisher. It is the Steam installer that is stopping me from using older purchased retail DVD games. I have quite a collection and Steam wont support wont even give any help except take it back, tough luck, not our problem. I never trusted Steam games for this exact reason, the retail purchased games will be useless when Steam decides to block them, forcing you to buy an update. Total robbery and disregard to customers who prefer retail DVD/CD games and not 8GB+ of downloads. Sort it out steam, don't drop support for older games and stop gamers from playing want they payed for!

[Stan]

Why you waited 8 years to use steam key? Also its not a steam game, steam is retail seller. Try to contact 2K see what they have to say.

[thatwaseasy]

So you saying games bought in a store with steam client as installer expire after 8 years ?
Does that apply to all games purchased through the steam store ?

[Stan]

Originally posted by thatwaseasy:

So you saying games bought in a store with steam client as installer expire after 8 years ?
Does that apply to all games purchased through the steam store ?

They don't expire but i think the problem is that this "classic" mafia 2 does't really exist anymore in steam and can only be acquired by purchasing DE version.

I'm just latching on that sentence that you brought this game from retail 8 years ago and are now trying to use steam key that was in it.

[thatwaseasy]

Yes, I have retail DVD with valid DVD key but steam says it's invalid and to their support pages say it is a problem with publisher. It's a problem with Steam not the publisher as Steam is refusing to activate a software product on their platform. So looks like games do expire when Steam decide they no longer store the keys in their database anymore. Total disregard to people who pay for these products and then try and pass the problem onto the publisher and even the retailer without any links to contact Steam about it so that you just give up or purchase and download another version. I have always tried to avoid steam for this exact reason and the other being I do not want to download GB's of updates to play a game I can install from DVD, what's the point of buying the DVD if the game is then downloaded. It's farce and I'm done with buying anything Steam related.

[BassPwr]

This also happened to me with retail Mafia 2 Director's Cut and I posted about it previously. It is a scam by steam and 2K games to not honour an official purchase of a retail steam key. They removed a registry of existing steam keys for the game knowing that those keys could have been customer purchased keys not yet redeemed. I am not sure if developers and steam have a way of knowing what keys are retail product assigned or not but whatever the case I'm thinking all keys got grouped together when they were removed/blocked on steam.

To make the situation worse, after my communication with 2k support on this matter, they refused to provide a replacement product key. This is their product they removed from the steam store so it is their responsibility to customers. They have taken customer's money and not honoured providing a product for that payment.

An annoying thing was I had 2 retail keys inside the director's cut: 1 for the main game and 1 for the dlc. My dlc key didn't report as invalid which was strange, but then I couldn't use it because it asked me to add the base game first (key blocked on steam).

Disgusting company who do not deserve any more money from me until they fix this and honour previous purchases by allowing the purchased keys, but I know they won't. Robbing customers is not a good business decision.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/50130/discussions/0/3111396383980249300/

[thatwaseasy]

Typical pass the buck response for me also with my retail purchased product. You clearly have a valid key but neither Steam or the Software publisher are prepared to offer any kind of resolution. Steam manage the key database so it is their problem and not the retailer.
I stopped purchasing anything that requires Steam activation and only purchase games that do not require any kind of online activation. Yeah, it sucks that I can't play many of my favourites anymore but I'm done with Steam after most of my collection now requires GB's of Steam related updates which I don't want as it has the potential to break all my existing games installed from DVD. Good luck with any kind of help from Steam.