Delete / unbuy and Rebuy?

[battlezoby]

Update: [See original post just below...]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Kenpoleon Bonaparte:

The option for "removing" a game from your library doesn't actually delete it. It just gets hidden from you. You can contact Steam support to get it restored.

Thanks. So the next question is: Can you delete / no-longer-own and then rebuy it after playing it too much to get a fair refund or abusing the refund policy?

Or are you stuck with the version you bought and can't "throw it away" and buy a newer copy instead? (On the same account.) See my reply to Psychlapse at roughly Reply#15 below.

BTW, correct me if I'm wrong, but "another account" is an option if you want to manage them, but that's not what I'm asking about here. The only reason I've seen for not being allowed to create a new account is to "circumvent a ban" and I'm clearly talking about a completely different reason.

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Note: The original title of the thread was "Remove and Rebuy". The original post is below.

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So, there's a feature where Steam will allow you to remove something from your library.

Any idea if it's possible to actually re-buy a game afterwards and actually pay for it?

I was thinking that there are, or might be in theory, (or at least hypothetically could-be) some games where you can't get as good a deal on the DLC and add-ons if you already bought the game, because you might get a better deal buying the whole thing later after the price has dropped and the DLC has been incorporated into the main game.

So again, is it possible to buy a game, have it removed from your library, and then re-buy like it was the first time? (Without using more than one account.)

For argument sake, assume you've already played it well past the two hours, maybe even a 100+ hours, and don't want a "return/refund", you just want it "removed from your library."

Thanks.

P.s. There are clearly some games here that want you to buy at least two copies: One for Steam and one for your mobile device.

[Komarimaru]

Licenses are permanently tied to an account, even if use the "I want to permanently remove this game from my account." option.

All stats are tied permanently to it as well. Thus, you can't even purchase it again. You instead have to go to Steam Support page, and now pick the games name in Search and pick It's not in my library. After that, you pick "Restore the previously removed package to my account."

Example, I "Deleted" Audiosurf from my account back in 2015. I just now restored it. It still has all my stats and shows in my Library again. And still shows my Last Played as Dec 29, 2014.

https://i.imgur.com/unqUWUe.png

As you can see, everything from the past is still there. Licenses are permanent, even if "Delete the game."

[Psychlapse]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Psychlapse:

I'm a bit confused as to why anyone would want to do this? I'm not sure if it's the wording of the question or what exactly it is you're going for, OP, but we (read I) might need some clarification here.

Yea, Steam can do that to you.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Psychlapse:

I read it that you've bought a game that is now yours - past the refund point - so it's now in your library so now youre say £40 down. Now you want to delete the game, and then buy it again? So paying another £40 again just to own the same game you already had?

Yea, except for the fact that I'm trying to keep it hypothetical[www.merriam-webster.com] you got that right.

I don't want to start discussing an specific game or publishers, but the theory is that some might, for example, sell you a game for £40 when it doesn't have much DLC yet.

Years later, it might not only be on sale for £10, but for £10 it's also include £30 of DLC that isn't on sale for £10 or less.

So if you can reverse that original purchase of £40, you could [hypothetically] rebuy it for £10, along with that extra £30 of DLC they since added to the base game.

If you can't reverse that original purchase, you end up paying £30 for DLC. That £30 DLC plus the original £40 purchase = £70.

By comparison, buying the original for £40, reversing the sale without a refund, and then buying the whole thing for £10 is a total of £50. That's £20 more than if you just bought the DLC.

The problem is that, hypothetically, they might not let you buy that £10 version if you already bought to £40 version.

Honestly, I have dsylexia, so I can't be 100% sure I've seen that sort of thing, but I think I have and I wasn't able to buy the newer version because I bought the older version. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I knew I could "unbuy" something I played without abusing the rules, I wouldn't be barred from buying the newer version like I think I was, and hypothetically might be in the future regardless of whether or not that's happened in the past.

In real life, I am reluctant to buy some game(s) now because I really am worried that this sort of thing might happen later. If that would never happen, maybe it's worth discussing, but I was hoping I would at least have the option to potentially just "unbuy" the game without a refund at a later time and not worry about that sort of thing.

Right so let's say for instance, you buy a game like destiny for full price. Then they release 3 dlcs over the years and you pay full whack for those too. So maybe £40 + £20 x3 for £100.

Then 4 years later they release a destiny goty edition with the base game and all 3 dlc for £30, you want to refund the full lot, get £100 back, and then re-buy the goty edition for £30? Effectively getting back £70 and still have the game and dlcs?

I might have gotten that all completely wrong, and if I have I apologise.

However if I got it right, it's never going to happen. The point of paying full whack at launch is that the game is new, relevant, and populated if its multiplayer. 4 years down the road, people have lost interest and moved on, so the dev isn't making money off it any more, hence the sale to try and wring a few more quid out of it.

They're never going to let people essentially refund the difference, because everyone would do it, and they'd end up making massive losses.

The only way to ever not pay full price is to do what others including me do and just wait it out until it goes on sale.

[Chika Ogiue]

Even with the edited in question, still can't do it. If you're *that* far outside the refund limits (2 hours MAX within 2 weeks of purchase) you're not getting a refund.

Now, if you're really concerned about missing out, because you purchased an older version of a game, the answer is to buy the newer version on a different account if you are unable to buy it on your main account. As long as there is region parity between both accounts and the publisher allows it, you can also family share to the original account.

[Tito Shivan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

I was thinking that there are, or might be in theory, (or at least hypothetically could-be) some games where you can't get as good a deal on the DLC and add-ons if you already bought the game, because you might get a better deal buying the whole thing later after the price has dropped and the DLC has been incorporated into the main game.

Steam already offers developers the option to build 'Complete your set' bundles. They can set up their bundles in a way where it'll take into account the pieces of the bundle you already own.

Regular bundles are an 'all or nothing' option. Usually set up for new buyers.

If a dev isn't offering 'complete your set' options it's safe to assume their business model is to have you buy the DLC separately.

Is it optimal for the customer? No. But that's how the dev want to run their ship.

Allowing you to completely delete the game would make you pay twice for the same game anyway and opens quite some additional cans of worms.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Komarimaru:

Licenses are permanently tied to an account, even if use the "I want to permanently remove this game from my account." option.

Being able to remove licenses and change them for a different one would for example allow cheaters to bypass bans.

[battlezoby]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Psychlapse:

Right so let's say for instance, you buy a game like destiny for full price. Then they release 3 dlcs over the years and you pay full whack for those too. So maybe £40 + £20 x3 for £100.

Then 4 years later they release a destiny goty edition with the base game and all 3 dlc for £30, you want to refund the full lot, get £100 back, and then re-buy the goty edition for £30? Effectively getting back £70 and still have the game and dlcs?

I might have gotten that all completely wrong, and if I have I apologise.

Yup. You got that all wrong. I'm not talking about REFUNDS!

Let's say you buy it for £40.

Years later, they want either £20 x3 for three DLC's, but just £10 for the GOTY edition.

I'm talking about trying to dump the original WITHOUT A REFUND, just to buy the GOTY-version with all the DLC included for, hypothetically, £10.

Again, not talking about REFUND. Talking about getting locked out of future deal became I was "stupid enough" to buy the earlier version, at a discount or otherwise.

[battlezoby]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

Allowing you to completely delete the game would make you pay twice for the same game anyway and opens quite some additional cans of worms.

What can of worms?

BTW... not necessarily just talking about consumer vs. developer... it can hurt the developer too by discouraging the consumer from buying the game too early, and then the potential customer might even forget about the game later on.

To be 100% honest, I actually refused a gift for fear of losing out on a later "GOTY"-like edition. That wasn't the thought behind this thread - I had forgotten that I did that. But it's true nonetheless.

I remember you once compared Steam to Walmart, but this is a different practice in that there aren't many brick-and-mortar equivalents. (Except, literally speaking, the US Federal Government has some special deals for first time home owners.(*))

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* - Huh... in hindsight, I messed that up. I bought my current house for cash and lost out on any federal assistance.

In hindsight, the buildings here have gone up so much in value, I would have hypothetically been better off buying my current house with a loan, bought the second one with cash, and then sold the second one for a profit, paid off the loan, and still have extra profit left over. At least hypothetically...

[Brian9824]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Psychlapse:

Right so let's say for instance, you buy a game like destiny for full price. Then they release 3 dlcs over the years and you pay full whack for those too. So maybe £40 + £20 x3 for £100.

Then 4 years later they release a destiny goty edition with the base game and all 3 dlc for £30, you want to refund the full lot, get £100 back, and then re-buy the goty edition for £30? Effectively getting back £70 and still have the game and dlcs?

I might have gotten that all completely wrong, and if I have I apologise.

Yup. You got that all wrong. I'm not talking about REFUNDS!

Let's say you buy it for £40.

Years later, they want either £20 x3 for three DLC's, but just £10 for the GOTY edition.

I'm talking about trying to dump the original WITHOUT A REFUND, just to buy the GOTY for, hypothetically, £10.

Again, not talking about REFUND. Talking about getting locked out of future deal became I was "stupid enough" to buy the earlier version, at a discount of otherwise.

Steam already has that option unless the developer was incompetent and didn't set up their pack right. If they sell it as a bundle with all the content you can buy the bundle even if already own some of the content. You would just get the items you don't already own.

There is no way to unlink a license from your account, it won't ever be a thing for legal reasons, such as scammers, angry spouses, hijacked accounts, tracking, etc.

[Tito Shivan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

Allowing you to completely delete the game would make you pay twice for the same game anyway and opens quite some additional cans of worms.

What can of worms?

-Cheaters bypassing bans by deleting the banned game license and rebuying
-Hijackers vandalizing stolen accounts
-People having second thoughts on permanently removed games.
To name a few from top of my head.

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

BTW... not necessarily just talking about consumer vs. developer... it can hurt the developer too by discouraging the consumer from buying the game too early, and then the potential customer might even forget about the game later on.

Note not all DLC is added on release. It may take months or years for an early gamer to find themselves in a "Damn Now the game with the DLC is a better deal than just the DLC itself" situation.

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

To be 100% honest, I actually refused a gift for fear of losing out on a later "GOTY"-like edition. That wasn't the thought behind this thread - I had forgotten that I did that. But it's true nonetheless.

I'm a patient gamer. I mostly wait for those versions to come out. Mostly. There's games where I bought the base game and find myself the game has now a lot of DLC it's not worth buying independently.

[battlezoby]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

What can of worms?

-Cheaters bypassing bans by deleting the banned game license and rebuying
-Hijackers vandalizing stolen accounts
-People having second thoughts on permanently removed games.
To name a few from top of my head.

Well, if Steam had real competent programmers available, all of that could be fixed by keeping the ban mark in the database to apply to later purchases, and allowed people to undelete games.[/quote]

Actually, the more I think about it, the simplier thing, of course, would be to let you buy the GOTY-like version even though you already own the none-GOTY-like one.

But then again, Steam seems to want to pray on consumer mistakes - I'm pretty sure if that wasn't their intent, they'd make a bigger effort to warn you, or a least have an option to warn you when you're buying a game that clearly doesn't meet that the hardware and OS you seem to have and which they have detected.(*) [Note to everyone: please don't tell me people might want to buy a game for a machine and OS they might later buy, or something that might work below "Minimum Requirements." I know that. That's the reason I mentioned a merely giving an [u]optional warning.[/u]]

* - Other people actually suggested that Steam does that when I suggested they give compatibility warnings, so I'm by no means the first person to think of that, and I didn't even form that theory before having it suggested by other(s).

[battlezoby]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

Note not all DLC is added on release. It may take months or years for an early gamer to find themselves in a "Damn Now the game with the DLC is a better deal than just the DLC itself" situation.

[....]

I'm a patient gamer. I mostly wait for those versions to come out. Mostly.

Yup. I'm patient too. I've already gone years while expecting to wait years.

Started this thread to maybe give myself an excuse to stop waiting.

Guess I don't have one.

(Besides, there are other reason to not buy games. You might find yourself with Microsoft Windows 30, you haven't finished the game yet, and Steam decided you need to upgrade to Windows 34.)

[Brian9824]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Well, if Steam had real competent programmers available, all of that could be fixed by keeping the ban mark in the database to apply to later purchases, and allowed people to undelete games.

A lot of the bans are not on Steam's end, the game developer bans the license on their end, so a new license = no longer banned,

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Actually, the more I think about it, the simplier thing, of course, would be to let you buy the GOTY-like version even though you already own the none-GOTY-like one.

That's already possible. See Skyrim for instance. Unless the developer screwed up with setting it up.

For instance I can buy the definitive edition of pillars of eternity and I own the base game as you can see

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136926822

its awaiting validation, so give it a few

[battlezoby]

Początkowo opublikowane przez brian9824:

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Actually, the more I think about it, the simplier thing, of course, would be to let you buy the GOTY-like version even though you already own the none-GOTY-like one.

That's already possible. See Skyrim for instance. Unless the developer screwed up with setting it up.

For instance I can buy the definitive edition of pillars of eternity and I own the base game as you can see

its awaiting validation, so give it a few

Yup. Some games let you do that. Some don't.

I previously stuck to hypotheticals, but there might be some real instances I don't want to mention just because I don't want to scare customers away from a good game, even if the publisher(s) do things like not let you buy the "GOTY"-like version after buying an older copy and instead tries to milk you for much more expensive à la carte DLC.

[Tito Shivan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Well, if Steam had real competent programmers available, all of that could be fixed by keeping the ban mark in the database to apply to later purchases

Mind many third party anticheat systems don't interact with Steamworks at all. With VAC and systems who are integrated into providing Game Bans it wouldn't be an issue, but that's not all the option out there.

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Actually, the more I think about it, the simplier thing, of course, would be to let you buy the GOTY-like version even though you already own the none-GOTY-like one.

Complete-your-set bundles. They're up to the dev to set them up.

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Yup. I'm patient too. I've already gone years while expecting to wait years.

Started this thread to maybe give myself an excuse to stop waiting.

Guess I don't have one.

Many years ago I had a gamer revelation that made my life much easier:
"I do not need every piece of DLC for every game"
Many games I've just bought the base game, played it and called it a day. Or bought only a few DLCs for it.

The only genre where I still wait for complete sets is fighting games. As a casual I like to have the whole roster of characters available.

[Brian9824]

Początkowo opublikowane przez battlezoby:

Początkowo opublikowane przez brian9824:

That's already possible. See Skyrim for instance. Unless the developer screwed up with setting it up.

For instance I can buy the definitive edition of pillars of eternity and I own the base game as you can see

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136926822

its awaiting validation, so give it a few

Yup. Some games let you do that. Some don't.

I previously stuck to hypotheticals, but there might be some real instances don't want not want to mention just because I don't want to scare customers away from a good game, even if the publisher(s) do things like not let you buy the "GOTY"-like version after buying an older copy and instead tries to milk you for much more expensive à la carte DLC.

Again, if you can't do it then its the developers fault as they control how they sell their games. Steam can't force them to provide that option so you should contact them.

[Brian9824]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tito Shivan:

Many years ago I had a gamer revelation that made my life much easier:
"I do not need every piece of DLC for every game"
Many games I've just bought the base game, played it and called it a day. Or bought only a few DLCs for it.

I'm looking at you Disgaea games....