Can Valve remove paid games from your library?

[Mr. Wonderful]

Digital games i heard are considered "services" and not "products". So therefore Steam has the right to remove paid games from your library?

Has there been any instances where steam removed paid games from the users library? Early access do not count.

Also if i download a steam game and put it onto a new hard drive on a new computer can i play the game without having a steam account or the steam client installed?

[Start_Running]

To answer your first question Yes. To answer your second question. Maybe. Depending on how strongly the game is tied to the steap API. A weakly tied game will run no problem. A strongly tied game is rather firmly tied.


Most newer games fall under that category.

[HEART]

1. True (you don't "own" the game)
2. False (you must have the client installed)

[Darren]

1. Steam can.
2. They removed one game from everyone at the request of the publisher (online game with no server anymore).

They remove revoked keys (when someone wasn't paid) at the request of the publisher as well.

Apart from that no they haven't.
3. Some games will work (they use the Steam API in a way that doesn't make it act as DRM) most won't.

[Darren]

http://store.steampowered.com/news/11428/

This one. It even has a news post on Steam about it.

[Snapjak]

Also Valve can and will remove games for chargebacks.

[Snapjak]

Originally posted by Manic:

Originally posted by Darren:

http://store.steampowered.com/news/11428/

This one. It even has a news post on Steam about it.

The game had a single player mode and wasn't even patched so you can run that offline. Wow, that was dirty. Hopefully that doesn't happen too often. If paid games just started disappearing from my library, that would be the day I stopped using Steam.

The one removed was the multiplayer expansion that had very limited single player in the form of the tutorial.

[PocketYoda]

Yes i lost Disney Infinity 3.0.. and Ghost Recon Phantoms..

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I once played Rise of Immortals, but that no longer shows on my games list. I know it changed name to Battle for Graxia, but that doesn't show either.

Same with CrimeCraft GangWars. And Spiral Knights.

I'm surprised Rusty Hearts is still there.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Manic:

Originally posted by Quint the House Gecko:

And Spiral Knights.

That's odd. Spiral Knights is still in my library, uninstalled. Perhaps because I bought Sonic CD and got the Spiral Knights Metal Sonic DLC?

Yeah, probably.

I'm not talking about the library though. The library nowadays removes all uninstalled f2p games that one hasn't spent money through Steam on.

I'm talking about the list of games I've played: http://steamcommunity.com/id/quintlindwurm/games/?tab=all

[Black Blade]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Yes i lost Disney Infinity 3.0.. and Ghost Recon Phantoms..

There F2P (In phantoms case, not so sure abut Disney 3.0)
So if you did not get a DLC for them they will beremoved when uninstalled

[Mashi]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

To answer your first question Yes. To answer your second question. Maybe. Depending on how strongly the game is tied to the steap API. A weakly tied game will run no problem. A strongly tied game is rather firmly tied.


Most newer games fall under that category.

They can, but it's not legal in Canada. Some provinces have heavier consumer protections on it. If they do so, they(either the publisher or store front) must refund the full purchase price or offer reasonable compensation.

Best solution is to file small claims at least here. Said service banning/blocking your account for said claim is also illegal(denial of service to paid product) and may go as far as mischief(damage to property rendering it unusable). You can not be forced to waive legal rights afforded to you in the province you live in by EULA either. Doesn't matter if it's Steam, Origin, GoG or Uplay.

There are likely unique protections in your own country/state/province. So read up, and check locally.

[Donutello]

I've just noticed that Valve removed all Digital Homicide Studio games from my library.

I mean, no one's ever gonna miss those games, and I've received them for free anyway.

But knowing that Valve does that without informing you about it, feels kinda weird.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by DunkinDonuts:

I've just noticed that Valve removed all Digital Homicide Studio games from my library.

I mean, no one's ever gonna miss those games, and I've received them for free anyway.

But knowing that Valve does that without informing you about it, feels kinda weird.

banned games will not show up on your community profile.
they are still in your library unless you did not remove them from your account via Steam support.