A key for unknown game I already own: how to know which game it is?

[CaptainFlint]

I've got a key from a giveaway, but it did not say which game it was. When I tried to activate it, Steam said I already owned this game, but it did not mention the game title. It said: "Click next to proceed to installation", and I do remember that in similar cases I pressed Next, and it told me the game name and estimated size, etc., but in this particular case there were NO next button, only "back" and "finish". Here's the screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/NQdb2z4.png

I'd like to give this key to a friend, but it would be better to know what game that is, to find a person who really wants this particular game, not just a random key for who knows what. Is there any way to find that out?

[DirtyFishy]

No. There's no way to find out except for using it.

[CaptainFlint]

Did they remove this function from Steam?

[DirtyFishy]

Originally posted by CaptainFlint:

Did they remove this function from Steam?

There was never a function.

[CaptainFlint]

I just found that I have another key for some game I own, so I tested it. When I tried to activate it, after the dialog about "pressing next" there appears a new dialog that starts the actual installation: "You are about to install... etc, etc" with the game title, disk space, time estimation, and all that. So the function is still there. But it does not work for that particular key for some reason.

[Wolf Knight]

Originally posted by CaptainFlint:

I just found that I have another key for some game I own, so I tested it. When I tried to activate it, after the dialog about "pressing next" there appears a new dialog that starts the actual installation: "You are about to install... etc, etc" with the game title, disk space, time estimation, and all that. So the function is still there. But it does not work for that particular key for some reason.

what you just did was activate a key for a game version that had more content - regular vs game of the year edition. the key is now used.

[CaptainFlint]

what you just did was activate a key for a game version that had more content - regular vs game of the year edition. the key is now used.

No, I did not. This second game I tested was "Unforgiving Trials: The Darkest Crusade", I don't see any additional content for it available, nor any "non-regular" version of this game. Besides, the key is still active. I paste it into the activation dialog, and it tells me again that my account owns the game, not that the key have been claimed (which would be the case if it was used).

[DirtyFishy]

It's possibly because he owns that game, I can't speak definitively on it because I've never had a chance to test.

[WonderGamer]

Normally a window will open showing what game(s) is included in that key, however there's a current problem where you get an error stating that the connection has timed out (do this enough times & the client will eventually freeze, causing you to have to force-kill Steam through the Task Manager), so while that issue persists, it won't be possible to find out what game the key is for.

One might question why somebody would have a key that they don't know what it's for, my answer to that is they might be getting a key from a mystery grab bag where the site is not specifically saying what the key is for, it's supposed to be a surprise when you attempt to redeem it (IndieGala recently started doing this, replacing their official named game giveaways).

[CaptainFlint]

In my case the Steam client did not freeze, I did about 5 or 6 tests with it (some with the "misterious" key, and some with the "Unforgiving Trials").

And, yes, this key was obtained from IndieGala. I thought they'd tell in the library what that was, but they didn't.

[TorMazila]

Same thing, it says "servers time out" for several keys I got from indiegala. Looks like we need someone with "unjunked" account to see what kind of junk is that :).

[WonderGamer]

Well it's not just IndieGala keys, I have one I got from the Sega Make War Not Love event that is throwing the same error, so it appears to be relevant with all keys...

Once they fix the timing out issue on Steam, you should be able to tell what games are in the key after attempting to activate it, an installation window to install them will open up even if you already have them installed.

[CaptainFlint]

Originally posted by cam:

If you own the game, you get the "Product Already Owned" message, whether or not the key is used.

Indeed, I've tested now with another key activated on a different account and still got "already own". Thanks for pointing that out.

Still the point was, that key could not activate something "extra" if there is no extra to activate in the first place, so most probably it's still valid.

I've had an idea: what of those "timout" keys are for the games which were deleted from Steam Store?..

[WonderGamer]

Possibly the timed out keys are those that have expired. I noticed I could get my newest extras to still show the games that were in the key, however the older ones would still show the timeout error, (even though it would still say I owned what was in it). I'm expecting if you get the timeout, the key could no longer be useful even to an account that doesn't own a game included in the key.

The irony is that if you attempt to test a key on an account that doesn't actually have it, it's no longer a test, that account at that point legitimately owns that game, even if that wasn't your intentions... I'm considering whether I want to make new accounts just to see if the keys still work on an account with no games (already have 2 accounts, a primary & a guest account, don't think I want to bother with a 3rd, 4th, 5th & so on acounts)...

[WonderGamer]

I recently redeemed a key on my secondary account for games in the Sleengster series, this was after the games were removed, so pretty certain this isn't the case. Not to mention keys for the ripoff of Rock & Roll Racing was still being sold directly from the developer website & redeemed on Steam long after the Blizzard DMCA takedown of it, so the theory doesn't match up...

When I was trying to Google the subject before, I found an article that stated changing to a different region in your download options should allow you to get around the issue, however that wouldn't explain why some keys would still work, while others gave the timeout error...

[CaptainFlint]

Originally posted by cam:

CaptainFlint, could you please go to https://store.steampowered.com/account/licenses/
and tell me if you own "Zonitron Productions Ten Games Pack"?

I don't have this pack listed there, but I've googled what it is (was), and I do own all the games from it.