Installing a game from a disc

[The Big Sauce]

Hello everyone, I am having an issue that I can't find anywhere on the Steam Help page and that I'm not really seeing on Google.

I recently bought a DVD copy of Total War: Rome II from a Half Price Books store. Upon trying to install it, Steam pops up and asks for a CD Kay. Now obviously, the CD key for this many years old disc is long since redeemed, and no longer valid. However, even if I exit Steam, when I try to install it from the disc a window pops up prompting me to sign in to Steam, followed by the CD Key pop-up.

So how do I install and play this game that I legitimately bought without Steam getting in the way? Should I just unplug my ethernet cord when installing/playing every time? Is there an easier way?

Thanks for the advice

[Smuggy]

You don't, key had been used...

[Hennix]

its a used disc that needs steam
once used = worthless
no way to install
if you want the game buy it from the steam store

[Iceira]

You sure its not a steam version, even my shugun2 was steam version on disk media

afaik rome2 was later then shugun2, but i dont remember if its a steam version.

my rome2 is steam store, so i dont know what version was possible back then

even my napolion collection is a steam version., this is why its odd you have a none steam rome2 version , but hey you know best.

ps.
but if you have added cd key at steam years ago then its a steam version you have and its retail under steam account detail.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by The Big Sauce:

I recently bought a DVD copy of Total War: Rome II from a Half Price Books store. Upon trying to install it, Steam pops up and asks for a CD Kay.

Which means you bought a Steam game...

So how do I install and play this game that I legitimately bought without Steam getting in the way?

Yeah, you bought a disk. A completely worthless disk. You got ripped off.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by The Big Sauce:

Hello everyone, I am having an issue that I can't find anywhere on the Steam Help page and that I'm not really seeing on Google.

I recently bought a DVD copy of Total War: Rome II from a Half Price Books store. Upon trying to install it, Steam pops up and asks for a CD Kay. Now obviously, the CD key for this many years old disc is long since redeemed, and no longer valid. However, even if I exit Steam, when I try to install it from the disc a window pops up prompting me to sign in to Steam, followed by the CD Key pop-up.

So how do I install and play this game that I legitimately bought without Steam getting in the way? Should I just unplug my ethernet cord when installing/playing every time? Is there an easier way?

Thanks for the advice

You bought a vintage DVD copy of a game. However, you don't have a recognized license to play the game. In order to play that game, you also need a license of your own. While there may be one printed on the media, it has since been claimed like you realize.

When it launches Steam, it's checking your Steam account to ensure you have a license of your own. Unless you can provide one of your own, you'll need to purchase one.

[The Big Sauce]

So there is no way to install this media, that I own, that I bought through a legitimate transaction, on my own personal computer, even when disconnected from the Internet. Awesome. I love it here.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by The Big Sauce:

So there is no way to install this media, that I own, that I bought through a legitimate transaction, on my own personal computer, even when disconnected from the Internet. Awesome. I love it here.

Back in the late 2000's and early 2010's, a lot of physical games that had a disc only had a link to download Steam on it. No game files what so ever.

This is not a Steam issue but what the publisher decided to do with their physical PC versions.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by The Big Sauce:

So there is no way to install this media, that I own, that I bought through a legitimate transaction, on my own personal computer, even when disconnected from the Internet. Awesome. I love it here.

Except that it's not Valve that ripped you off...

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Back in the late 2000's and early 2010's, a lot of physical games that had a disc only had a link to download Steam on it. No game files what so ever.

I also have disks with the actual game on it -- but it's still a Steam game. Back then (don't know whether the client still has that mode) you could even start the Steam-client with command line arguments to tell it "install the game from the disk", and it would "download" from the disk instead of the internet. If preferred doing that over the actual installer on the disk, because it didn't feel like a 3rd party installer hopefully putting things into the correct places -- it was the Steam client itself putting the files exactly where it wanted them to be.

Of course, after doing that, it would download the game again because the version it got from the disk was horribly outdated... so that wasn't a particularly sensible way to distribute a game. Back then, I only did this once -- for the other game, I never used the disk-install :-)

[Zefar]

Originally posted by The Big Sauce:

So there is no way to install this media, that I own, that I bought through a legitimate transaction, on my own personal computer, even when disconnected from the Internet. Awesome. I love it here.

Buying used PC games stopped being a thing about 25 years ago or so. Better stick with legit retailers or buying directly through Steam.


Honestly, not sure how you managed to get a PC with a DVD drive in this day of age without knowing that used PC games is dead.

[J4MESOX4D]

The Emperor Edition is currently 75% off so just buy that.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/214950/Total_War_ROME_II__Emperor_Edition/
Your disc is nothing more than a tea coaster.