Does Steam save the games you buy to your account?

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alphaqup03

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#1 alphaqup03
Member since 2008 • 523 Posts
I want to buy games on sale from steam now but later I will want to transfer them to my new hard drive when I get it, so will I be able to just uninstall steam/reinstall it and all the games will be on my account so I can redownload them or whatever?
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Solidus171

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#2 Solidus171
Member since 2008 • 318 Posts

The beauty of Steam (in my mind) is that EVERY game you purchased from it is saved on your Steam account. You can log onto a PC in a cybercafe, in Spain or on Mars, and once you type in your Steam details on a different PC, all your purchased games will be there regardless.

The one issue is that the game data which you download is only saved on the harddrive of your primary PC (the one you played the games on). If you log onto Steam with a sperate laptop, download steam, log in you will have to redownload the game(s) again. But they will be there.

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CellAnimation

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#3 CellAnimation
Member since 2007 • 6116 Posts
Yes
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Helbrec

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#4 Helbrec
Member since 2008 • 1325 Posts
Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.
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CellAnimation

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#5 CellAnimation
Member since 2007 • 6116 Posts
Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.Helbrec
Pardon? Steam itself is a from of DRM, plus plenty of games on Steam have 3rd party DRM.
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blade55555

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#6 blade55555
Member since 2005 • 1116 Posts
[QUOTE="Helbrec"]Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.CellAnimation
Pardon? Steam itself is a from of DRM, plus plenty of games on Steam have 3rd party DRM.

Pardon? Steam rocks. You can install the game as many time as you want from anywhere. It saves it forever its why Steam rocks :). And if Steam is a kind of DRM if you don't like it uninstall it... ITs not like Crysis DRM where you have to reformat your HD pretty much to get rid of it...
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theafiguy

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#7 theafiguy
Member since 2006 • 962 Posts
Every game that I've grabbed off of Steam hasn't had any 3rd party DRM on it at all. I've never had to register or authenticate anything. I'm sure EA has some stuff on there because their DRM is ridiculously brutal and unforgiving but still.
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CellAnimation

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#8 CellAnimation
Member since 2007 • 6116 Posts
Steam rocks. You can install the game as many time as you want from anywhere. It saves it forever its why Steam rocks :). And if Steam is a kind of DRM if you don't like it uninstall it... ITs not like Crysis DRM where you have to reformat your HD pretty much to get rid of it... blade55555
Um... who said anything against Steam? I was just correcting a guy who suggested that there is no DRM on Steam. Which is completely incorrect. I also mentioned that some games on Steam have 3rd party DRM, this is also correct. Crysis for example uses SecuROM.
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Baldwinc47

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#9 Baldwinc47
Member since 2007 • 90 Posts

3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™
5 machine activation limit

On Crysis in the steam store, Steam does 3rd party DRM when asked by the developer.

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Captain__Tripps

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#10 Captain__Tripps
Member since 2006 • 4523 Posts
Every game that I've grabbed off of Steam hasn't had any 3rd party DRM on it at all. I've never had to register or authenticate anything. I'm sure EA has some stuff on there because their DRM is ridiculously brutal and unforgiving but still.theafiguy
You don't authenticate? What do you call steam?
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johnny27

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#11 johnny27
Member since 2006 • 4400 Posts
Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.Helbrec
acutally steam is drm and games like crysis warhead and grand theft auto 4 to name a few still have securom on them and install limits which is stupid.
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lettuceman44

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#12 lettuceman44
Member since 2005 • 7971 Posts
[QUOTE="Helbrec"]Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.johnny27
acutally steam is drm and games like crysis warhead and grand theft auto 4 to name a few still have securom on them and install limits which is stupid.

How many computers are you going to install them on anyway?
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johnny27

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#13 johnny27
Member since 2006 • 4400 Posts
[QUOTE="johnny27"][QUOTE="Helbrec"]Yes, one you buy it... its your. No DRM you can in stall it a million times if you like.lettuceman44
acutally steam is drm and games like crysis warhead and grand theft auto 4 to name a few still have securom on them and install limits which is stupid.

How many computers are you going to install them on anyway?

thats not rly the point now it wont be a porblem for most people but a few years down the line and a few new computers later i will reach the install limit and why should i have to beg EA for extrs installs and its really point less as steam is a form of drm already and there is no dvd involved.
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lettuceman44

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#14 lettuceman44
Member since 2005 • 7971 Posts
[QUOTE="lettuceman44"][QUOTE="johnny27"] acutally steam is drm and games like crysis warhead and grand theft auto 4 to name a few still have securom on them and install limits which is stupid.johnny27
How many computers are you going to install them on anyway?

thats not rly the point now it wont be a porblem for most people but a few years down the line and a few new computers later i will reach the install limit and why should i have to beg EA for extrs installs and its really point less as steam is a form of drm already and there is no dvd involved.

I thought it was for installs at the same time, as you can install steam games on many computers at the same time. I could be wrong though.
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Captain__Tripps

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#15 Captain__Tripps
Member since 2006 • 4523 Posts
[QUOTE="johnny27"][QUOTE="lettuceman44"]How many computers are you going to install them on anyway?lettuceman44
thats not rly the point now it wont be a porblem for most people but a few years down the line and a few new computers later i will reach the install limit and why should i have to beg EA for extrs installs and its really point less as steam is a form of drm already and there is no dvd involved.

I thought it was for installs at the same time, as you can install steam games on many computers at the same time. I could be wrong though.

Yes, you are wrong, in the case of limited installs, it is total installs, not unlimited installs on 3 or 5 computers... GTA IV though has unlimited installs.
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lettuceman44

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#16 lettuceman44
Member since 2005 • 7971 Posts
So even if you bought Crysis Warhead on steam, you can only install it 5 times ever until you get more with EA? WTF is that.....
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Captain__Tripps

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#17 Captain__Tripps
Member since 2006 • 4523 Posts
[QUOTE="lettuceman44"]So even if you bought Crysis Warhead on steam, you can only install it 5 times ever until you get more with EA? WTF is that.....

You can install it on 5 different computers as many times as you want(I think), but the problems will happen when the computers change... such as even changing hardware on an existing PC can trigger a new activation, which eats up one of your 5 installs.
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Omegax23

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#18 Omegax23
Member since 2007 • 44 Posts
So even if you bought Crysis Warhead on steam, you can only install it 5 times ever until you get more with EA? WTF is that.....lettuceman44
That, my friend, is DRM! get used to it...thanks piraters!
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lettuceman44

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#19 lettuceman44
Member since 2005 • 7971 Posts
[QUOTE="lettuceman44"] That, my friend, is DRM! get used to it...thanks piraters!Omegax23
Even though I don't like it....I don't particularly blame publishers and devs. They are just trying to protect their assets and property. I agree, blame the pirates.
[QUOTE="lettuceman44"]So even if you bought Crysis Warhead on steam, you can only install it 5 times ever until you get more with EA? WTF is that.....Captain__Tripps
You can install it on 5 different computers as many times as you want(I think), but the problems will happen when the computers change... such as even changing hardware on an existing PC can trigger a new activation, which eats up one of your 5 installs.

Oh, so you can only have 5 motherboard upgrades then? What happens when you run out?
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Captain__Tripps

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#20 Captain__Tripps
Member since 2006 • 4523 Posts
[QUOTE="Omegax23"][QUOTE="lettuceman44"]Even though I don't like it....I don't particularly blame publishers and devs. They are just trying to protect their assets and property. I agree, blame the pirates. [QUOTE="Captain__Tripps"][QUOTE="lettuceman44"]So even if you bought Crysis Warhead on steam, you can only install it 5 times ever until you get more with EA? WTF is that.....lettuceman44
You can install it on 5 different computers as many times as you want(I think), but the problems will happen when the computers change... such as even changing hardware on an existing PC can trigger a new activation, which eats up one of your 5 installs.

Oh, so you can only have 5 motherboard upgrades then? What happens when you run out?

It won't activate/play, you will have to contact EA to grant you more activations.
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theafiguy

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#21 theafiguy
Member since 2006 • 962 Posts
[QUOTE="theafiguy"]Every game that I've grabbed off of Steam hasn't had any 3rd party DRM on it at all. I've never had to register or authenticate anything. I'm sure EA has some stuff on there because their DRM is ridiculously brutal and unforgiving but still.Captain__Tripps
You don't authenticate? What do you call steam?

I meant that I don't have to do anything besides buying the game off of Steam, they do the rest for you. I should have put that I don't have authenticate or register manually.
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Makari

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#22 Makari
Member since 2003 • 15250 Posts
[QUOTE="Captain__Tripps"][QUOTE="theafiguy"]Every game that I've grabbed off of Steam hasn't had any 3rd party DRM on it at all. I've never had to register or authenticate anything. I'm sure EA has some stuff on there because their DRM is ridiculously brutal and unforgiving but still.theafiguy
You don't authenticate? What do you call steam?

I meant that I don't have to do anything besides buying the game off of Steam, they do the rest for you. I should have put that I don't have authenticate or register manually.

A fair amount of Steam games used SecuROM until recently - if the disk version had it, the Steam version had it, and IIRC Fallout 3 was one of the first to break that trend. The authentication DRM you have dealt with was probably just really transparent. :D