Is It Possible To Download Steam Games Without Owning A License?

[PiberiusWilde]

I was wondering if you can download steam games without owning a license. I was planning to add a service for my shop. Basically customers could choose any 5 games from steam and I would pre-load them, so they wouldn't need to download them after the fact. Is it possible to do it?

 

Well.... the other method is to just suck up the price and purchase them on my account then signing my account on said system then I log out before I shipped (assuming I didn't forget, lol)

[Dukesilver27-]

I mean, if you purchase them with CC, you could just download the game, move it to other folder, then get a full refund.

IDK if the abuse will catch steam's eyes, but there is that way.

Or, you buy with 1 account, download them all then move to other folder, then refund them all, then transfer to a new PC when needed. The downside of course is it will not get updates.

 

Or, sail the high seas, get the latest build available, install it, remove the cracks, and when the user want to play the game, they just need to verify and redownload/update the legit files.

[TylerD321]

An alternative would be to make an excel sheet with all of the games your steam account owns and limit the 5 games that would be installed to games that are on the sheet (or free to play games obviously).

[Naijin]

41 minutes ago, PiberiusWilde said:

I was wondering if you can download steam games without owning a license. I was planning to add a service for my shop. Basically customers could choose any 5 games from steam and I would pre-load them, so they wouldn't need to download them after the fact. Is it possible to do it?

No

Quote

Well.... the other method is to just suck up the price and purchase them on my account then signing my account on said system then I log out before I shipped (assuming I didn't forget, lol)

Please don't, you'll always get issues with that. You can just preload something for free like Rocket League, LoL, Fortnite etc but if you ever forget to log out you could be screwed.

 

As a business, don't play around with cracks (Steam folders are different anyway, users expect things to work out of the box) as it's illegal and don't go refunding games as you may get a ban in no time.

[PiberiusWilde]

40 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

 

 

37 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

 

 

3 minutes ago, Naijin said:

 

That's the point of me making this post. Does anyone knows how the lmg steam cache works? Do they purchased these games first? Or only someone that has a license to certain game can download from it?

[Naijin]

7 minutes ago, PiberiusWilde said:

 

 

That's the point of me making this post. Does anyone knows how the lmg steam cache works? Do they purchased these games first? Or only someone that has a license to certain game can download from it?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/building-a-local-steam-caching-server-to-ease-the-bandwidth-blues/

 

Quote

As near as I can tell from searching around and experimenting with the live configuration and the Steam command line tools, there is no way to get Steam to allow you to download games you haven’t purchased. Therefore, our setup will have the following two important limitations:

• You can only cache games that are already part of your Steam library
• You must download a game with Steam from the Internet at least once with the cache server running in order to cache that game

This means you're still limited to games you actually purchased.

(this may be out of date as it's from 2017)

 

Also check out:

 

[Dukesilver27-]

I mean they obviously bought them.

"there is no way to get Steam to allow you to download games you haven’t purchased."

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/building-a-local-steam-caching-server-to-ease-the-bandwidth-blues/

[mariushm]

Set up a Steam cache server, and then tell your clients to log into their Steam clients and download the games they want before they leave, and hopefully the games are already cached on your server otherwise hope you have a good internet connection.

 

For games that you bought, you could make manual backups of each game and install the backups on that person's computer in the steam library folder. When he/she starts Steam and selects to install the game, Steam will detect the files already in the folder and will skip downloading them.

[Levent]

IIRC You can't download games but restore them from a backup, they will appear in the library with a purchase button instead of "play" button. Then again, I wouldn't recommend it.

[jaslion]

32 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Set up a Steam cache server, and then tell your clients to log into their Steam clients and download the games they want before they leave, and hopefully the games are already cached on your server otherwise hope you have a good internet connection.

 

For games that you bought, you could make manual backups of each game and install the backups on that person's computer in the steam library folder. When he/she starts Steam and selects to install the game, Steam will detect the files already in the folder and will skip downloading them.

Another thing is that who says they want their games on their c drive or in a main directory.

 

The idea behind the service is good but Id just do as you are saying and make a "download station" for customers.

 

My old old old... job when I built systems had this as an option and had gigabit ethernet back in 2013. It was a very appreciated service and instead of a steam cache they used a internet caching server for the 2 connections they had. Nothing special really just 2x2tb velociraptors in raid 0 a pentium 8gb of ram and a 64gb ssd.

[LinusTech]

We own all the games we cache. No way around it that we've found.

[Vishera]

Pre loading games without a license is a violation of the DMCA.

The rule of thumb in such matters is that as long as you have a license you can do whatever you want with the game as long as it's for personal use.

When other people other than license holder are concerned you will need a license to distribute the game to them unless you are a reseller.

[Holmes108]

4 hours ago, Vishera said:

Pre loading games without a license is a violation of the DMCA.

The rule of thumb in such matters is that as long as you have a license you can do whatever you want with the game as long as it's for personal use.

When other people other than license holder are concerned you will need a license to distribute the game to them unless you are a reseller.

 

Surely this is dependent on the terms/license. Aren't there many examples of things like MMO's allowing you to download a game, and only checking for purchases as you attempt to logon to play? I don't really play MMO's but I'm sure I've experienced this.

[Vishera]

8 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

Aren't there many examples of things like MMO's allowing you to download a game, and only checking for purchases as you attempt to logon to play? I don't really play MMO's but I'm sure I've experienced this.

It doesn't matter if they check purchases,

If the publisher provides a free download of the game to the public then you get a license for the game for free.

[QuantumSingularity]

I don't get the whole idea behind this...

 

Why would anyone go into all that trouble, especially with already established business??? There are better and cheaper ways to close your store than selling pirated software. 

[Holmes108]

8 minutes ago, Vishera said:

It doesn't matter if they check purchases,

If the publisher provides a free download of the game to the public then you get a license for the game for free.

 

A license to install it but not play it? A license to the title screen? That doesn't seem to make sense.

[Vishera]

36 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

 

A license to install it but not play it? A license to the title screen? That doesn't seem to make sense.

A license to use it, it may be paywalled with a paid account but that's how it is

[LogicalDrm]

10 hours ago, Dukesilver27- said:

I mean, if you purchase them with CC, you could just download the game, move it to other folder, then get a full refund.

IDK if the abuse will catch steam's eyes, but there is that way.

Good way to get account and CC blacklisted by Steam. They already do it for those who buy, play and refund with smaller/shorter games.

[ewitte]

5 hours ago, QuantumSingularity said:

 

Why would anyone go into all that trouble, especially with already established business??? There are better and cheaper ways to close your store than selling pirated software. 

It is not pirated he just wants to pre-load games customers ALREADY OWN.  

[Mark Kaine]

17 hours ago, PiberiusWilde said:

 

 

That's the point of me making this post. Does anyone knows how the lmg steam cache works? Do they purchased these games first? Or only someone that has a license to certain game can download from it?

none of this makes sense... [lmg steam cache - what?] you can only play the games you actually purchased aka own... the files alone are useless... you need to *buy* before you play simple as that. then you can "pre-download" everything you actually own.

 

I'm not sure how it works for businesses... or if steam actually allows this sort of thing but you could just contact them and ask of course.

 

2 hours ago, ewitte said:

It is not pirated he just wants to pre-load games customers ALREADY OWN.  

i didn't read it like that... the issues would be obviously the same,  you cant download a game you don't actually own (also in this case he'd need to download 100s of games -just in case - it doesn't make any sense...)

 

ps: i also don't get the idea of a cache server, isnt that just backups? i mean sure it would be probably faster in theory, but you'd still need to own the games in the first place. 

[derr12]

id just ask for access credentials. download games, and the customer can change the password later if they want (id always recommend, customer never did probably).  

 

back when i was working that kind of gig, handling passwords was pretty normal if the customer wanted you to setup grandma's e-mail.  this is no different.

[ewitte]

On 11/28/2022 at 4:46 PM, Mark Kaine said:

none of this makes sense... [lmg steam cache - what?] you can only play the games you actually purchased aka own... the files alone are useless... you need to *buy* before you play simple as that. then you can "pre-download" everything you actually own.

 

I'm not sure how it works for businesses... or if steam actually allows this sort of thing but you could just contact them and ask of course.

 

i didn't read it like that... the issues would be obviously the same,  you cant download a game you don't actually own (also in this case he'd need to download 100s of games -just in case - it doesn't make any sense...)

 

ps: i also don't get the idea of a cache server, isnt that just backups? i mean sure it would be probably faster in theory, but you'd still need to own the games in the first place. 

Just saves clients time and possibly going over their data cap.  I know for one once you have steam games it is just as easy as copying the folder.

 

FYI you actually have to be logged into Steam to actually PLAY the games.

[QuantumSingularity]

I still don't get it. Have i become too old? Since when waiting 10-15 minutes for your games to download is considered such a hustle that you'd have someone else to do it for you?! Is this some uniquely American problem with data caps? Do those really STILL exist over there ?! What is the whole idea behind this... idea? I am serious - still can't wrap my mind around this whole thing. Preinstalling games USED to be popular here with small service shops when building new computers......... back in 2001. Back then internet wasn't all that fast, copyright laws were just on paper and 99% of us used to rise the tall sails at all times. 

 

[ewitte]

1 hour ago, QuantumSingularity said:

I still don't get it. Have i become too old? Since when waiting 10-15 minutes for your games to download is considered such a hustle that you'd have someone else to do it for you?! Is this some uniquely American problem with data caps? Do those really STILL exist over there ?! 

 

Yes, especially mobile services where you are likely to get less than 25GB/mo (some services will let you go over "unlimited" at like 1Mbit/sec).  I get 1.2TB/mo on Comcast on a 1Gbit line.  You can pay an extra $40/mo for unlimited or $10/100GB extra per month (they will not cap the overage to the "unlimited" price).