Cheap Games: Steam Key vs Steam Accounts

Buying games from the Steam digital store isn’t the only way to get games on Steam. Some will find this surprising, while others will wonder if such a clarification was necessary, and this reaction depends on whether the person knows about keystores and how they work. And it is that, as surprising as it may be to some, today there are still many people who either do not know about these services and what they offer, or have very remote knowledge.

Services like G2A, Eneba, Insta Gaming and others, They have become famous over the years., something they depended on both for their marketing and advertising campaigns and the way their own users became a vector of spread, especially in their early days when they were not as well known as they are today. I remember at that time many users were excitedly running around and sharing on social media that they got a legal license for a game that was all the rage at the time, but they saved 20, 30 or even 40% off the official price. I can’t think of a better advertisement.

So over time it became popular to refer to them as key stores, something that was absolutely right in its early days, but today it is not so appropriate because its offer has diversified. But here we find ourselves again with what I mentioned at the beginning, that there are users who are aware of this evolution, while others think that they will continue to be those of the cheap games, that is, the key accounts. And this caused somewhat unpleasant circumstances for the latter.

For some time now, when we search in these types of stores, we can find ourselves with games whose name is accompanied by “Steam Key”, others that indicate “Steam Account” to the right of their name. The problem is that due to ignorance or lack of attention, there are quite a few people who buy a game with a “Steam Account” ending without knowing what they are doing. And what they do, as you can see from the text, is buy a Steam account (or access to it) that only contains this game.

Therefore, if we buy a game in this mode, every time we want to play it, we will have to log out of our Steam account and open an account with the title in question, although it is true that some sellers offer alternative ways to avoid this, how to use the loan function between accounts. This means, first of all, that all the achievements won’t be reflected in our personal account, we won’t be able to share our activity on it, we won’t be able to use the functions of Steam to communicate and play with our friends (if of course it depends on Steam, otherwise we won’t have a problem) and so on.

In addition, there are two other important issues. It’s the first one We will not have a 100% guarantee that the account will belong exclusively to us. There are very serious and professional sellers on these platforms and their evaluation history can guide us to know if they are more or less reliable, and the platforms themselves take measures to try to guarantee this, but we must not fail. this consider the risk if we choose “Steam Account” instead of “Steam Key”.

I left the most important ones at the end of this list of risks. If we study the Steam Subscriber Agreement (the terms we accept when using the service), in Chapter 1, Section C, we can read the following:

«Your account, including all information associated with it (eg contact information, billing information, account and subscription history, etc.) is strictly personal. Therefore, you are not authorized to sell your account., charge third parties for the right to use or otherwise transfer it; You are also not permitted to sell, charge others for the right to use, or transfer your Subscriptions except as expressly permitted in this Agreement (including the Subscription Terms or Terms of Use) or as expressly permitted by Valve.»

And what can happen if Valve discovers that the account has been sold? Chapter 9, Section C:

«Valve may limit or terminate your account or any subscription at any time if (a) Valve generally ceases to provide this type of subscription generally to subscribers in similar situations, or (b) you breach any of the terms of this Agreement (including the Subscription Terms and Terms of Use). In the event that Valve cancels or terminates your account or certain subscriptions for breach of this Agreement or for improper or criminal activity, you will not receive any refund nor will you be refunded any subscription fees or unused funds in your Steam wallet.»

With all the cons, why would anyone want to buy a Steam account that includes a game instead of a code to add that game to their own account? The explanation is actually very simple, and I bet even if you don’t know these stores and/or this type of sales, you already imagine it, but I’ll give it an example. I will do this with the more than popular G2A and the reason for choosing it is, in my experience, It is the platform that is most concerned with user notification that what they intend to buy is an account and not a password.

I haven’t played it yet, but I’m pretty curious about Hogwarts Legacy because both the reviews and feedback I’ve gotten on it have been very, very positive. So I turn to Steam and see it the price of the normal edition is 59.99 euros, while the deluxe edition goes up to 69.99 euros. Since my budget is a bit tight but I want to play it, I decide to try my luck at key stores and after searching in G2A I find the following results:

As you can see, the saving of a Steam account compared to a Steam key is more than evident, with the first two search results offers us a 50% savings. We continue to view the results and verify that the two keys shown in the list, They offer us savings between 20% and 30%which isn’t bad, but of course it’s not the amazing 50% we’ve seen in the accounts listed at the beginning.

Accessing the tab of one of the results of accounts, not keys, if we check its contents, we find a message that warns us, if we did not realize when we saw the name, the nature of this purchase:

Is it worth buying an account?

This question does not have a universal answer., because it really depends on the weight each person gives to the pros and cons of said option. Obviously, the economic savings are spectacularSome stores, like the aforementioned G2A, seem to take their commitment to guarantee the reliability of these accounts quite seriously, apart from actively and passively informing users that they are facing a very specific purchase.

On the contrary, we already know that there are no absolute guarantees. Either because the seller is acting in bad faith or because Valve discovers that the account has violated the user agreement and decides to cancel it, we expose ourselves to a number of risks that logically not everyone is willing to take.

In my case I believe it doesn’t compensate me, I prefer the “security” (remember everything is relative) that gives me the key with which the game in question becomes part of my inventory, even if its price is somewhat higher. Of course, in reality, my favorite option is to wait for Steam sales or special offers from developers to get the game directly on the platform. However, yes i have bought keys from several shops and have always done well with themand sometimes they have given me a very significant saving, so they also seem like a highly recommended option.

What do you think? Do you think the savings on bills compared to keys justifies choosing the former? Have you purchased an account? And if so, what is your experience with it?