If you don’t like the idea of your library being filled up with hundreds and hundreds of titles you know you’ll never play, why not clear out the backlog and remove them from your account permanently? Sure, it’s not an option for everyone — I wouldn’t do it — but it’s a feature that’s now supported by Steam.
A NeoGAF user spotted the change earlier this morning, which can only be accessed by going through Steam’s support pages.
To permanently remove a game from the Steam application, simply click Help and then “Steam Support” in the drop-down menu. From there all you have to do is pick “Games, Software, etc.” at which point you’ll be able select one of your recent products or search for any games or software.
Once you’ve selected a game that’s in your library, Steam will then ask you what the problem is, at which point you’ll see an option to “permanently remove this game from my account”.
BEGONE, I say
Users have noted that games added as part of a package can’t be removed individually, which is important if you’ve ever purchased something through Humble Bundle or bought some of the larger packages available on Steam.
What’s the merit in all of this? It’s really only for spring cleaning. Most people will just hide games from their Steam account or create a separate tag to categorise all the trash in their library. But, for some, there are those impulse purchases and special titles that just have to be purged with fire. We all have one or two of those.
It’s also worth noting that the functionality has been available for a while when it came to free-to-play games, but it’s only recently been rolled out for paid titles. And if you have a few that you never want to scroll past ever again — well, now you don’t have to.
Still a little over the top for my liking, but hey, the more tools the better.
Comments
26 responses to “You Can Permanently Delete Games From Your Steam Account”
What a waste of money! Even if i did buy the worse game possible on steam “cough WarZ cough”. I still payed for it and I’ll keep that junk even if it does change its name.
I some how feel this is partly my fault… Over the last 2 months I’ve submitted 5 tickets to have in excess of 50 games removed from my account… I think Valve hates me 🙁
Before someone asks…
I wanted them removed for various reasons. Sometimes the game was mulitplayer only and was now dead (Shoot Many Robots). Sometimes the games servers where gone (Forge). Sometimes the game was unfinished and abandoned (Kinetic Void). Sometimes I had doubles (Origin, GOG versions are better, etc). Sometimes the game was just shit. And sometimes my borderline OCD didn’t help 😛
You can probably safely remove the word “borderline” from that sentence 😉
No… I can’t…
if this removes all earned achievements and time played from the account also this is fantastic! I don’t care about 100% because I have so many tittles that are crap, filled with pointless achievements that I will never care about.
If I now have a way to delete those tittles and the low amount of achievements earned I might start caring about completing games again. Because as of right now I have about 20 tittles that bring my overall completion rate so low I no longer care about it anymore.
From my experience it is as if the game was never part of your account, achievements and all. Becareful with “Complete” packs or “Bundles” if you remove one game in the bundle, they all go. If you rebuy the game all the old data comes back, same serial key, achievements, play time, etc. The remove function seems to remove all data from you and others that you ever owned the game. Valve will know… But they know all >_>
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just use a category tag to store all the unwanted games in a collapsible folder, or even just hide the game from the library. Getting them removed entirely from your account seems like a waste of money.
Exactly, even Origin has a HIDE option for titles, why not Steam?
This seems like an expensive disaster waiting to happen
My response to this is in my first comment guys, tbh OCD had mostly to do with this. I could have “hidden” them but like that tiny dent in your brand new car, no one ever notices it… But you know it is there… Waiting for you… Watching you… Preparing to show it’s ugly face at your next car wash! ALWAYS TAUNTING YOU FROM TEH SHADOWS! OH THE HUMANITY!
P.S. Money isn’t a barrier or obstacle for some people. If you earned a million dollars a day, do you think you would care about $200 worth of lost games on Steam?
The people that earn a million dollars a day only do so because before they earned that much, they were the sort of person to care about $200 worth of lost games.
it does have a hide function. Right Click, set category, under the custom category list there is a tick box for hide game.
It’s not truly hidden, the game is still listed in your profile and on you games list.
O yea ic what you mean sounds like a much better implementaion.
Never mind, already mentioned.
Does this mean I can finally get rid of Dota 2 from my library, since I never wanted it in the first place?!
Just checked… Would appear so.
This has been my problem with f2p on Steam. You try something and it’s there forever. Good to know we can remove them.
Thing is, I never tried it, it just appeared in my list one day. But yay! It’s finally gone!
You have been able to remove free games from Steam for a while now, If you go to “Account details” (profile pic drop down menu), then select “View licenses and product key activations” you will see a list of all the games you have purchased, the Free games typically (not always but 99%) have a “Remove” button next to them. It only removed the game, not purchased DLC.
This to me is asking for trouble. I have never had my account stolen, but there have been a few holes in Steam that could have easily gotten safe users accounts taken. For example the password reset problem.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2953016/cybercrime-hacking/valve-patches-huge-password-reset-hole-that-allowed-anyone-to-hijack-steam-accounts.html
Imagine someone takes your account and deletes all your games for laughs. Will Valve return everything? Probably not, there customer service is quiet poor, it got a F. Then if for some chance Valve does help you out, what happens to the games that were removed from Steams store, but you could still download? These games are likely lost forever.
Instead of just deleting them, I’d love the option to regift it. If the games sat in your account for over a year and not accessed.
Let one gamers trash be another gamers treasure.
i wounder if this removed games bans if the game isnt in your list any more?
If it’s a VAC ban, that’s done at the account level and wouldn’t be removed. Game-specific bans might be removed (until you buy the game again, then they’re restored) but it’s not like it’s going to matter if it’s removed or not since you don’t have the game any more.
Yesssss.
*purges Aliens : Colonial Marines with fire*