Valve Finally Adds Option To Permanently Delete Games From Steam Library

[kcarbotte]

Valve’s Steam game distribution service launched over 12 years ago, and for all of this time, you’ve never been able to permanently delete games from your Steam library. That is, until today.

Valve Finally Adds Option To Permanently Delete Games From Steam Library : Read more

 

[17seconds]

Seems like they could just offer an option to hide the games you no longer want to see.

 

[hausman]

There's already an option to hide games. What I'd like to see is a way to transfer games to another account. Now that my kid is old enough to play games, I'd like to start building his library with games from my account that are more suited to him.

 

[nirrtix]

hausman you can use family share to share your titles with him. as long as you are not playing them he can play them.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Good. Now they just need to clean house and delete all the complete rubbish games cluttering up steam. Its beginning to get like google play and apple app store with the amount of pure crap on it.

 

[beshonk]

For those of your struggling with this, just create a "played" category and move already played games there. I personally have a current games, on-deck, queue'd and unplayed list, as well. Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

 

[dstarr3]

I'm glad they implemented two-factor authentication before rolling this out.

 

[Ephebus]

Why would anyone want to lose their right to play a game? People could simply use the option to delete the game's local content (which basically uninstalls it) and then hide it from the library list.

 

[Sparktown]

I'm all for giving users as much control as possible over their Steam accounts, but this seems like a very strange feature to me if you can already hide games you don't want to see. If their main use case was somebody just having too many games, seems like better filtering options would have been a better solution.

I recognize its not an "either or" situation, but I personally would have preferred that Steam finally allowed users to change their Account Names instead. Again, anything that allows you more control over your Steam account is good, since users are relying on (or "locked in") to these things for years (if not decades) and investing $100s into them.

 

[Kewlx25]

They should instead have an "archive" feature that permanently hides the game unless you search for it. Like gmail.

 

[photonboy]

I see no problem.
If people want to uninstall and "hide" the game that's fine. If they want to permanently DELETE then it's nice to at least have the option.

 

[WatchingUser]

Why would anyone want to lose their right to play a game? People could simply use the option to delete the game's local content (which basically uninstalls it) and then hide it from the library list.

I feel the hackers already salivating at the idea of deleting others games.

 

[Achoo22]

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that Steam's user interface is utter garbage. You must painstakingly assign categories one game at a time, categories can become lost following failed synchronizations, etc. Valve's Steam division is HORRIBLE at each and every thing their business is centered around (customer service, billing, rich download/queuing options, game management, etc). That being able to delete a game from your library is newsworthy only illustrates how little we expect from Valve.

 

[JBForum]

Let us be realistic here, The reason this is added is so people ashamed they bought nekopara can cleanse the account. Saving face in front of there wife/ significant others / family / friends.

 

[egmccann]

Why would anyone want to lose their right to play a game? People could simply use the option to delete the game's local content (which basically uninstalls it) and then hide it from the library list.

Some games you *can't* play any more. Say, MMOs. I believe they listed some edition of City of Heroes, for instance - and that game's been unplayable (servers gone) for 3 years now. I still have one of the Left4Dead betas listed on my library - as well as the full games. I can get rid of the beta. And yeah, some games are just so bad or broken, removing them is a nice option.

 

[Afrospinach]

Why would anyone want to lose their right to play a game? People could simply use the option to delete the game's local content (which basically uninstalls it) and then hide it from the library list.

I have some duplicates from bundles and whatnot. They are the same games, just different versions(special steam versions and so on). Though I would rather just hide them like some of the above posters are saying. I do not see any real benefit it losing the right to play a game in your library forever, not like it is hogging real estate.

 

[BulkZerker]

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that Steam's user interface is utter garbage. You must painstakingly assign categories one game at a time, categories can become lost following failed synchronizations, etc. Valve's Steam division is HORRIBLE at each and every thing their business is centered around (customer service, billing, rich download/queuing options, game management, etc). That being able to delete a game from your library is newsworthy only illustrates how little we expect from Valve.

Here, buddy, have a thumbs up.

The truth hurts, and sometimes you gotta take it on the chin, steam fanboys.

Now if I delete a game does it also remove my logged hours and ownership of said game? I mean being able to do this will finally hide hours logged from playing on a free weekend.

 

[drapacioli]

...and cue the steam hackers deleting entire game libraries from unlucky people's accounts in 3...2...1...

 

[drapacioli]

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that Steam's user interface is utter garbage. You must painstakingly assign categories one game at a time, categories can become lost following failed synchronizations, etc. Valve's Steam division is HORRIBLE at each and every thing their business is centered around (customer service, billing, rich download/queuing options, game management, etc). That being able to delete a game from your library is newsworthy only illustrates how little we expect from Valve.

Have you tried using SHIFT+clicks and CTRL+clicks? You can assign categories to multiple games at once that way. Just multi-select the games you want to hide, choose "Set Categories" and then check the box that says "Hide these games from my Steam library" and you're done! I just tried it myself and hid all 200+ games in my library in just half a dozen clicks, then unhide them again just as easily. Granted have no idea about synchronization but if it takes seconds as opposed to an hour to hide the games you want, it's at least manageable now.

 

[alidan]

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that Steam's user interface is utter garbage. You must painstakingly assign categories one game at a time, categories can become lost following failed synchronizations, etc. Valve's Steam division is HORRIBLE at each and every thing their business is centered around (customer service, billing, rich download/queuing options, game management, etc). That being able to delete a game from your library is newsworthy only illustrates how little we expect from Valve.

Here, buddy, have a thumbs up.

The truth hurts, and sometimes you gotta take it on the chin, steam fanboys.

Now if I delete a game does it also remove my logged hours and ownership of said game? I mean being able to do this will finally hide hours logged from playing on a free weekend.

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that Steam's user interface is utter garbage. You must painstakingly assign categories one game at a time, categories can become lost following failed synchronizations, etc. Valve's Steam division is HORRIBLE at each and every thing their business is centered around (customer service, billing, rich download/queuing options, game management, etc). That being able to delete a game from your library is newsworthy only illustrates how little we expect from Valve.

https://github.com/rallion/depressurizer

do all your games at once, than maintenance when each one is released,

i have a folder called "zzz - dead to me" specifically for games i hate or have come to hate. in the case of doom, i am never launching it through steam anyway so i put it there too.

i have my favroites as an "all games" list with the exception of dead to me games. and everything else is sorted by tags.

 

[Achoo22]

Have you tried using SHIFT+clicks and CTRL+clicks?

Alright, a little crow for me to eat. I have tried that in the past, but not lately. I'm glad they added this much needed functionality, but I can provide at least a dozen dozen examples of the software's failings. For example, how do you set all titles in your library except one to stop downloading updates until you manually queue them?

 

[Hector Quinonez]

I too would like to see them add an ability to move games from one account to another. I have a second PC that I want to put an account on for the kids, and I don't want it to interfere with my current account; like when using family share.

 

[Shaun o]

Think it would of been better, if they gave you a choice to give the game to another steam user you know, for good then obviously deleted from your digital locker.

It would be a bit of a better option than just deleting the game permanently from your own digital locker, and make someones day who does not like something for free.

 

[toadhammer]

Just move the games to "played" and minimize the category. Easy.

Except that ... categories can become lost ....

https://github.com/rallion/depressurizer

do all your games at once, than maintenance when each one is released,

i have a folder called "zzz - dead to me" specifically for games i hate or have come to hate. in the case of doom, i am never launching it through steam anyway so i put it there too.

i have my favroites as an "all games" list with the exception of dead to me games. and everything else is sorted by tags.

Thanks for that. I hate every time I have to recreate all my categories, and I think it pretty much sums up the suckage that 3rd party tools are needed to manage things. (From one who's come to like steam, vs how it started.)

 

[Andreas Elf]

Good that they're adding that as an option. But I rather wait until games can be sold.