Buy games from steam

[The_Unnamed]

You can copy the game files to any PC and use them through Steam so long as it's on an account that owns said game.

What he said

 

[killadoob]

You can download from one account and then install it elsewhere on someone elses account just fine with all games.

Confused then, was this a typo or what or will be installed and not activated?

 

[davemc]

Before you can play you have to activate.
Downloading and "restoring from a backup" does not require activation, but the downloaded/restored game will not play until activated.

 

[Techrat]

You can freely copy the data files between machines without problems.

e.g. You want Half Life 2, but don't want to download it, you buy it from Steam on your account, then get your friend who already has the game to copy the files over to you.

 

[diabolus]

Also, not all games sold on Steam requires Steam to run . There's plenty of games that are installed and downloaded via Steam, but you can basically copy and run it from anywhere. Usually these games come with a serial key or account activiation on the developer's site.

Example of such games : Guildwars , Aion and almost any online game . You pay for it on Steam but your account for the game is actually at the developer and they don't care how you obtained the software.