It can't be done outside of Steam, and Steam presumably won't do it for security reasons.
If people could just enter codes to "confirm" them, then they could just try fishing for codes at random. If they got lucky, they'd hit an unredeemed key, and then be able to sell or trade it. (One of the things that discourages entering random keys at the moment is that even if you get a hit, it will automatically be redeemed to your account. You can't sell or trade it. And you risk Steam taking action if they see you trying a large number of invalid keys. With a non-activating confirmation, people could use disposable accounts to fish for valid keys.)
That's presumably why Steam uses the same error message for trying to activate an invalid key as it does for trying to activate a key for a game that you already own. It keeps people from discovering tradable/sellable unused keys.
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1) Set up a fake account on a VPN connection
2) Run a program designed to "check" random keys repeatedly
3) Wait for a positive result, redeem key on main account
4) Fake account gets banned? Make another! they're free!
^that, I believe, is why Steam hasn't made this a thing yet
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Chances of actually guessing a key are pretty low and creating a new steam account requires captcha. Also, there is some delay before a key is activated. Finding game keys is impossible. Even if it was an issue solution is easy:
1)Increase size of keys
2) Make a max amount of keys check/day. Eg only 30 keys per day
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The average consumer would not need to check 30 keys in one day. Probably more like one key in 30 days, if that often.
Checking keys only becomes a factor when people are trading keys. The average non-trader buys a game and redeems the key. They don't buy a game and then sit on the key for months. Steam has gifts for trading, a system that doesn't bring in an additional party the way that keys do. When you deal with keys, you bring in other digital stores and providers, and Steam might not want the complications that could ensue if a problem did occur.
Many of these keys come from bundles, some of which say that they don't want people distributing individual keys. Some come from stores/offers that effectively give you two copies of the game, because they cannot really afford to ignore Steam, but want to offer a non-Steam version as well. A good number probably also come from people abusing giveaways, like the recent Metro 2033 giveaway or the Torgue DLC for Borderlands 2. Steam doesn't really have a reason to encourage such behaviors.
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Thats a LOT of trouble to get a free copy of fortrix, or bad henry, or any number of the 4k games you can redeem on steam.
I mean, lets say, steam has 10k games that they take keys for, thats really high, but lets say that for math sake. Now, lets say, that each game has 10m copies, this is also pretty damn high. 10k x 10m = 10^11.
Now, lets say that every key uses the lowest number of digits for the key, (15), some are 25, others 32-35. 15^36 (0-9/A-Z).
Im no math wiz but it seems to me it would take an AWFUL long time to crack a valid game key. This doesnt include keys that were used already, nor does it include keys not yet valid. Even using GPU processing, its hard enough to brute-force a password past 8 digits, let alone 15 or 25+. Each additional digit will almost double the required time to get a valid key.
Also, whats to stop people from creating 1000 accounts, and trying 5000 keys every hr? Anyone determined enough to try bruteforcing keys would surly already be underway on this endeavor no?
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Except, 1000 accounts is peanuts. Average botnet has 5-10 mln machines in it, if you could check validity of keys only 10 times per day you'd see mafia making 100 mln checks daily from one botnet and selling each key they 'hit' on black market for profit.
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i think ninjas usually dont care about whether or not they want a game, or even what game it is, so this wont be any use in the way you're thinking of, BUT something like this would be very handy for checking if a key is used or not (if steam had such a function as to tell you if a key is still active or not before redeeming) - id like to see something like that implemented.
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Steam would never allow it. They want people to buy a game, open the box/link, type in the key, and play the game.
They DO NOT want people trading keys with other people. So they will do everything they can, to maintain an uncertainty when it comes to keys.
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Get someone who owns every game on steam to activate the key, it tells them what it was if they alreadt have I'm pretty sure.
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well, you would then see if the key is okay or not. that is bad, because there will be bots then checking trough every key.
NOPE
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When you enter a mysterious key and click "next", the game is added to your account if you don't own it. However, I think it might be useful to allow an intermediate step where people can see what a key contains before actually claiming it. That way, if someone ninjas a code but is not interested in the games, they can choose to not redeem.
Does that sound like something that could be implemented easily?
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