You can now automatically remove games from your account. (Edit: and possibly restore)

I wonder what happens if you remove a game that you activated with a key. Will that key become usable again? They probably thought of this already, but we won't know till someone tries it. If it works, I could see it being heavily abused for a short time before they fix it.

Edit: Tested it and made a new post a few comments down. The key remains connected to your account, the game is just hidden.

What if you delete a game by accident that offered some interesting plot device which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity of the developer's tortured soul, which strives through the medium of the video game structure to sublimate this, transcend that, and come to terms with the fundamental dichotomies of the other, and one is left with a profound and vivid insight into whatever the game was about? What then?

Never going to use it. Feels like Adam Jensen feature, which noone ever asked for.

For everyone asking "Why would you do that?", here is an example:
I myself asked support to remove some games in the past. Why? Because I was only able to get the cut version here in germany at the time of release and some months or even years later, all new keys for this game were uncut and buyable in germany. While the cut version was still registered to my account I was not able to add the uncut version, so first I had to get rid of the cut version to then add the key for the uncut version.

That was possible before if you send ticket to support but seriously I don't have idea why it's needed. Better idea IMO would be actually hide games - but not only in the library list but also from games page on profile. And with that you would still hiddenly play it. Good option for anime visual novels ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Or Bad Rats

Can anyone test if you idle a game for cards, remove it from the library, then add it again, will you receive more cards?

I just did some testing to see exactly what happens with the key and if you still own the game. When you remove a game, the key is still attached to your account and you still own the game, but there is no trace of the game anywhere on your account. You can't use another key at a later time to reactivate the game because you still own it and the only way to get the game again is to go back into support and select an option that says the game missing from your account and it will let you add it again.

I don't know if there are certain circumstances that could give you different results based on how long you have had a game activated or removed from your account, but this is what I have experienced so far. I tested this with the game "Gun Metal" because a Steam key was given away for free today and I don't want the game.

7:45 PM - activated key
steam profile shows 529 games / steam client shows 528 games

8:20 PM - removed game from my account
Game immediately removed
steam profile: 528 games / steam client: 527 games
Game is no longer shown in the Steam client or on my list of games on my Steam profile.

8:28 PM - tried to reactivate game with the same key
"Product already owned - This Steam account already owns the products with this activation code. Click next to proceed to install."
Clicked "next". Got message: "This game cannot be installed."
"Cancel installation" button is the only option.

8:35 PM
Help, support
Games, software, etc.
Search for "Gun Metal"
Choose "It's not in my library"

"You previously owned this product, but you asked us to permanently remove the package (Gun Metal Steam Store and Retail Key) which included it from your account"
Button "Restore the previously removed package to my account"
"The package Gun Metal Steam Store and Retail Key has been restored your account"

Game immediately added
Steam profile: 529 games / Steam client: 528 games

8:39 PM
Removed the game again because I don't want it.

Edit: If anyone wants me to test this at a later date to see if you can reactivate a game after being removed from your account for a long time, just reply to this message reminding me and I will try and reactivate the game again. I think it will work forever, but I would like to try it after having it removed for at least a few months and see what happens.

Edit 2: I was able to restore the game through the automated system after having it removed for over 12 hours.

Edit 3: I last removed the game from my Steam account on Dec 5th and I just added it back to my account through the support page on Jan 6th. It was removed from my account for 1 month and 1 day.

Note: All the above tests were done with a game that was activated with a key. I also just tested it with a different game that was purchased directly through steam and the results were similar. With the game purchased through steam, I was able to remove the game and then add it back to my account (I only tested this while having the game removed for about 5 minutes). I then removed the game again and tried activating a new copy of the same game that I had in my Steam inventory. Steam did allow me to activate the duplicate game from my inventory effectively discarding a copy of the game.

This has been a feature for quite a while. I haven't gotten around to removing my DOTA 2 beta, though....

Now people that grabs multiple copies of free keys giveaways will be rich. :B

All there will be less copies for ourselves. :/

Great, I can finally remove that Transcripted Alienware Demo thingy

I just removed 100 games from my library :D

Removed Dota 2 and Portal: First Slice demo. Good fucking riddance.

Is there a way in the system to find out if a game has been removed? Somewhere you can see the history/list of any games that were ever removed?
and I'm not talking about memorizing how many games you have xD

I'll just stick to the "hide" feature... it's a little less on the permanent side.