Awhile back I bought Skyrim for my PC, and the other day when I pressed "Play" in Steam, it sent me to the page to buy it, and when I tried going to the button to see what happens if I buy it again, it says I already own the game.
Steam – Why is Steam telling me to buy a game I’ve already purchased
steamthe-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim
Related Solutions
As of March 2016, Steam now subtracts the price of owned games from bundles, so you don't have to re-buy them.
"Past Complete Packs were sometimes a bad deal for customers that already [owned] one or more of the products in the pack," Valve added. "Either it made bad economic sense for those customers to purchase the pack, or they just felt bad about doing so since it [looked] like they were paying for products they already [had]. The new Steam Bundles system addresses this.
In fact, here's a bundle viewed from my own account:
And from incognito:
Note how the base price of the bundle is about $5 cheaper when I'm logged in.
Packages
However, it's important to note that Steam makes a distinction between "bundles" and "packages".
Packages are a fixed price - if you already own something in it, you dont get a lower price or a second copy. Bundles will take out content you already own and adjust the price accordingly.
-moistly harmless, Jul 2, 2017
With packages, the prices are fixed, and you pay the full price no matter what. So it would be silly to buy the game and then buy the game + OST package. Because you'd be paying for the game twice and only getting one copy.
Before buying the game:
And after:
That base price won't budge.
...I just bought a game to illustrate a point.
Steam – Is it possible to receive a gift on Steam and put it in your inventory if you already own it
This didn't use to be possible, but it has been fixed now. The old gifting system has been integrated with the inventory.
When you click the "Accept Gift" button in the "pending gifts" section of your inventory, you'll get the option of storing it in your Steam Inventory.
Related Topic
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- Steam says that I need to buy the game again
- Steam – buy ANOTHER copy of a game I already own and give it as a gift to a friend on Steam
- Steam – If I buy the same game I already have downloaded on the computer from a different steam account, will I have to re-download it
- Steam – activate a product key in UPlay for a game that I’ve already bought on Steam
Best Answer
This was likely due to a temporary issue with Steam on August 4th. From the Steam Twitter account:
There are multiple reports on that thread of this happening with Bethesda games, and speculation that it was occurring for games which were on sale, which would have included Skyrim.
You should be able to play now, though as the above message states, you may need to restart Steam.