I've purchased NFS Hot Pursuit from Steam, and I was supplied a CD key and could run the game after downloading it. I was then able to run the game with Steam in offline mode, but at one point (after closing and restarting Steam), Steam returns the following error trying to start the game in offline mode:
Steam – Error
Failed to contact key server.
The problem cleared up once I got back online. However, Steam had previously acquired a CD key, and it's my understanding that a CD key should be permanent for the duration of a license, so why did this happen? Does Steam lose CD keys, and do they require online renewal?
Best Answer
I know this is an old question, but...
Steam re-validates games that you own approximately once a month.
This is one of the steps Steam uses for fraud prevention, as Valve will pull games from accounts purchased using fraudulent sources.
You may say "Wouldn't Valve just ban the account?" They likely ban the purchasing account. However, Steam users can gift games to other accounts or trade them through Steam trading... the recipient can't tell if the originator got the item in a fraudulent manner.
This is largely transparent to users... unless you're offline for more than a month.