Expansion pack and Steam - am I out of luck here?

[Edge1]

Hey just thought I'd ask the knowledgeable crowd out here:

Purchased Sims 3 for my daughter on Steam a while back, and recently picked up one of the expansions (High End Loft) via an Amazon sale. Expansion pack's license key is not recognized by Steam and will not install. Trying to just install expansion using its setup.exe says there is no copy of the original game on her machine. Tried moving the install files to the Steam Sims 3 folder and then installing - to no avail.

So basically, if I buy a game on Steam, must I also buy all future expansions on Steam as well?

 

[KaOTiK]

Generally speaking yes, you need the Steam version of expansion packs for the Steam version of a game. You could probably activate Sims 3 on Origin and then activate the expansion on their as well. You would have to download and install it all over again but you would have access to it then.

 

[Edge1]

Generally speaking yes, you need the Steam version of expansion packs for the Steam version of a game. You could probably activate Sims 3 on Origin and then activate the expansion on their as well. You would have to download and install it all over again but you would have access to it then.

Hey that might be the ticket, KaOTiK. The expansion was a measley 350MB or so - the things I do for my kids, LOL. Thanks man!

 

[KaOTiK]

NP, glad I could help
Hope it all works out for ya

 

[gorcorps]

Generally speaking yes, you need the Steam version of expansion packs for the Steam version of a game. You could probably activate Sims 3 on Origin and then activate the expansion on their as well. You would have to download and install it all over again but you would have access to it then.

I was going to suggest this, but if you point Origin to the right steam folder it might not even have to be re downloaded. It might even recognize it automatically, as I recently put in my steam code for Burnout into Origin and it added without any re downloading.

 

[Ganeedi]

Same as above - Origin was able to recognize games i had installed thru Steam, by just putting in the codes.

 

[EDUSAN]

maybe you can ask for a steam redeamable code from amazon? i know they have done that before.

in the summer sale i bought the square enix pack (LC: guardian of the light, just cause 2, kane & linch 2, Supreme commander 2 and Tomb Raider: Underworld), all the keys except Underworld were steam redeamable, a friend sent an email to amazon asking for a steam key and they sent it

although in my case after I had bought the pack they changed it making Underworld steam redeamable too (and then i sent the mail)

 

[KaOTiK]

maybe you can ask for a steam redeamable code from amazon? i know they have done that before.

in the summer sale i bought the square enix pack (LC: guardian of the light, just cause 2, kane & linch 2, Supreme commander 2 and Tomb Raider: Underworld), all the keys except Underworld were steam redeamable, a friend sent an email to amazon asking for a steam key and they sent it

although in my case after I had bought the pack they changed it making Underworld steam redeamable too (and then i sent the mail)

EA doesn't make any games that are able to be redeemed on Steam. That is why you don't see anyone offer EA games with Steam keys.

 

[Dankk]

Generally speaking yes, you need the Steam version of expansion packs for the Steam version of a game. You could probably activate Sims 3 on Origin and then activate the expansion on their as well. You would have to download and install it all over again but you would have access to it then.

This man is correct. Serial numbers for EA games will not activate on Steam, however they will activate on Origin, and you can be certain that The Sims 3 and your expansion you bought from Amazon will both activate on Origin. You should be able to right-click on the game in Steam and retrieve the CD key.

 

[gorcorps]

EA doesn't make any games that are able to be redeemed on Steam. That is why you don't see anyone offer EA games with Steam keys.

Well that's not entirely true... there were a lot of EA games that were pre-origin that were offered on steam. These days that's true, but with older games there may still be keys that work fine in steam AND origin.

 

[KaOTiK]

Well that's not entirely true... there were a lot of EA games that were pre-origin that were offered on steam. These days that's true, but with older games there may still be keys that work fine in steam AND origin.

No, I'm talking about buying an EA game from somewhere and it being able to activate on Steam, you could never do that with EA games before or after Origin. Only way you can have EA games on Steam is to buy it on Steam if it is offered.

 

[gorcorps]

No, I'm talking about buying an EA game from somewhere and it being able to activate on Steam, you could never do that with EA games before or after Origin. Only way you can have EA games on Steam is to buy it on Steam if it is offered.

Ah, I gotcha. That is indeed true. All steam ever did was enter those keys in their own system so it'd recognize it if you bought it from them, but if you didn't then it wasn't a key that was in their "approved" list.