My brother got NV and installed it on his PC to his Steam account, and is letting me install it on my PC to my Steam account so that I can play it when he's away. However, when I went to install it, I got a duplicate product code error. Are you seriously telling me that Bethesda is going to make me buy 2 copies of this game and that because some people are trying to download it for free online, I'm the one that suffers for it? ...Seriously?!

You can install it on your computer it just has to be through your brother's Steam account.

If worst come to worst, I'll do that. Do Bethesda have some kind of service where I could buy just a second product code rather than the whole game again? I doubt it... :shakehead:

Because it is a Steamworks game, a second product code is the equivalent to buying the entire game again.

You can buy a copy through Steam itself, although I imagine that would require downloading the copy through them.

How is this different from every other game on the market. One purchase equals one license, and before you install/purchase the game, you agree to this. While DRM free software may technical allow multiple instances to be installed, it is a violation of the EULA on a majority of software. If you plan you activate this game on multiple Steam accounts you'll need to purchase multiple licenses.

As stated if you use your brothers' Steam account then you may be able to play the game. However if it quite possible that using/sharing a Steam account on multiple computer is a violation of the Steam (client) terms of agreement.

One account per copy. That's the way it goes.

I remember when you brought a game, and you could do whatever the hell you liked with it... the good ol' days. <_<
Even Fallout 3 let you install it on multiple PCs, and Bethesda still made loads of money from it, for the reason that it was a great game - not because everyone had to buy a few copies each.

But if you wanted to use LIVE features such as achievements, you had to register with LIVE. Which required a LIVE key which came with the game and could only be used once.

I never registered it on LIVE - my brother beat me to it. But I didn't need a code to play it without LIVE. Do I only needed the code to play with Steam? I really don't care about the acheivments on RPG's because you get rewards ingame for doing missions/quests. So is there a way to install New Vegas without the Steam/An unused activation code? If you really want it first, I'll give you proof that I own the game.

*sigh*

You can install it on multiple machines - you just need to use the same steam account. Multiple users "sharing" the same single copy of the game by installing it on their own separate machines is piracy though and don't be surprised if this thread gets locked. Also, asking how to bypass steam and steam-works will probably also get this thread deleted/locked.

Yep.