Usually there are a lot of gamers out there that tries to save a few bucks by buying only the CD-key of the game, instead of the physical copy of the game, since it would cost less to buy just the CD-key. Not this time my friend and definitely not for Modern Warfare 2, because Activision had asked Valve to ban all the cd-keys that are bought off of the ‘Gray-Market’.

This issue was brought up by a gamer posted on the official Steam forum asking why his legitimate copy of Modern Warfare 2 all of a sudden does not work anymore. Afterwards, a few more gamers approach the board with the same problem with their game also.

A Valve admin finally replied “If you purchased just a cd key for the game then you purchased from an illegitimate seller and the game has been revoked.” and also added when a user replied with saying that they haven’t broke any region rules buy purchasing just the cd-key, “Not when the key was initially purchased fraudulently. You should contact the seller as well as the site they are selling on (ex/ ebay).”, .

So I guess that is your only option now if you have this problem, which is to try to get your refund back from the retailer who sold you your key and buy a legitimate copy of the game. But after all this will you still buy one?