The All New Bargains Thread

I'm wondering if it's CDKeys blocking it, but having shit messaging to the end user. i.e. they let it get all the way to your payment method which gives it the thumbs up, and *then* they check their legal obligations.

I'm reaching. Proof would be if you try to order without Koins and it goes through. Which rather defeats the object.

Yeah this definitely happens. Usually coupled with terrible front end user messages that mean they've no idea what's happened 😂

I tried that and it still failed

My counters are fitted perfectly around the world, but especially in northern English towns. I used to advertise a lot on the Eurogamer forum.

I used paypal for my $0.04 and I was 100% expecting it to fail, either because of regional restrictions, or the address, or them flagging such a tiny payment as fraud. Was completely amazed when it went through, especially as last month I had huge problems trying to buy Blood Bowl 2 on Fanatical.

I guess I used my paypal balance, which would at least avoid any bank/credit card checks. But that was true with the fanatical one and that ended up with my paypal account getting locked and having to call their customer service. *shrug*

At some point it's not worth the time and energy just for a $3 saving though.

I understand why humble doesn't do the really cheap $1 tiers these days, but I find that I almost never buy their bundles since they stopped. Even though the bundles are still great deals on paper (if you compare with the total retail price), there's rarely a bundle where I strongly want more than 1 or 2 games. Usually there are some I've never heard of, some that I've already got, etc..

I used to often take a gamble on the lower tier. But then that probably means I was part of the problem, dragging down the average.

Blimey... Think that's the first humble bundle I've got where I didn't own any of the games (well, on Steam)

Dicey Dungeons is well worth a look. Great little game.

What's the best idea to use up a bunch of Steam wallet credits? And by that I mean, every time I hover up some game to buy, I feel like I'm being cheated out of money because it would be cheaper to buy games on some key seller website. Like say, I want to buy AITD, and I have enough credit to get it on Steam nearly for free... but if I bought it on CDKeys, it would be literally half the price. And I'd get to keep the wallet credit for something more expensive.

Either I need to buy something that will never appear on a key seller website, or at the very least, I need some psychological counseling on how to stop worrying about opportunity costs 

It's a THQ Nordic game, hence Embracer would get my money.

So it doesn't help all that much

But I gotta use this credit eventually, and I can't think of many games in 2024 that I absolutely want at launch no matter what. Might as well spend it this way...

Unless I wait for Stalker 2. I'll probably do that if reviews for AITD are bad enough.

Steam credit doesn't expire does it? Just keep it till there's a sale on and Steam is closer in price to the key sellers, or use it to knock down the price of a game at launch when everywhere is expensive.

It doesn't expire, but I feel bad about having it up there for so long. I'd really rather spend it by the end of the year.

In the end, chances are I'll get AITD after all. Just need to wait for reviews. Also I'm hoping it's 50 euro instead of 60 euro, it looks fairly low budget.

I've had a surprisingly bristling reception on here before, so without wanting to prod the beast too much, I'd say it's murky. How they get all their keys is a unclear. Probably something to do with buying in cheaper territories and selling to more expensive ones. Which is different levels of dodgy to different people.

Take Balatro for instance, how the hell did those keys land on there? Or... Did the publisher do a deal which leads to a chunk of sales which leads to word of mouth etc. and then Steam sales take off as well?

That makes sense to me for indies, but I find it strange that the big games companies haven't tried to put a stop to cdkeys given they often undercut by a good chunk and must lose business. I assume they don't for a few reasons: the cross territory thing possibly makes it a legal haystack; actually only really 'proper' gamers use cdkeys so it's not a huge loss; taking legal action results in loads of publicity which drives more sales via cdkeys.

AFAIK there's no way to make a steam key that hasn't been created by the publisher via Steam. So in that respect the publisher is still getting the money, and already has it even before the end buyer makes his purchase. It's possible some publishers try selling keys to sites in advance or in bulk because then the onus is on those sites to sell the keys, rather than themselves hoping they'll get those sales, so I can see the appeal to smaller companies.