Kharne's guide to discount gaming

This is a guide meant to help people get games on the cheap, or at least cheaper. I made it after talking a bit about gaming on a budget on bluesky, in response to the price of the Nintendo switch 2 and it's games.

Note that this is not going to be particularly pretty. it's meant to be a simple text resource you can readily search through. I've only made it Neocities site because that made sense as a readily accessible place to put it, rather than a bluesky thread or buried in the backscroll of some random discord.

A few things before we start:

This guide is going to be focused exclusively on PC gaming as that's what I'm most familiar with, and don't have access to any Sony or Microsoft consoles.

While I might bring up some games as examples, this guide is less about pointing you to specific games to buy, more the tools to find games and other things to help with gaming on the cheap, such as mods.

That said that even with a guide finding a good deal will take some legwork on your part to check options and do research. Unfortunately there's no easy one-click solution for this

This guide is for legal options only. I know a common reply to game pricing woes is "Welp, time to pirate everything!" This is for people who can't or don't want to go there and would still like to purchase games legally.

This guide is based on what I use when finding games or deal hunting. There's likely far more than what i bring up here out there, this is just what I'm most familiar with.

Some broad notes for the sites below

-Check refund policies, most places offer no refunds once a key is revealed, redeeming the key is a one way trip.
-Check if you have to pay taxes, some sites add taxes, some don't. This can make some sites cheaper than others even if they show the same list price just because you don't pay the extra taxes.
-Note that it can take a day or two for a newly launched steam game to hit other stores. if you're looking for a good launch discount, it may be best to hold off a day or two.
-Some games will have their keys region locked. Make sure you're not buying a version you can't redeem.
-Be aware of loyalty programs that can get you more off purchases but don't keep yourself exclusive to a site over them or go out of your way to get that bonus. use them when they help, otherwise ignore them.

I'm aware of gray market sites like G2A, However, due to the questionable nature of those sites and the risk in purchasing from them, I won't be listing any of them here.

Fee PC Games: The Best for the Broke
link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xI5NIYodtNjS_28Nt9sja5mAG1hlH4U5YMcH7XXZ_HA/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Description: A google doc listing over 200 free games with a quick description and links to go get them. While there's some free to play and demos mixed in, a lot of it is just straight up fee, no strings attached, and the verity on offer is shockingly huge. RPGs, platforms, shooters, you name it. There's stuff to readily rival commercial products in here. Want a new game but wallet's a bit tight at the moment? Start here.

Isthereanydeal
Link: https://isthereanydeal.com/
Description: Is There Any Deal? is basically what it says a website where you can look up the current and past prices on just about any game you could imagine. This is a good place to go when you're planning to buy a specific game and want to make sure you're getting the best price. Keep in mind it DOESN'T account for loyalty programs like those found at Humble Bundle or Green Man Gaming, so it can pay to doublecheck some sites directly.

Also be warned that the historical lowest price doesn't filter out giveaways, so it's hard to tell what the "real" lowest price for a game is if it was part of say... an epic giveaway.

r/gamedeals
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/new/
Description: THE reddit for game sales. While this does occasionally highlight specific games on sale, it's major use is for noting broader sales. Is Steam holding a sale on visual novels? Is Green Man Gaming holding a sale on Capcom games? Did a new Humble Bundle go live? There's likely a post about it here! it's a lot simple than Is There Any Deal, and it's nature as a reddit means it's not readily searchable but useful if you want to know if any big sales went live fairly recently.

itch.io
Link: https://itch.io/
Description: Itch is probably most famous for it's insanely huge game bundles. Want a quite frankly staggering number f games for a comically cheap price? Keep an eye here. It's also home to a lot of interesting games that haven't reached the big sites like steam, including a lot of freebies.

The bad news is the site itself is kind of a slush pile. if you don't know EXACTLY the game your looking for? you'll likely have a difficult time browsing the site, and while there is a steam-like client to manage and download games? Compared to other options it's severely lacking.

GoG
Link: https://www.gog.com/en/
Description: The home of good old games. This site has two main gimmicks: Games here are sold DRM free, and older games are prepatched and tweaked to run on modern systems. and a lot of these old games are VERY cheap, we're talking major retro titles for like... $10 at full price. Also has it's own steam-like client in GoG Galaxy

The bad news is they're slow to get NEW games. Namely new AAA games If you're hoping to snag that hot new big budget release DRM free? Get ready to wait a year or six.

Steam
Link: https://store.steampowered.com/
Description: I don't think I need to say much about this. It's steam, THE digital games storefront, the one with the huge seasonal sales. I'm just listing it for completeness sake.

That said while you can often get a better deal at any of the other sites I'm listing, and most of them do redeem here. Steam does have some notable features. Steam workshop can give you easy access to mods for some games, and stream trading cards can be sold for store credit, not a lot but it can add up.

Finally Steam does offer bundles, and some of them are further discounted if you already own one or more games in them. In some instances, that's enough to give you the best price on a game if it comes bundled with stuff you already own.

Green Man Gaming
Link: https://www.greenmangaming.com/
Description: One of the newer stores out there. Mostly notable for have some nice launch/preorder discounts, better than what you might see on steam itself! Often has coupons that cover most of the site, and a loyalty program that gives extra offers and a broad discount across the site. They also run frequent sales. If you're looking for a decent sale price or a good launch deal on a new release, this is the main site to check.

Note the coupons are off the BASE price and will not stack with any other discounts.

Fanatical
Link: https://www.fanatical.com/en/
Description: The OTHER bundle site. While they are a store front and run sales, their big draw is bundles, often of the "build your own" verity. some bundles like their "platinum" collections, run for the whole month before being replaced with a new one, and generally include, better known/received games. though this are also often more expensive than the other bundles.

Has a loyalty program where your order gives a coupon for 5% off you're NEXT order, covering most games on the site, as a bonus, it usually stakes with the current sale price.

If you like bundles, this is the site to keep an eye on.

Humble Bundle
Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/
Description: The original bundle site, though the real draw here is likely humble choice. a subscription service that gives you a handful of game every month. The good news is you can skip months whenever you want, and any games you get from choice are yours to keep regardless of subscription status.

Keep in mind the games features in choice are all over the place, both in terms of genre and quality. The narrower our gaming pallet, the less useful it is.

also has a loyalty program for it's store based on how long you've had humble choice without skipping months, and the store holds frequent sales.

The bad news is in my experience the sales prices aren't that great. It's rare for humble to be the best price even with the loyalty discount, and I'll often end up getting a better deal on another site. still, your milage may vary, and choice itself might be worth a look.

Gamersgate
Link: https://www.gamersgate.com/
Description: one of the older stores online. Nothing stand out in my experience though it can have good sales prices and frequently has coupons released to r/gamedeals which I linked above. It's not a place I check often but worth keeping in mind when bargain hunting.

Epic
Link: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/home
Description: I'm gonna be honest. I don't like Epic, I don't think people should use Epic. I think it's bad. The only reason it gets a spot here, is because they do give away at least 1 free game every week and if I don't mention that, people will keep pestering me about it so there ya go.

ModDB
link: https://www.moddb.com/
Description: A website hosting mods for pretty much any game you could imagine, if you want to get more life out of games you already own with some modding? Look them up here, see if there's anything worth a look.

Nexus mods
link: https://www.nexusmods.com/
Description: What I said for ModDB also goes here: a good place to check for mods for games you already own. Keep in mind downloading from them has free and premium versions and well as some nagging screen, this can make downloading larger mods or multi-mod compilations painfully slow and difficult if you don't want to pony up for premium.

Ok so... what do I do with this?

Basically, use the resources above to deal hunt, if you're in the market for a new game? Check stuff like r/gamedeals to see if any sales are up. Got a specific game in mind? Check around, maybe use isthereanydeal to see if there's a better price than what you're looking at. Want something new but don't want to spend money right now? Check the free games list or maybe hit up moddb, try modding a game you own already.