Bundlenomics Exposé, or, Where the Cheap Games At?

You may be wondering what in the world I'm doing here... but while I'm at it I may as well break down the bundle and game deal scene.  I suppose Steam goes without saying at this point - so let's get straight to bundles.  Disclaimer - I'm going to roughly organize these by tiers, you may disagree a little - that's fine!  I'm not religious about it.  This is more an exposition, that's all.

I could just save you some reading and tell you to bookmark http://isthereanydeal.com - though I'll get to that site later too.


Bundle Sites:

Tier 1: The Big Boys.

Humble Bundle: - https://www.humblebundle.com
Bundle Stars: - http://www.bundlestars.com


Tier 2: Indie hodgepodge, occasional gems.

Groupees: -  https://groupees.com
Indie Gala: - https://www.indiegala.com


Tier 3: Cheap bundles, but crap.


Daily Indie Game: - http://www.dailyindiegame.com
OtakuMaker: - http://www.otakumaker.com
Bunch of Keys: - http://www.bunchkeys.com
Cubic Bundle: - http://www.cubicbundle.com
Go Go Bundle: - http://www.gogobundle.com


Tier 3B: Varying Quality, have bundles "occasionally" instead of "always"

Lazy Guys Studio Bundle: - http://www.lazyguysbundle.com


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There is a family of products that was once talked about extensively here but is currently out of commission: Desura, Indie Royale, and Daily Royale. Desura was like a bad version of Steam for indie games. Indie Royale was a pretty decent bundle site by the same company. Daily Royale was where they would offer special deals occasionally. This company went bankrupt, and was bought by another that claims to be working on restoring the service. Stay tuned!

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Some things to know -  A Greenlight/Debut bundle means, that you're probably going to get either a drm-free download, because the game is currently in the Steam Greenlight process, and depending on what the developer has decided, you either will or won't get a Steam key after the game is approved on Steam.  

It's rare to see a bundle yield origin or uplay keys, but it can happen.  It's typical to get Steam Keys but you might also get DRM-free versions, Proprietary DRM versions, or GoG keys too, so just make sure you read things before you buy them.


Updated 29 May 2017

Okay, so that was bundle sites... more or less.  But there's more to scoring deals than bundle sites.  Some other spots to get some slick deals on games...

Nuuvem: - http://www.nuuvem.com - One of my favorites is Nuuvem... a Brazilian website.  They're quite legit, and they get some South American region pricing so you can often get a deal even when they're not trying to have a deal. Makes their sales extra sweet. So what's the catch?  Region locking! To use Nuuvem you used to have to go to www.nuuvem.com.br and use a translator, and convert prices from Brazilian money. They've since added an English site, realizing how many Americans were buying from them, but some publishers region lock and won't let Americans/Europeans buy games from Nuuvem. You might be able to get an even cheaper deal by using a vpn/proxy to make the site think you're in Brazil, but I wouldn't recommend it, because then you have to mess around with translations, make sure the game itself isn't region locked, and otherwise be real careful to make sure you don't wind up with a Steam violation.

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GreenManGaming: http://www.greenmangaming.com - Often some great deals, occasionally bundles, lots of sales... and you should never pay full price at this site either - it's where I preordered Ultra Street Fighter IV, for instance.  They just about always have some coupons floating around good for 15 - 20% off;  sometimes more during special events.  They often have the coupon right on their main site, and they mail them out to members. GMG purchases are primarily Steam Keys but not all Steam Keys, so just read and know what you're buying.

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Itch.io: http://www.itch.io - They've basically turned into the premier marketplace for indie gaming since Desura exploded.

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Those are probably my big three, but you can also find deals:

Gamersgate: http://www.gamersgate.com/offers - usually has a good selection of games on sale.  I only make the occasional purchase here, but then again, they carry a lot of the more popular titles that I'm not completely interested in.  Purchases here are usually Steam Keys but not always, so read what you're buying.

Good Old Games (GoG): http://www.gog.com - GoG is a DRM-free seller... you don't get Steam Keys or any other keys, instead you build your GoG library and you get access to fully functional downloads.  They even host a giveaway now and then - a lot of people got Witcher 2 for free a month or so back, for instance.  They also do a lot of revival of old games, packaging them in formats that make them work on newer systems.  A lot of their bundle sales are nice too, sometimes you can pick up series of old/classic games for cheap.

Newegg: newegg digital games link - Usually some nice deals to dig through, but their website is a bit of a pain.  They sell Steam games, Origin, Uplay, straight up downloads, and other stuff, so make sure you know what you're buying.

Amazon: amazon digital game deals link - A real clusterfuck if we're being honest, some absurdly low prices, some stupidly high prices, a lot of price-matches from other deal sites... they don't curate it very well but you can get some nice finds with some patience.  Make sure you know exactly what you're buying because they run the gamut, downloads, steam, origin, etc; never buy something with "DRM: SecuROM" or "DRM: TAGES" - just don't.  

GameStop: gamestop digital deals link - they actually have some decent download deals. Not the best organized, not all Steam, so read what you're buying, golden rule right?

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There are a couple stores tied to particular DRM platforms.  You know about Steam already so I'll skip that.

Origin: https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/ - I guess the nice thing about Origin is they give away a game once a month; and you need them for things like The (legal) Sims.  Origin usually have to use their proprietary client which honestly, isn't that bad, just not a robust community tool like Steam.

Ubisoft/Uplay: http://shop.ubi.com/store/ubina/en_US/home/ - And another one, UbiSoft wanted to play in the DRM platform game too.  Uplay kind of sucks but, what you gonna do.  

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Some other sites with some deals worth noting:

Humble Store: - https://www.humblebundle.com/store
Bundle Stars Store: - http://www.bundlestars.com/store/
Daily Royale: - http://www.dailyroyale.com
Gala Store: - https://www.indiegala.com/store
Indie Game Stand: - https://indiegamestand.com/deal/
FireFlower Games: - http://fireflowergames.com (drm-free like GoG, but ugly)
Chrono.gg - http://www.chrono.gg (coin gimmick to earn games)
DLH: - http://www.dlh.net/en/games (awful site but sometimes have giveaways)
DLGamer: - http://www.dlgamer.us
GamesRocket: - http://www.gamesrocket.com/dealrockets/
Square-Enix Digital Store: - http://store.na.square-enix.com/

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Technically there are even more out there, but enough's enough right?  Besides, how are you supposed to keep track of all this bullshit without wasting half your day?  Well...


updated 29 May 2017

Now here's how to keep track of all that crap.

http://isthereanydeal.com - Quite possibly the only one you need to check.  You can import your wishlists, set up watches and price/discount e-mail alerts for games you want, bundle alerts, all kinds of stuff, tell it how often you want e-mails about particular things... you really can't beat ITAD.  You can browse all of the deals right there, find the coupon codes, see what's new, filter by DRM (steam, origin, etc), by bundle sites, sort the list of deals with options such as "lowest historical price," see which store has the best deal on a particular game... never buy a game without looking it up in ITAD.

http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/new/ - The reddit gamedeals sub.  If there are new good game deals, they'll wind up being posted in the Reddit GameDeals.  I check once or twice a day, good spot to get feedback about a game you're thinking about, or on whether a bundle is worth it, etc.

http://www.epicbundle.com - Probably unnecessary if you use ITAD but, a lot of the new deals written about in blog format. A good place to find out about new giveaways too.  I like it.

http://www.steamgamesales.com - A straight up list/filter of the newest sales from a handful of the most popular sites, I don't use it since I discovered ITAD but, worth posting.

https://stacksocial.com - Sometimes deals on stuff tangentially related to gaming.

http://greenlightupdates.com - If you're interested, you can check when games get moved through Steam Greenlight, when steam keys get added for greenlit games from various bundles, that kind of thing. They also keep a list of "all active bundles" but I'm not sure how on top of keeping updated they are.

Updated 29 May 2017

CliffsNotes to all three of those posts:

Bookmark and use www.isthereanydeal.com

thank you

thanks!

Updated all this shit!

The cliffsnotes are still "bookmark and use www.isthereanydeal.com "

With an addendum of "check out www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/new "

By the way, find me on Steam:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/rhinestonejedi/

Hey, ever use Steamgifts? I won 3 games on my wishlist there.

Also, I recently used Steamtrades, and traded for 11 or 12 games on my wishlist with extra keys I had laying around.

You know, I've used steamtrades a few times! I should do a little more homework on both steamgifts and steamtrades so I can add them to the lists.

Yea, I was really nervous about Steamtrades! I would have hated to get scammed, but if you are smart and only deal with reputable people it seems pretty safe!

My trade page is:

https://www.steamtrades.com/trade/VCbqW/h-stuff-to-trade-w-wishlist-games-pp-offers-work-in-progress