How do you get games for PC?

[KLiKzg]

Well, this is more of a confession but also a topic to work on. Maybe you can also teach me something new, but here is what I have learned.

Just to give you perspective, I own more then 6k games & almost 4k DLCs on Steam - proof is here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/KLiKzg
How did I do that?
Well:

• 451 games / DLCs were won on SteamGifts: https://www.steamgifts.com/user/KLiKzg
• 1794 trades were done on Barter.vg with 2543 games / DLCs received: https://barter.vg/u/3f74/
• Some of the rest were FREEware, for which I strongly suggest topic here (add it to watch list) : https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/free-games-thread.113782
  Also done some scripts to add FREE games to account on Steam.
  But also keep a track of topic, as it gives hints on weekly FREEware games on Epic, GOG Indiegala or Microsoft accounts.
• Rest of them were bought either on bundles, mostly Humble bundle or Fanatical.
  Or were bought on discounts (when ~80% or more), as I have large wishlist on Steam - some ~12k games / DLCs.
• For discounts I use site like IsThereAnyDeal: https://isthereanydeal.com/

Hope this helps some of you.


So what do we talk there?
Not deals, as those should be talked here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/current-sales-bundles-giveaways.125191/

Lets talk about the technicalities, strategies, technics, etc. Just exchange of knowledge!

 

[P4-630]

You could also add GMG https://www.greenmangaming.com/

 

[64K]

I have owned a good bit of games over the years on cartridge, cassette tape, 5.25 and 3.5 floppies and CDs but over many moves have somehow managed to lose all of them.

I don't own a huge amount of games now. Around 500 on Steam, 150 on GOG, 10 on Origin, 20 on EGS and 2 on MS Store. The games on Origin and MS Store were, at the time, the only way that I could get them digitally. 18 of the games on EGS were freebies and I've never played a single one of them so I stopped doing that years ago. Just about every game I own are AAA titles going back to the early 1990s and were bought around 75% off or more on big sales. I prefer to buy from Steam and GOG and the worst Store imo is the MS Store based on my experience. Occasionally a few games from abandonware sites and no pirated games since the late 1980s. Not a principle thing about piracy. It serves a purpose but I haven't needed to so I don't.

A quick guess at the number of games that I own and have yet to play would be around 150. I keep a running list for a long time on file of the games that I really want to play sometime and will buy which has around 1,000 entries going back to the early 2000s. More games get added yearly and I continue to buy more games every year on big sales.

 

[Vario]

I have found most people just play the same multiplayer games for years and years while continuously buying new singleplayer and niche multiplayer games, playing each for less than 2 hours (often less than 30 minutes), and going back to the familiar time sink. I've met people who have spent thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars on buying games they play for fewer than an hour. Then they guilt themselves with some backlog logic rather than just accepting its a sunk cost for impulse purchases and not remedying the impulse behavior in the future.

About 8 years ago I realized that Steam was doing this to me so I stopped buying games for this reason. I have to really want it because otherwise I'm probably just going to play the same 5 or so multiplayer games I've been rotating through over the last couple years. If I do impulse buy something, then play it for 30 mins and stop, I'll often just refund it at that point.

 

[droopyRO]

I like to own my games, so i usually choose GOG for my games, Steam, Origin or Uplay only for the games i can't buy on GOG.

As for my tastes, i play 95% of the time single player titles and the rest co-op when a friend or two have time to play togheter. 10-15 years ago i was in to Battlefield but as i grew older i feel the need to not interact with people, but i do enjoy a good story or gameplay.

 

[QuietBob]

I'm not fussy about where I get my games, though the majority of my collection is on GOG and Steam. I still have a few dozen physical releases, though no big boxes. I own games on all major distribution platforms, but since I only play one or two games at a time I don't need all the launchers running in the background.

If a game introduces a new technology/engine feature, I'll usually try it out by purchasing a one month pass, if available. I'll benchmark it and may end up purchasing it later during sales.

That said, I never pay full price for a game, unless it's a cheap indie release. I only buy new games when they are deeply discounted, and tend not to spend more than $10 on a single title. I don't mind waiting a few years until the game gets patched, and receives DLCs. Then I'll purchase a complete edition with all the released content, and all digital bonuses for it, like the soundtrack and art book.

Sadly, 99% of modern AAA releases just don't do it for me, and haven't done for a number of years. I'm having much more fun playing indie games and older titles, and discovering (or re-discovering) the classics. For this reason GOG is my go-to site, moreso since Steam retired official support for Win7.

Also, not being a competitive/community gamer, I have little interest in whatever the current popular BR/MMO is. The whole idea of game as a service just isn't my thing. And I will never support any game that has microtransactions. I usually play single-player games with a rich narrative which emphasize player's choice. I like titles that allow for multiple play styles, reward exploration and creativity, or use original mechanics.

 

[AleXXX666]

steam+torrent. Purchase only if interested/fan of game and "online" adds something. They could bring back good old DEMOs for people to check before buying. And I don't need all this "passes" BS.

 

[gffermari]

I have games on Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft Connect and GOG.
Most of the times I check the allkeyshop.com, compare the prices and buy accordingly.

I never download from torrent etc.

 

[harm9963]

CDkeys to buy ,mostly Steam , Epic, GOG .

 

[Sithaer]

I get my games where its the cheapest at the time of my interest or if they aint on a discount then I buy it from a key site. 'I do have STEAM since the launch of HL 2 but its just another launcher for me at the end of the day so meh I'm not bothered at all to buy games on the other ones if I have to like if its exclusive'
I've used to mostly torrent my games when I was younger but nowadays even when I do it its more like to 'demo' the game.

I also rarely buy games for full price maybe 1-2 times/year if there is something I'm really interested in or waited for years already for the game to be relased.

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

Lets talk about the technicalities, strategies, technics, etc. Just exchange of knowledge!

I fully read the terms & services of both Steam & G.O.G.
In the end I have stuck with G.O.G. I have about 80 games currently on G.O.G & I think about 26 or 27 are new raytracing games so far.
I prefer not to ever need to connect to the internet to install a game, so offline installers are must for me. So, this for me killed off A LOT of other PC gaming store platforms.

Since I devoted myself to being on G.O.G only. I went ahead & start making a list of newer games for G.O.G I wanted to try & play. I started with a raytracing game made up from the entries listed on a Pc gaming wiki which has helped a lot. Then I went split that up to DX12 games too. Then I later made a few other lists for some older technologies that I never got to use or try for games like PhysX, SL.I, crossfire, Nvidia 3D vision, & support for 3D Tv's.

If anyone's curious about G.O.G & new type games. G.O.G only has about 45 raytracing games on its store. Which sounds low, but it's around 20% of the amount raytracing games listed on a PC gaming wiki of the 211 raytracing total games.

 

[freeagent]

I quit using Torrent when the internet bill started to come in my name lol..

Nothing there for me anymore. I usually only buy games that are on sale. But I use Steam, Epic, EA, Ubi, GOG, pretty much all of them..

I don't recall seeing a PC game in store for probably at least a decade now. Heck the last one I bought in store made me install Steam so.. that was the end of that lol.

 

[P4-630]

How many DVD's in a pack would you get for any recent open world game to install lol...

 

[64K]

How many DVD's in a pack would you get for any recent open world game to install lol...

From what I hear just 1 and all it will have on it is a link to a download and a key. I'm not sure if they even put extras in PC boxed games anymore like a manual or maybe a poster or artwork. Not much point in buying boxed games anymore.

 

[P4-630]

I'm not sure if they even put extras in PC boxed games anymore like a manual or maybe a poster or artwork.

Miss that though.

 

[Sunny and 75]

GOG and Steam.

 

[jarablue]

gog, steam, ea app, game pass. I have a game pass sub which gives me ea play (not pro) for free. To me, game pass is worth the money for pc.

Other than that, I miss buying physical copies of games in the store. I think if they brought physical pc game boxes back with blu ray or dvds people would buy them. I like having something physical. I would buy a blu ray or dvd drive for my pc any day. I kind of miss it!

 

[azrael]

In the olden days I was into physical copies of my games. Especially, those special/collector's/deluxe versions.

These days it's (sadly) digital versions only. I mostly get them on Steam, but I also use GOG and Epic. I also have a few games on EA's and Ubisoft's services, but those are pretty much all free games I got one way or the other (hmm, I guess that goes for Epic as well).

Earlier, I just went after stuff like Steam sales, but the last couple of years I've availed myself of price search engines like AllKeyShop and GGdeals.

 

[Vayra86]

For new content my strategy is almost always to wait until feature complete, or until the 'dust has settled' after launch. I prefer the former, but the latter is useful for online games. I bought Helldivers 2 yesterday, on keysite at 28 euro. The pricing is better when I wait until feature complete. I've also sailed the high seas and still do, I'm an opportunistic consumer, so to speak.

For older content and any content I love, I want to have it in ownership, portable if possible and moddable. So even if I bought a game, I'll likely still have something of it DRM free.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Steam mostly, but a few on epic, and GOG

 

[natr0n]

Ahoy! I try then buy.

 

[P4-630]

Ahoy! I try then buy.

It usually is buy and then try (2 hours) though...

 

[natr0n]

It usually is buy and then try (2 hours) though...

Yeah that one.

 

[ty_ger]

Why own 6000 games if you never play them?
This seems way too time consuming to me.

 

[P4-630]

Why own 6000 games if you never play them?

I don't own 6000 though but I bought alot of games in the past, and many of them just started up and never really played..
That's why I stopped buying games for now.

I'm waiting for GTA6 PC.