tl;dr: key shops… use https://gg.deals as a finder
For those who didn’t know, whenever Humble Bundle or other services have a package available, you can usually find the individual titles for even cheaper than you normally would at keyshops if you don’t want/need the whole package.
For example, this month’s Humble Choice is $11.99, but I only wanted to add Aragami 2, The Red Lantern, and Twin Mirror to my collection.
Using the above gg.deals website, it pointed me to:
- Aragami 2 - driffle - $2.41
- The Red Lantern - kinguin - $0.78
- Twin Mirror - kinguin - $1.27
Total: $4.46
Those prices were the final I paid after discount codes and service fees, but may change at any time for better or worse at different shops.
Hope this is helpful to someone, this concludes this PSA.
edit: regarding possible scams from gray markets
I have purchased literally hundreds of steam keys from such shops over the years and have had a grand total of only 3 keys be removed from my account within days or weeks, and was granted refunds from the shops when I provided proof from Steam that the keys were rejected as duplicates. Every game I’ve installed other than those 3 have worked without issues. It’s an educated risk that I failed to mention because it’s been over 99% successful for me. Make your own call.
edit2: Also worth mentioning that there are many games in my Steam account that were added after the games were delisted, such as the original GTA Trilogy, solely because I could still find keys on keyshops. If you want a delisted game, it’s worth considering.
I’m for piracy when the ones being hurt are massive companies who can cover it by lowering their quarterly bonus .5%. I’m not for knowing your neighbors bike was stolen and then buying one “just like it” from a pawn shop at a steal.
This isn’t about feeling superior, this is about having empathy for the people whose money was stolen and frustration that this business model is profitable because of people who support it.
Do what you’re going to do, but folks reading this thread deserve to understand the moral implications of taking part in this.
Ok then, everyone is informed about things you cannot verify as true per key, and that you support piracy when it screws the right entity with employees, so you’re a model of selective morality.
Like he said, do as you will, everyone.
edit: honestly, I love the usual “it’s ok to screw gaming corporations” angle, when if you had a sense of morality worth talking about, you’d advocate zero piracy and that everyone should wait until games were something like 1/2 price or bargain bin, because at least then the corporations may reverse course on raising prices, and maybe not lay off so many workers. But when you say it’s fine to pirate that, you’re possibly contributing to those massive layoffs, regardless of how much money the company still has, because such decisions are determined by performance metrics. Like I said, model of selective morality.
Every individual stolen key does massive harm.
They didn’t say piracy is good. They said piracy is (by a massive amount) less malicious and less harmful than buying from fences for stolen keys like all the disgusting sites you’re promoting.
Rage on, it’s entertaining at this point.
That is selectively supporting piracy, like it or not.
And to be clear, the only site I actually promoted and linked to is gg.deals, where you can compare the prices at regular storefronts in one place, not just for keyshops. Where I got my keys were mentioned but not linked. As said before, options for every moral stance.
Been on the Internet for a while. 100% of people who say this are not entertained and are really saying this to stroke a badly bruised ego. OP, it’s clear to me that you got your ego damaged when people poked holes in your plan to make less money by buying things from shady sites. I hope after your sleep you come back to engage in a healthy manner without constantly trying to act morally superior or at least uncaring about real moral grey areas. Supporting these sites negatively affects real people.
They interpreted it better than I said it. Who’s acting superior now? This is clearly a real sore spot for you. I don’t pirate but I also don’t go around telling people how immoral it is to pirate. Plus piracy is part of the business model for some companies and it’s how we went from cable to streaming (although thats getting all fucked up again).
So yes I have much less moral problem with piracy. But like I said I didn’t come here to get all morally superior, I spoke up because you clearly didn’t understand the nature of the harm you are doing since you took the wrong message away that someone was warning about being scammed by these companies.
I don’t actually care about the morality of pirating, I said that bit to point out the total hypocrisy you have on display. It’s not a sore spot for me at all, I have no problem doing it, the same way I have no problem buying hundreds of games directly from Steam and GOG, or hundreds more from keyshops. You’re the one actually complaining about morality, you made it specifically clear you wanted everyone to know such implications.
Honestly, totally amazing that needed to be explained to you.
It’s almost 3am here, so I’m cutting off this nonsense now for something more productive. Sleep.