How to Get the Best Deals on PC Games

As a student on a limited budget, finding the best game deals is important to me and I've noticed many of my friends frequently surprised at what I view as fairly routine price checking. This article is meant to help you find better deals on games, however please note it is written from a PC-centric viewpoint and might not be as helpful for console or physical game deals.

Alternative Storefronts

Steam is an excellent source for games and hosts great deals throughout the year, but no-longer has the monopoly on the best prices it used to have.

Humble Bundle

While it's somewhat-recent sale to PC Gamer has left the future quality of bundles and deals in question, there are still many solid deals to be found and they're quite legitimate. Humble Choice (Monthly) is also a subscription service worth considering, however the overall quality of games each month can vary by taste and overall quality.

Epic Games Store

Many strong feelings have been directed at Epic Games for creating their own storefront and launcher, however more competition in the market can only be a good thing. Frequently offering free games and deep discounts, it is an excellent source for the limited selection of games on their store and for some, the only source.

Amazon/Twitch Prime

Strictly speaking not a storefront, Prime does offer montly free games and other free goodies for numerous games such as League of Legends and Rocket League. While probably not worth it just for these, if you already have a subscription or want some of the other perks, it's certainly worth taking advantage of. Be sure to check if you're eligable for the student discount as well!

Price Comparison Sites

gg.deals

gg.deals is a newer deals website that searches official and grey market websites for deals on digital games. This includes support for Steam, Origin and uPlay keys and clearly designates between official retailers and less official sources. It also handily supports email notification for new deals and an import for your wishlist so you can be notified when any of your wishlist is on sale.

This is certainly my first and primary choice and has replaced isthereanydeal.com for me.

IsThereAnyDeal

One of the original price comparision websites for games, it has basically all of the features of gg.deals but with an older, less modern layout. There does appear to be a newer version in-development as well, so in the future this may be more appealing.

Honestly though, gg.deals is just plain easier to use and less confusing. Your results may vary however.

Reddit

Reddit has a heavily moderated list of game deals that frequently catches price errors and low-stock game sales before they vanish. If you keep a close eye, you can often get excellent deals before legit sellers run out of stock and with the heavy moderation, deals are fairly reliable. Additionally console and physical game sales are posted here.

Also worth checking daily, I keep a close eye here for anything that gets past my wishlist and might be flying under the radar.

Pre-orders

So I don't encourage pre-ordering video games, but it'd be incomplete if I didn't note that you 'can' get a discount from pre-ordering. Having said that, it's usually not worth it as the same deal can often be found within a month after release.

Time

The best deal of all. Most games rapidly drop in value once released and even triple-A titles are over 50% off within months of release. It's a very simple model that assumes those who can purchase a game will do so on launch, but if you're patient and can wait even just a month, you can usually get at least 10-20% off full retail price. There's even a community dedicated to this on Reddit called Patient Gamers which is absolutely worth a read.