Let's find the best site for cheap keys together

[B1to]

Who's in?

[Cathulhu]

isthereanydeal.com
Won't get any better than that.
Unless you want to buy from scammers, frauds and thieves.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

I'm out.

1) I think third party key sellers parasite Valve by taking money but put nothing back into the community.
2) Virtually all my games have been bought on Steam. Others were giveaways here or were included with PC Gamer magazine. Zero ownership problems so far with any of them. The forums are full of people bemoaning that their games bought from third party merchants weren't valid.

S.x.

[Cathulhu]

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

Valve thinks differently. According to the Steamworks documentation, Valve actually supports publishers selling keys on different sites to gain exposure and to draw people into the Steam ecosystem.

Keep in mind that technically publishers are the owners of the Steam keys. They decide where they sell them.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

Valve thinks differently. According to the Steamworks documentation, Valve actually supports publishers selling keys on different sites to gain exposure and to draw people into the Steam ecosystem.

Keep in mind that technically publishers are the owners of the Steam keys. They decide where they sell them.

If other sellers provided a download service (I'll mention GOG honourably here) I wouldn't have an issue. I suspect the documentation may have been written before Steam reached its present market dominance.

S.x.

[Cathulhu]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

Why?
Steam offers game developers and publishers to generate Steam game keys.
They can in turn give those to authorized resellers.
If anything it's between the publisher and Steam, not the authorized store you're buying from.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Valve thinks differently. According to the Steamworks documentation, Valve actually supports publishers selling keys on different sites to gain exposure and to draw people into the Steam ecosystem.

Keep in mind that technically publishers are the owners of the Steam keys. They decide where they sell them.

If other sellers provided a download service (I'll mention GOG honourably here) I wouldn't have an issue. I suspect the documentation may have been written before Steam reached its present market dominance.

S.x.

GoG is a competing storefront, not comparable to keyseller sites. Keyseller sites are the digital equivalent of the local retail gamestore. Most keyseller sites sell keys for Steam, Epic, Uplay and Origin.

The documentation and Valves stance has always been the same. That even has been shown in the past year with the emergence of Epics store. Valve believes in freedom of choice, that's the one great thing about them. They will not limit what publishers can do in that regard.

Many indie games would never have gained expposure if those keyseller sites weren't there. Thanks to the bundles where they are in, they gain exposure. Which in the end is good for Steam, as it will draw more people into the Steam ecosystem.

[Washell]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

Customer acquisition and retention costs are a real thing. Losing out on some revenue, but gaining new customers forced to use Steam to register that key, and tying existing customers stronger to Steam by increasing the size of their library is a really sweet deal for Valve. Nobody is subsidising anything, valve is rather saving a ton of money on marketing. Have you ever seen an ad for Steam specifially? You can let this go.

[Destiny101]

Oke😛

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

1) Authorized resellers get their keys from the Publishers, just like Steam.

It's a personal bugbear of mine. I think third party sellers who sell games for download on Steam should have to pay for the service. Otherwise people who buy their games directly from Steam are subsidising those who don't.

S.x.

Steam could charge devs for making keys

They don’t

They don’t for a reason

[𝕙.𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤]

As a Steam agnostic I consult isthereanydeal and gg.deals before buying.

[reg1s7]

Originally posted by Washell:

Customer acquisition and retention costs are a real thing. Losing out on some revenue, but gaining new customers forced to use Steam to register that key, and tying existing customers stronger to Steam by increasing the size of their library is a really sweet deal for Valve. Nobody is subsidising anything, valve is rather saving a ton of money on marketing. Have you ever seen an ad for Steam specifially? You can let this go.

Good point.

[KalCuey]

Originally posted by Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Valve thinks differently. According to the Steamworks documentation, Valve actually supports publishers selling keys on different sites to gain exposure and to draw people into the Steam ecosystem.

Keep in mind that technically publishers are the owners of the Steam keys. They decide where they sell them.

If other sellers provided a download service (I'll mention GOG honourably here) I wouldn't have an issue. I suspect the documentation may have been written before Steam reached its present market dominance.

S.x.

are you kidding? if it had not been for a third party, i would not have been buying anything here. marvel, and then humble, got me here. marvel because they had something i wanted on sale here and then humble because of the bundles and acouple of games i like. had that not happened, i would hve continued to avoid this place. the idea is sound.