How to save money on PC Games during the Cost of Living Crisis
Last Updated on: 25th February 2023, 10:43 pm
The cost of living crisis is driving up prices for almost anything right now, so it seems like a good time to talk about how to save money on PC games.
While the cost of the living crisis itself might be a largely UK-specific term, gaming and keeping up with the latest tech trends tend to be expensive everywhere at the best of times, so while the essentials you need to live are getting more expensive, finding ways to cut down prices in your fun-focused spending, such as gaming, can be very helpful over the long term.
To address the obvious; you can of course always save money on PC games by buying fewer or no games at all, which is a valid course of action if you can cut the hobby out easily, or if you’re truly struggling at the moment. If gaming is your main source of entertainment and how you relax though, that’s unlikely to be a healthy decision in the long run for you, so only you can make that decision for yourself.
How you can save money on PC Games during the Cost of Living Crisis
This article was originally going to be termed as saving money on games in general, but as my personal experience is largely based on PC gaming at this point, my advice on how to save money on games will have more insight into that than for Console gamers, and I have adjusted accordingly.
You might still get some use out of it as a console gamer regardless, it is simply most likely to be of value to those also playing on PC. For obvious reasons, a Steam sale won’t benefit the typical console player – though different storefronts often run sales at the same time to compete with each other, so keeping an eye on Steam sales can tip you off as to what might go on sale for the Xbox Series consoles or PS5 and when to expect a new sale.
One point to start off with is a fairly obvious one, you should pretty much never be buying at full price if your goal is to save money on PC games. Whether you want to buy a game at launch or one that has been out for a while, there’s almost always a way to cut the cost down by at least a small fraction available.
READ MORE: Steam announces new cap for game discounts
Tackling the big one first, if you absolutely must have a game on launch – which as far as saving money in gaming goes, I do not recommend – there are a few potential discounts you may be able to take advantage of. Some games releases will offer a small launch day or week discount on store platforms like Steam to build a strong starting sales point for their new release. Other titles will also offer a 10% to 20% price cut to players with the game on their wishlist, as a way to help them convert pre-release hype into sales more reliably.
These same major Storefronts; Steam, Origin and others have one more thing you should be well aware of. They frequently have some of the worst prices on games generally, though seasonal and limited-time sales can make them quite competitive with at least the majority of retailers.
Steam client game refunds
This is more an FYI than advice, but it’s worth being aware of the refund policy of your platform of choice as another tool to save money on PC games. Steam for example offers a very good refund policy. If you have played less than 2 hours of a game you bought in the last two weeks, you can refund it for the full price you paid. The pace is quick, and no other questions are typically asked.
There are no conditions beyond having played less than two hours and purchased in the last two weeks. While Steam maintains that you shouldn’t use this to try games, if you’re on the fence about a game, it could be worth paying slightly more getting the game on Steam natively so that you have that guaranteed refund option if it turns out to not be your thing.
As far as pricing goes though, if you exclusively buy games via Steam, you are almost certainly losing out. Unless you really value those Steam points, anyway – as you are effectively being charged extra for them. With that in mind, let’s go through other options you might be missing out on to save money on PC games.
READ MORE: Steam: How to access the Steam Points Shop
Price compare tools for Gaming
One thing I have been making heavy use of for a long time, and even more so during the cost of living crisis – IsThereAnyDeal. While a number of such services exist, IsThereAnyDeal is an excellent example of a simple way you can save money on PC games, or at the absolute least make sure Steam is actually offering the best deal if you’re reluctant to visit other online stores.
Simply search for a game name you’re interested in, and you have a far better starting point than you would with just using Steam.
As an example, if I had decided to grab a copy of Monster Hunter World during the Steam 2022 Halloween sale, I would still be paying full price despite the sale. Checking ITAD reveals that the same game was available at over 50% off on at least 3 different websites. That’s quite the difference during a cost of living crisis.
Monster Hunter World has had several years since its launch date at the time I’m writing this, so it having a few fairly random sales happening online at any given time isn’t terribly surprising. It’s actually fairly normal at that stage for PC games.
However, if you just browse Steam for your game purchases, you’d never know that, because it was full price there despite the holiday sales across a solid portion of the store.
Be aware that ITAD isn’t a flawless service itself too. It can’t detect any additional discounts you might be owed on certain storefronts personally, so you’ll have to factor those in yourself. For example, Long-term Humble Choice subscribers will benefit from a bonus discount of up to 20%, which can make Humble store’s prices extremely competitive with most if not all other gaming retail websites.
There are differences to be aware of when you buy games for Steam outside of the Steam client though. If you aren’t integrating your Steam account with the website, the games cannot be automatically added to your account. Instead, you’ll most often be given a key to redeem on Steam for game access. Additionally, refunds are usually impossible to obtain once the key has been revealed to you due to its one-use nature.
Steam Keys; What are they, and how can they help you?
Steam Keys, or Steam codes – however you prefer to refer to them – and the equivalent for other PC platforms such as GoG, Origin and EPIC are typically strings of a preset length consisting of seemingly random digits. They are the method through which online gaming platforms such as Steam allow external market retailers to exist without them having direct steam integration.
Effectively, you buy these codes from Non-Steam stores as you would any other item, and they are usually available to you instantly. Then you take the code to Steam, or whichever platform is relevant for what you’ve bought, they’ll take the code from you, invalidate it to prevent re-use, and add the game (or other product) to your account in exchange.
Not sure how to use a Steam key? Don’t let Steam charge you extra because of that, check out our guide on redeeming Steam keys instead and cash in on online storefront discounts. Incidentally, these are usually the way people handle PC game giveaways, such as those found on Indiegala, or the more casual giveaways I do on Twitter occasionally. Nothing will save money on PC games quite as much as getting them for free.
Game bundles and secondary markets
Some of the online retailers briefly touched on earlier such as Humble Bundle and Fanatical frequently bundle together games at a heavily discounted price, allowing you to pick up a number of Steam games at once by using Steam keys. The Humble Bundle Choice program is a perfect example of this, and updates on a monthly basis.
The catch with these is that very often, game bundles have set content and will feature at least some things you probably don’t want. That doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile though. Humble Choice in January 2023 featured Doom Eternal as the headline game, and the subscription for a month costs £8.99 / $11.99.
If we ignore the other seven games included, that still beats the hell out of the Steams non-sale price for the standard edition of Doom Eternal, which is about 4 times higher. If you only wanted that one item, this might not ultimately be the best sale Doom Eternal ever gets, but it is a damn good one – when you then consider the extra seven games that come with it effectively for free, it’s easy to see the value of the bundle.
Of course, sometimes you don’t want any other games. While sites like Humble don’t approve of it (and may restrict purchases accordingly), many in that situation take to secondary market sites such as eBay, selling what they have spare to help cover the original bundle costs. If you only want one thing in the bundle yourself, checking these websites for other people selling that one key may save you that bit extra.
Just make sure you check review ratings for sellers if you use sites like this, as there’s no guarantee the key is valid and unused until you try it yourself. There are reputable, honest sellers just trying to make a bit of money or cut their own costs, but there are also plenty of people who’ll happily scam others, and eBay or other sites rarely have fully fledged policies for how to handle disputes involving a one-time use digital good they cannot regulate or verify.
READ MORE: Steam: What is the highest player count a game has ever had?
eBay is also a good example of a nice place to cut costs on both digital and physical games – if you’re looking for a way to save on Switch games for example, you can search for pre-owned or ‘cart only’ copies that come without the box, which can drag the cost down 10% or so alone. This approach is not as recommended for disc-based games, as they are far more likely to be snapped in delivery than a cartridge for the Switch.
Both eBay and dedicated online game storefronts such as Fanatical also feature mystery game key bundles – though I personally do not recommend these, as the blind aspect can mean that you get way more filler junk games than you’d otherwise be willing to pay for. If you do try one and find that the Steam keys you got were absolute trash, you can remove games from your account, luckily enough.
Why would you spend any money on Games during the Cost of Living Crisis?
I mentioned this right back at the start, but you can just buy fewer, or no games at all to save money if your finances are that desperate. This is a very obvious option and one you can take advantage of if gaming isn’t a big deal for you. This is also the obvious blunt-force solution that can be applied to virtually any form of fun or entertainment when money is an issue. Still, it’s worth remembering that Gaming can be anything from a way to kill time for some, to the main hobby of others, and perhaps a lifeline for some people who are struggling still.
Hobbies can be many different things for many different people, a fact that is often forgotten when it comes down to the brutal statistics of budgeting advice. There are certainly plenty who use their hobbies to keep them going when life is otherwise grinding them down though, but like other hobbies, games can be both beneficial and negative to you.
The truth of it is if gaming is a healthy hobby that helps you, then cutting spending to zero isn’t a great idea either and may just add even more stress to your life – which is the last thing anyone needs at the moment.
It’s up to you to decide whether gaming is a healthy component of your life or something you can cut back or entirely on, and only you can make that call. Either way, I hope that some of the advice above will help you save money on PC games, or games more generally, and make the hobby that bit more affordable an option, or just help make ends meet in these trying times.
