# 2018 Winter Digital Distribution Sales
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [December 14, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092 "2018-12-14T01:27:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/1 "2018-12-14T01:27:22Z")
The [good old games](https://www.gog.com/) winter sale has begun, the first of the bunch. They’re offering some old games for free every few days, so check in on that.
Everyone will be having a sale soon enough. The steam sale usually starts around the 22nd. I figured I’d create this thread for people who had questions or recommendations.
Semi-related, the [humble monhtly bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly) can be bought for a year for $99, which is a pretty good deal ($8/mo). To get an idea of the sort of games you get out of that, here’s a not quite recent [list](https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/wNJiK/humble-bundle-monthly-master-list) of the monthly bundles in the past.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2018, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/2 "2018-12-14T05:01:21Z")
thanks much although I do miss the gonzo insomnia sale………
is it bad tho that I own 90 percent of the pre 2005 classics?
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2018, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/3 "2018-12-16T09:11:19Z")
[Fanatical](https://www.fanatical.com/) is also a few days into their winter sale.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/4 "2018-12-18T19:32:08Z")
[Greenmangaming](https://www.greenmangaming.com/) started their sale.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/5 "2018-12-20T23:23:07Z")
Steam and [battle.net](http://battle.net) both started their sales today.
Steam is of course using their post-refund format for sales again unfortunately.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/6 "2018-12-21T01:57:35Z")
Not really starting with a bang for any of them anymore. It used to be a great time to get games just because they were so damn cheap, especially at the beginning and the end, but from what I can see today on the ones I have been keeping an eye on, I don’t see anything at a new lower price, let alone an amazing one. Most just seem to be every game is matching a previous sale price, and not necessarily the lowest one I’ve seen.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/7 "2018-12-21T02:10:41Z")
Yeah, the steam sales have been objectively bad (relative to how they used to be) starting in 2015. When they started issuing refunds, they decided to stop using the flash sale format, probably correctly predicting that people would buy a game on sale immediately, see it go on an even steeper discount on a subsequent day, and then refund it and buy it again, which is a hassle and financial burden for them.
Of course there were other solutions they could’ve applied to that situation, like not being able to re-buy a game you just refunded for a certain period of time or whatever.
But it used to be that, at the very least, you could count on the winter sale to match the best price you’ve ever seen for that game, and usually you get a new best price. But that’s not even true anymore - there are lots of games I bought for $5 years ago that are $10 or $15 now. In general, there were a lot more “eh what the hell, it’s $5” games than there are now.
We’ve got other ways of getting games cheap like humble bundles, humble monthly, steam competitors, etc. so it’s not all bad, but steam sales are just flat out worse than they used to be.
Which, personally, may be for the best - I have over 1000 games that I mostly got at very low price, and raising prices has curbed my impulse buying a lot. Now I tend to only buy humble bundles, the humble monthly, and occasionally games I’m really interested in on steam.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/8 "2018-12-21T02:27:18Z")
I miss old Steam sales so much.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/9 "2018-12-21T02:52:02Z")
Looks like the GOG games are not free but “free”, you unlock them when you spend money on other games. Right?
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/10 "2018-12-21T03:26:35Z")
Not that it’ll make the prices cheaper but you can go to [https://steamdb.info/sales/](https://steamdb.info/sales/) and then set it to hide anything you own (after to connect to Steam) and a number of options like only showing new discounts, price ranges, etc. Plus it color codes all time best or discounts matching all time best. Much more useful than Steam’s own terrible listings for sale items.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2018, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/11 "2018-12-22T02:54:25Z")
Finally got XCom 2 expansion: with Green Man Game’s GMG12 code and a big sale, it’s down to $15 and change, the lowest I’ve seen it. This may be my only purchase this go-round.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/12 "2019-01-01T00:14:32Z")
Damn, there is just nothing to any of these sales anymore. I have only seen one price that even made me think twice, and that second thought didn’t take very long to turn into a no.
Unless they pull out some serious discounts, It’s gonna be time to stop even bothering with these things at all.
Well, the money not spent can be better put into a humble subscription I’m almost 100% thinking now.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2019, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/13 "2019-01-26T04:45:01Z")
Origin is having a Winter Action Sale until Tuesday, 10 AM Pacific.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/14 "2019-03-13T20:15:30Z")
Okami HD is only $8.99 on Fanatical right now. Was 85% sold out when I got it. Coupons do not work, but that is a historical low.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/15 "2019-03-13T21:18:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Okami HD is only $8.99 on Fanatical right now. Was 85% sold out when I got it. Coupons do not work, but that is a historical low.
You have it backward, it was 85% **left** when you bought it, because there is 80% left at this moment.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2018-winter-digital-distribution-sales/826092/16 "2019-03-13T22:52:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> You have it backward, it was 85% **left** when you bought it, because there is 80% left at this moment.
Oh, cool. Thanks.