# Winter Holiday Digital Distribution Sales **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 19, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844 "2015-12-19T10:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/1 "2015-12-19T10:45:07Z")
The winter holiday I refer to is, of course, Kwanzaa. Steam holiday sale starts on the 22nd. [Origin](https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/) is currently having theirs. Battlefield 4 premium for $20. Sims 4 for $20 plus DLCs 50% off (apparently a first). [Nuuvem](http://www.nuuvem.com/) is having theirs. It’s a Brazillian site, but it’s not sketchy - but a lot of the lowest priced games are region locked. It’ll tell you when you put in your cart. It looks like more stuff is region locked than there used to be. [Gamestop](http://www.gamestop.com/browse/games/pc?nav=28-xu0,138c-ffff2418-162) (used to be D2D) has some decent stuff. Skyrim legendary for $10. Battlefront for $40. Not related to any winter sale, but Insurgency is $2.25 on steam right now. It’s a really good game if you want authentic-feeling realistic modern combat. Definitely recommend it. I’ve been thinking about going back and playing Battlefield 4. I played in the months after it came out, but it was fairly broken then and I got burned out. But tons of people still play it, and they release a lot of content. At $20 the premium edition has everything and should be a great value for a shooter with an incredible amount of content. If you’re interested in getting a squad together to start playing (again), hit me up on steam. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/2 "2015-12-19T14:37:38Z")
Neither Steam nor GOG have gotten much money out of me this season. My plan of being immune to their pitches by going ahead and buying what I wanted already is really starting to pay off. Looks like I’ll still need to wait for Borderlands: The Pre-sequel to drop precipitously in price. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/3 "2015-12-21T21:08:45Z")
[Humble store sale](https://www.humblebundle.com/store) [D2D](https://www.direct2drive.com/#!/promotion/376) has a ubisoft sale going on. Amazon’s sales are always really hard to link to because they just have random bits and pieces at random times. I have no idea how the world’s biggest retailer is so awful at actually showing you the products you’re interested in. But notable: [Cities Skylines After Dark](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015RMHO18) is $6. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/4 "2015-12-21T22:24:17Z")
[Green Man Gaming](http://www.greenmangaming.com/winter-sale-page-1/), also not laid out especially well. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/5 "2015-12-22T01:05:26Z")
I may have asked this before, but I’d love some sort of cross-referencing site, where I can find the best-rated games, listed by descending rating order, under $10. Is there some site that concatenates sales and offers something like that? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/6 "2015-12-22T01:18:11Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > [Green Man Gaming](http://www.greenmangaming.com/winter-sale-page-1/), also not laid out especially well. Hmm, it says Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition for 11 bucks. It doesn’t say anything about it just being the upgrade to GOTY, but since the base non-GOTY SOM game is at $44 I don’t know. Or is that what the (NA) means? I’m not familiar with GMG. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/7 "2015-12-22T02:55:28Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Or is that what the (NA) means? I’m not familiar with GMG. NA means North America. GMG is located in the UK and sometimes has Europe-only games due to distribution deals, etc. If you buy and activate Mordor GOTY while owning the base game, you will get the GOTY content (and the “extra” base game goes poof). It’s not uncommon for a publisher to discount the GOTY version only since that’s what they’re tying to push – and it’s not as though they have actual stock of digital base keys they’re trying to sell. That is the full GOTY version of the game though. It’s been going on sale cheap at various places for quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/8 "2015-12-22T03:46:30Z")
Cool thanks. Downloading now, so I can spend break time over Christmas reminding myself how crappy I am at coordination games these days. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/9 "2015-12-22T18:46:54Z")
Steam sale is now live, but the site is completely overloaded. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/10 "2015-12-22T20:12:08Z")
Picked it up a few hours before the Steam sale went live, but I’m currently enjoying the hell out of [Aviary Attorney](http://store.steampowered.com/app/384630/). If you’ve ever played any of the Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney games on the DS, it’s roughly the same formula - a visual novel where you play as an attorney representing people who’ve been wrongly accused of murder. The difference is, rather than being set in the present day, it’s set in 1840s France, and the main characters are all anthropomorphized birds (along with other humanoid animals). It’s got a very Alice-in-Wonderland feel to it, especially with the black-and-white hand-drawn illustrations, it does a good job of emulating the Ace Attorney style, and actually manages to turn things on their head in a big way during the first case. If you like Ace Attorney, it’s worth taking a look at. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/11 "2015-12-22T20:55:22Z")
New [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/): Pay a buck for: The Last Remnant Life is Strange Chapter 1 Murdered: Soul Suspect Tomb Raider 1, 2 & 3 Beat the average (currently $3.99) to add: Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn (MMORPG w/ sub fee) Just Cause 1 & 2 Front Mission Evolved Gyromancer Yosumin Games To Be Announced Pay $9 to also add: Lara Croft & Temple of Osiris Tomb Raider 2013 GOTY Hitman: Absolution Elite Edition ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/12 "2015-12-22T21:07:51Z")
Meh. Because of the format of the sale, they had most of this same stuff at the same price for the black friday sale. On my wishlist of 100ish games, I think only 2 were lower price than they were then. In previous years, the black friday sale would just whet your appetite for the Christmas sale, but this year it seemed to be about 90% of it. And going away from daily/flash sales takes away the excitement that something you want might be lower one day. This is all there is, and the prices of stuff on my wishlist do not excite me. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/13 "2015-12-22T21:09:55Z")
Yeah, I have two games on my wishlist that are 50% off, the rest are worse than that (or not on sale at all). No dailies or flashes means the sale is effectively over for me fifteen minutes after it started. Yeah, yeah… if you’ve never bought a game before in your life then it’s awesome, etc but the days of “Oh my, Lord GabeN will have my wallet!” are over. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/14 "2015-12-22T21:23:09Z")
I think the previous cries of “this sale sucks, nothing good is on sale!” were BS simply because almost everyone had bought the stuff they want in previous sales, so of course the sale doesn’t look as good to you when you already own most of what you’re interested in. But I think this sale actually is legitimately disappointing to me. It’s barely more than a repeat of the black friday sale, the lack of daily sales seem to have taken excitement out of it, and prices seem relatively higher to me than I would expect. I wonder if the change in sale format has caused the discount percentages to get worse. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/15 "2015-12-22T22:20:22Z")
Speculating: I wonder if the flash/daily sale system in the past convinced publishers they could have a temporary steep discount on their game to raise awareness of it - and then the sudden influx of new players / word of mouth / etc. drove up their sales for the rest of steam sale at the discounted-but-not-daily price. So maybe their $20 game would be $5 for a daily sale, and then $10 for the rest of the sale, and the people who were willing to try it at $5 brought in more sales at the $10 point. But now without that part of the cycle, they just price them at $8 (or 10) and call it a day. Or they might think there’s a risk of de-valuing the perceived value of their game by holding it at $5 the entire sale, but allowing it to do so for a temporary/special/flash sale was acceptable. Just thinking out loud, wondering if the “things aren’t as cheap as they used to be” observation is actually true. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/16 "2015-12-22T22:36:55Z")
Skyrim expansions are cheap on amazon if you need them: > **[Amazon.com: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Hearthfire \[Online Game Code\] :...](https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Hearthfire-Online/dp/B00GXHJJ10)** > > Buy The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Hearthfire \[Online Game Code\]: Read Everything Else Reviews - Amazon.com > **[Amazon.com: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Dragonborn \[Online Game Code\] :...](https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Dragonborn-Online/dp/B00GXHJJWE)** > > Buy The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Dragonborn \[Online Game Code\]: Read Video Games Reviews - Amazon.com > **[Amazon.com: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Dawnguard \[Online Game Code\] :...](https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Dawnguard-Online/dp/B00GXHJI84)** > > Buy The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC: Dawnguard \[Online Game Code\]: Read Video Games Reviews - Amazon.com Steam keys. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/17 "2015-12-22T23:13:58Z")
I thought by now I’d be picking up Arkham Origins for $5-10 with complete DLC packages like I did with the previous games. But it looks like the main game is $5 and there is no complete game package. Some people who bought the $20 Season Pass apparently didn’t get the DLC that is supposed to come with it. There will a lot of games I’ll never end up buying if the industry all goes to never offering one-price-nothing-else-to-buy editions. I put up with after-GOTY-DLC from Borderlands, but I’d have never gotten interested in the franchise if that had been the deal to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/18 "2015-12-22T23:47:07Z")
Battlefield 4 seems pretty dope now that I have a PC upgrade. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/19 "2015-12-23T00:11:02Z")
Is Greenman Gaming okay? Googling around there’s some controversy saying their keys aren’t legitimate. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/20 "2015-12-23T00:46:35Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Is Greenman Gaming okay? Googling around there’s some controversy saying their keys aren’t legitimate. I’ve used them a bunch without incident. There was some kerfluffle with GOG about them reselling Witcher 3 keys from a third party but that’s nothing I really care about so long as the keys work. They are an authorized reseller for a number of publishers, unlike the real grey market key-seller sites. A lot more credible than, say, G2A. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844.md?page=2)