This Steam hack has saved me a ton of cash on PC video games

Desk of Contents

Desk of Contents

The hack

An odd advice engine

I absorb a large Steam library, and like most PC players I do know, I’m all the time trying to add to it. Will I really play the video games? Perhaps. Will I full all of them? Actually not. However I’m caught in a adverse suggestions loop of choosing up novel video games continuously for pennies on the greenback, and Steam is feeding my habit greater than ever earlier than.

How? With Steam bundles. Steam bundles aren’t something novel, however I’ve seen a stark uptick in them during the last a number of months. They principally revolve round equally styled indie titles, providing a small low cost of round 10% when you purchase two or three video games in bulk. That’s not why I’ve taken benefit of Steam bundles so usually over the previous a number of months, although.

The hack

Jacob Roach / Digital Developments

Right here’s what’s mighty about Steam bundles — you don’t must purchase each sport within the bundle. Or, on the very least, you don’t must re-buy each sport. Steam takes into consideration video games you already personal while you study at a bundle, and also you’ll come by a reduced value on high of the video games you already personal.

Collect your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming

Let me offer you an instance. Final evening, I picked up the Castlevania Dominus Assortment for a little bit of vampire castle-crawling on an upcoming journey I’m taking. The sport is on sale on the time of writing for 20% off, knocking the $25 record value right down to $20. I picked up the gathering for $18, nevertheless.  The Dominus x Lifeless Cell bundle contains Lifeless Cells, the Return to Castlevania DLC for the sport, and the Dominus Assortment. I already owned Lifeless Cells and its DLC, so I bought a straight low cost on the Dominus Assortment. 

It’s solely $2 right here, however wait, it will get higher. You’ll usually discover video games which might be a piece of a number of completely different bundles, permitting you to double dip on reductions. A terrific instance of that’s Selaco. In the event you’re unfamiliar, Selaco is a first-person shooter in early entry that’s constructed on the authentic Doom engine. No, it doesn’t play like Doom, however it has that simple retro really feel that I’ve but to see completely replicated within the deluge of “boomer shooters” accessible on Steam.

This one sport is in three completely different bundles. You possibly can choose it up bundled with Echo Level Nova, Mullet Madjack, and the current Fallen Aces. I picked up one sport, and immediately, I used to be capable of come by reductions on a handful of different associated video games. You don’t must purchase the sport via Steam, both. So long as the sport is in your library, you’ll come by the low cost. Mix that with third-party key sellers and a revolving door of offers on video games, and you’ll be able to save fast a little bit of cash.

An odd advice engine

Jacob Roach / Digital Developments

The bundles on Steam absorb turned me onto novel video games, too. I by no means would’ve came upon about Echo Level Nova had it not been for the Selaco bundle, and I’d’ve fully missed probably the most creative first-person shooters I’ve performed up to now decade. Perhaps I’d’ve found the sport by myself, and I may’ve even purchased it. However being pushed to think about a novel sport and getting a strong low cost on high of it? That seals the deal rapidly.

I’ve discovered bundles extra persistently with indie video games, however some bigger titles come by bundled up, as properly. For example, there’s a bundle with Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 5 Royal, which you’ll be able to, once more, come by on a reduction while you personal both sport. Each of those video games are on sale on the time of writing, too, which is factored into the general low cost you come by. That’s a reasonable method to choose up among the best video games of 2024.

The primary draw back is that there isn’t a simple method to see what bundles are accessible on Steam. Typically they’re listed alongside a sport included in a selected bundle, however different instances they aren’t. For example, you will discover the Mullet Madjack and Fallen Aces bundle with Selaco, however not the Echo Level Nova one. You possibly can simply search “bundle” on Steam, however that returns hundreds of irrelevant outcomes. I wouldn’t suggest it.

If you must support an eye fixed on bundles, right here’s what’s labored greatest for me. I liberally add video games to my Steam wishlist, even when I’m solely remotely eager about taking part in a few of them. The wishlist on Steam exhibits you the bottom value accessible for a selected sport, so if that sport is piece of a bundle when you’ll be able to come by a reduction primarily based in your present Steam library, you’ll see that lower cost. That’s how I came upon in regards to the low cost on the Castlevania Dominus Assortment in the primary plot.

Bundles for PC video games aren’t something novel, and Steam itself has been doing them for years. Nonetheless, there’s been a transparent uptick in bundles for high-quality video games, significantly targeted on related publishers and builders. For example, developer Movement Twin has a bundle the place you’ll be able to choose up its novel Windblown sport at a reduction when you already personal Lifeless Cells (the developer’s first sport). These odds and ends add up rapidly, they usually’ve constructed my Steam library massively up to now few months.