New Steam Hardware

[BananaKing]

if ps+ wasn't required for online I'd drop it but then I'd buy a lot more games.  I sub to extra because the marginal difference between essential and extra makes the "free" games worth it to be.  but if I could simply own an an extra $130 of games a year I'd do that.

with my large backlog that $130 is my entire gaming budget most years.

Same here, I'd drop it if it weren't for online. But honestly I don't mind it too much, because I do get a lot of games, and I played and discovered a lot from the PS+ games. Also like i said the fact that it deters cheating on the system is a huge plus for me 

[BasilZero]

I've looked at humble from time to time and I wouldn't consider it good. 

cheap price maybe but on a collection of a bunch of games I would never want to play.  maybe 1 okay game but then the price isn't cheap enough for the one game.

humble is like the ps+ of PC.  I get hundreds of games for my $130 but only a handful are worth more than $0 for me.


also I buy my PSN and eshop money at a 15% discount which applies so anything I buy there.

I don't engage with key sites.  don't care how cheap they are I don't want to get a discount because of credit card fraud and identity theft or regional price abuse.

Humble is good if you are a Humble choice subber, for an example I bought Gundam Breaker 4 Ultimate Edition for $32 unlike on Steam where it was $40. I like the bundles in Humble and I'm open to playing any type of game as long as its not a MMO, MP oriented, MOBA, BR, etc. Thanks to getting bundles all these years , my Steam library is over 7,000.

GMG (GreenManGaming) always provides drastic discounts for pre-ordered games. Most of my Square Enix games are from there cause I pre-order those.

When Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade came out for the first time on PC it was $59.99 on Steam store but I pre-ordered it for $35 on GMG, no subscription at all. Same with Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece on PC - its still $100 MSRP on Steam but I bought it day 1 for $50 on GMG.

Fanatical is another place I buy Steam games individually and they usually offer better deals as well, on top of that you can use discount coupons from previous purchases on top of the discounted deal.

I buy my eshop cards from Costco when they go down to 20% so $80 for a $100 eshop card. I'm planning to do for PSN  when it goes on sale again for GTA 6 pre-order.


Key sites are good if you go to the legitimate ones, the one you may be referring to is the popular CDKeys (now known as Loaded) which I dont use because of what you mentioned.

All legitimate sites are listed as follow: https://isthereanydeal.com/shops/

Isthereanydeal is the best place to look for Sales for PC games - not just on Steam but across all stores, the above link shows all the legitimate authorized sites.

I've been using Humble (for mainly bundles and for the choice discount now), Fanatical (previously known as bundle stars) for bundles and individual games and GMG for pre-orders over a decade and havent had any issue - on top of that all of these sites use 2FA for additional security (and never ever save credit card data on any site or service - just basic IT Cybersecurity stuff).

[BasilZero]

Honestly I'm glad to pay PS+ essentials, get the free games, and avoid cheaters. This isn't something that's talked about a lot, but PC is riddled with cheaters, playing online is just not worth it.

I thought about getting PS+ for the free games but their basically rentals, only work as long you are subbed so thats a pass for me. (Also the fact that when you redeem the "Free" games, it blocks you from purchasing the game if you want to separately - unless they fixed that?). I just buy the classics I want individually like Tekken and Soulcalibur which got released.


Playing online overall whether free or paid isnt worth for me lol, so I never really used PS+ outside of a 1 month deal I got when I bought a PS4 years ago (and that was to try out the PS3 streaming which was okay but I played one of the worst First party games I could have played lol - Heavenly Sword).

[kitler53]

i think a library of 7000 just proves my point of how pointless humble is.  my psn is about 1000 these days and it is just too big.  my capacity to play games is about 10-15 a year.  7,000 games is 466 years of a gaming backlog.  you're just buying cover art to display in your steam app at this point..

[kitler53]

Key sites are good if you go to the legitimate ones, the one you may be referring to is the popular CDKeys (now known as Loaded) which I dont use because of what you mentioned.

for PC i know you're not wrong.   i don't really game on PC so it's not really worth my time to figure out the good from the bad.   i guess let me know if i'm wrong but for keys that work on psn i think all of them are bad sites.   i bought my ps+ sub from CDKeys once and then i found out about how they work and i refused to go back.   but if you actually know of a legit place to buy ps+ extra at a discount let me know.   i bought 3 years worth but run out in this january.   i was used to black friday deals being a think but sony has only done it for new subscribers for the last 2 years.  

[kitler53]

I buy my eshop cards from Costco when they go down to 20% so $80 for a $100 eshop card. I'm planning to do for PSN  when it goes on sale again for GTA 6 pre-order.

one of the most unsung heros of buying digital games.    i never by day-1 but for all of the complaints about $70 games if you fill you're wallet up from costco then a day-1 release is less than $60.   and i can apply that discount to any game at any time even on top of other sales.   i think on psn at least digital meets or beats physical most of the time as long as you shop the sales and don't buy at full price between sales.

nintendo games, however...

[kitler53]

Also the fact that when you redeem the "Free" games, it blocks you from purchasing the game if you want to separately - unless they fixed that?

i'd consider this fixed but also it depends on which store front you use:
- the mobile app does not allow you to buy games in your ps+ library
- the web site (PC browser) does allow you to buy games in your ps+ library
- the ps5 store does allow you to buy games in your ps+ library but they push you in the direction of the included versions so it's like an extra click to do it.


..i don't know about the store on ps4 specifically.  i haven't shopped there since i got a ps5 and i can't remember exactly how long ago they made this update.   it's been fixed for a long time though.