There's time in one's gaming life when one has to decide whether one should buy a game directly on Steam or an official third-party retailer. I normally would pick the latter as long as there is a decent price gap because, well, I have gotten so many games directly on Steam that at this point, I will never run out of Steam Points. Yes, the introduction of Steam Points in 2020 is the only reason why this is a dilemma to begin with. I have unlocked all of my Steam profile features using Steam Points and Valve is really, really slow in giving us more things to do with this clever but underdeveloped currency system.
I normally would end up getting games on official third-party retailers when the difference is $5 or more. But when the game itself is $30, well, it does give me pause sometimes because that's a lot of Steam Points. Then again, Steam Points are somewhat worthless for me these days. I do like using them to grant badges for reviews and screenshots that I like but outside of those and spending a whole bunch to unlock the seasonal badges, the points just sit there doing nothing. What can you do with that $5 you save? Well, these days, you can buy a decent game with $5. For one, the clones of the recent independent developer success Vampire Survivors, many of them ended up being highly playable, are less than $5. There are also those cheesy hidden object adventure games that always find themselves getting a discount week after week. $5 may not score you a decent McDonald's meal, but you can do a lot with it on Steam. A penny saved is a penny earned, that is until Valve notices this and ramps up the Steam Points store. I'm always going to go with savings above all else. Shouldn't you?
No comments:
Post a Comment