I know Steam is the most famous of the digital distribution services, and it has an assortment of sales going on at pretty much all times of the year. But there are also other sites where you can get pretty nice deals on games.

Direct download services that I know about:

• Desura (DRM-agnostic?)
• Direct2Drive
• GamersGate (many games have no DRM but some do)
• Good Old Games (all games DRM-free (I think), often comes with goodies)
• Humble Indie Bundle (all games DRM-free, mostly cross-platform, often redeemable on Steam and Desura, sometimes come with goodies)
• Indie Gala (serial keys redeemed on Steam)
• Indie Royale (all games DRM-free?, mostly cross-platform, often redeemable on Steam and Desura, sometimes comes with goodies)
• Impulse
• Steam (uses a wrapper, rarely(?) has other DRM)

Suggest more and I can edit this post to include them in this list, but feel free to post good deals from anywhere.

The point of this thread is to post deals you find interesting and worthy. So, without further adieu, let's start!

GamersGate:

• Recettear $6.78
• Chantelise $3.38

Did you miss the Steam sale on these EasyGameStation / Carpe Fulgur titles? They're still pretty cheap here, cheaper than on Steam ($9.99 and $4.99 respectively). Prices last until 9 Jan

• Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII double pack $1.02
• Thief: Deadly Shadows $8.99 (Steam $13.99) until 2 Jan
• Magicka $3.40 until 8 AM 26 Dec (Steal $3.99 until 2 Jan)

Good Old Games: a sale for half off pretty much everything, until 2 Jan

• Fallout $2.99 (Steam $4.99, regular $9.99)
• Fallout 2 $2.99 (Steam $4.99, regular $9.99)
• Psychonauts $4.99

Steam:

• Cave Story Plus $4.99 until 5 PM eastern 24 Dec
• Audiosurf $2.49 (it's used in one of the Great Gift Pile achievements)
• Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII double pack $1.02
• Psychonauts $4.99 (it's used in one of the Great Gift Pile achievements)

edited 1st Jan '12 1:03:52 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Oh, I forgot Humble Indie Bundle:

• Jamestown
• Bit.Trip Runner
• Super Meat Boy
• Shank
• Nightsky HD

Beat-the-average bonuses:

• Cave Story +
• Gratuitous Space Battles
• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Cogs
• VVVVVV
• Hammerfight
• And Yet It Moves

The average is currently $5.28, and has generally hovered a bit above $5. Given that Steam is currently selling Cave Story + at $4.99, this means that for about thirty cents more, you can get a whole bunch of other games. Most of which are redeemable on Steam.

This Humble Bundle ends Tuesday, 27 Dec 2011, at 6 PM eastern standard time.

Oh yeah, I think Magicka bought on Gamers Gate can be activated on Steam as well.

Good Ole Games has do DRM from what i've seen.

Indie Royale's current bundle:

• The Blackwell Trilogy: Remastered
• Eets
• Dino D-Day
• The Oil Blue
• Elfsquad7
• greenTech+
• Shellblast

The current minimum price is $3.83.

^ GOG says that they are DRM-free. I haven't bought anything from them so I don't know how true this is.

edited 23rd Dec '11 10:16:16 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

/me sees discounts all across Steam on the DLC for Gratuitous Space Battles

Not sure if want. Always love more space sim stuff, but...Not sure if worth the price.

@Glenn: Yes, you can activate GG-bought Magicka on Steam, and the same extends to all of its DLCs IIRC (I can confirm some)

EDIT: I can tell you, I bought Vietnam and The Stars Are Left in Gamers Gate and redeemed both codes on Steam

As for Desura, it IS DRM-agnostic, and largely caters to the indie/modding community.

I don't know a lot about D2D other than it being another major PC digital retailer, but I'm sure they do sell some games with DRM. Same with Impulse.

There is also Game Fly, which now caters to PC as well (although I don't know enough about whether we can rent through there).

I know many would rather avoid them like the plague, but there's also EA's Origin (which I hear actually isn't that bad) and Microsoft's GFWL Marketplace (eh... no real impressions here, whether positive or negative... but I assume it'll be preferable for Microsoft products)

edited 24th Dec '11 12:00:49 AM by EarlOfSandvich

No game that I got from Good Old Games has anything that resembles DRM. Except maybe the "old form" of DRM, that is you get asked a question and have to look up the answer in the manual or a code disk. The answers are of course included in the installation (just like the manuals).

Yeah, GOG tends to have the manual, and various other goodies, such as soundtrack, art, and sometimes even supplementary materials such as bibles. See the entry for Fallout 2 for an example.

As for DRM, GOG says they are DRM free on their about page.

GamersGate, on the other hand, seems to be DRM-agnostic; some games have DRM while others don't (sometimes in the same package—check out the Thief: the Dark Project and Thief: Deadly Shadows double pack). Their FAQ does say that you can download and install games you buy from them as many times as you want, and if the game has an activation limit, you can just e-mail GG and have them reset it for you.

There is a certain difference between manuals and the other stuff. The manuals (and copy protection codes, if applicable) are included with the installation of the game. It doesn't need to be downloaded separately (which is still possible). All the other stuff (maps, soundtracks, art, etc.) has to be downloaded separately.

edited 24th Dec '11 11:05:10 AM by DorkLord

GOG is a really good way of getting good old games. Planescape: Torment for pennies compared to what I would have been stung for on Ebay or Amazon. You also get free games from them on occasion.

GOG.com has all these games that I've enjoyed before, but I feel like if I bought them I would put them off.

Like, I keep thinking about getting Sim City 2000, but I don't know if I'd ever get around to palying it. Same with Descent.

I really wish they would put the first Journeyman Project on there.

GOG doesn't have every old game, unfortunately. Currently, the only place I've found that has Thief: The Dark Project as a direct download is Gamers Gate, and I've been informed that Amazon has a disc version for cheaper than that.

GOG, though, does have some interesting titles, including Septerra Core, which I've been looking at. Gamers Gate has it for $2.48 but GOG has it for $2.99 and includes goodies. So I'm trying to decide whether the 6 HD wallpapers, 7 avatars, 17 artworks, and 86 maps are worth $0.51.

GOG also has a few recent games, such as Witcher 2.

The Witcher 2 (well, and the first game) is rather convenient since it's by CD Projekt, who also own GOG.

They said that they want to offer more modern games DRM-less in the future though. While it's pretty nice in itself, I can't help but wonder if that won't seriously harm their output on older titles. Apparently, there is quite some effort required to get hold of these old games.

That and apparently they actually update the games to work on newer systems.

Of course they do. Although with DOS games it's mostly pretty straight-forward, since they mostly only need to setup DOSBox. Although even then it's not always that simple. There seem to be quite some issues with the Starflight games (I haven't actually managed to successfully start the second one), for example.

Not all games have Windows 7 compatibility (yet), though. Someone made a GOGmix to list the once that don't have it. I have to wonder about some of them, though. I haven't bought it from GOG, but Jagged Alliance 2 works just fine with my laptop. I have the bitComposer re-release, though.

edited 24th Dec '11 1:44:00 PM by DorkLord

I'm not sure about them, but I think some may work on certain computers and/or under certain settings. For example, I've heard that Septerra Core might work on Win 7 but not if you install into Program Files because of UAC.

GOG is DRM Free. It means I can play Broken Sword on my smartphone :)

I'm disappointed in the latest Steam Holiday Great Gift Pile offerings; the achievements keep on netting me coupons.

Miss the first-day Steam sale? No worries! Just Cause 2 is available on the Amazon Game Downloading service for $2.50, and it can be activated on Steam too!

Speaking of... Amazon is also a good place to look for those considering games.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the current price of the two games on Steam.

That comment applied to Recettear and Chantelise. I've fixed it to read more clearly.

edited 28th Dec '11 1:34:42 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Ah, the spacing didn't make it too clear.

Since the trading forum on the official Steam forums is pretty much in a constant state of insanity, I thought I'd post my Steam inventory here.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/quintsakugarne/inventory/

All Team Fortress 2 items and Spiral Knights items that are tradeable are up for grabs. So are all the coupons. Currently I have -50% Valve x2, -10% Valve, -50% Limbo, -50% Farming Simulator 2011, and -50% Fallout: New Vegas. I can get you another -50% Farming Simulator 2011 if you want it. I also have the games Freedom Force and Half-Life 2.

(Note that you need to be logged in on Steam—separate from a Steam forum login—to be able to see my inventory.)

I'm looking for games on my wishlist, or any of the following:

• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
• Fate Of The World (including the Tipping Point version)
• Aquaria
• Terraria
• or pretty much any other game
• or coal.

PM me on the Steam forums or add me on Steam if you want to trade. Y'all get priority.

We actually have a Steam Trading thread here, but in any case, in particular, you have something I want, and I seem to have a bunch of stuff you want, so perhaps we can trade.

oh whoops!