10 Alternatives to Steam for Buying PC Games at Cheap Price

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When any discussion involves digital distribution for computer games, no one can talk a list without the Steam. As Steam is the undisputed champion, which is serving up more or less a pair of almost 5 billion total game sales as of August 2019.

However simply because it presently contains a lead within the market doesn’t mean you would like to curtail your decisions for digital game purchases. As I always say there is nothing which can be considered as the only best in this competitive market now a day. Apart from that, there are many companies and game developers who are getting new tie-up deals with retailers and distributors every other day. If you do pay attention you may buy your favourite game even at a lesser price than in Steam.

Steam alternatives to Buy Games

Here are more than ten alternatives to Steam for computer (PC) gamers, a number of which provide Steam compatibility, and which frequently beat it on the worth in addition. We will also talk about some very good alternative ways of buying games to get an even better deal.

Green man gaming

Probably the well-known among the Steam alternatives to buying games is  greenmangaming.com, it offers a very web-based store that sells digital keys for Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net games, as well as on the other exclusive game producers. The shop offers normal retail valuation on most titles, with further discounts for “VIP” customers WHO use the EXP loyalty program (but that simply means that you have to create a permanent account on the service).

Features:

  • GMG complies with the varied DRM anti-piracy schemes issued by Valve, Blizzard, EA, and alternative major publishers, and doesn’t use an ardent transfer consumer.
  • You can PC buy PC games, but you will also see often offers on Console games as well.
  • Unlike many other alternative or web-based retailers, greenmangaming.com gives you the feature of pre-booking a game even a month before the release.
  • You can also find occasional sales on the time of Christmas, Black Friday etc., at that time you can get even a better deal.
  • It takes full responsibility if the game faces any problem during installation or activation. In reasonable cases, they even refund the full amount if any discrepancy spotted from their side.
  • There are also many gifts you can win as a loyal customer.
  • You can gift games to your friends directly via using greenmangaming.com.
  • At this moment of November 2019, there is the Black Friday sales going on, where you can buy Red Dead Redemption 2 for 20% straight discount, and the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA V Premium Online Edition for 60% straight discount.

GamersGate

GamersGate (not to be confused with the GamerGate movement) could be a good choice as a digital distribution service that provides a mix of straight game keys and direct downloads for DRM-free titles. Although this steam alternative to buy games is not as broad as some competitors and the library is also somehow quite small. You can find games from Blizzard, Activision, Square-Enix, and EA etc.

Features:

  • The distinctive “Blue Coin” system is for easier price investigation. Customers earn digital credit within the type of coins for each purchase, and little bonuses for collaborating within the GamersGate community, like posting game reviews or respondent facilitate topics. Blue Coins will then be utilized in place of real cash for any digital purchase on the positioning.
  • As I told earlier, GamerGate library is a small library so you may not find what you are looking for in here. But it is worth checking before buying a game from some other providers, as if the game is available here, you may get a better deal as well.
  • GamersGate also consists of a decent number of anime games in their library.
  • You can also become a member and also a community participant to get exclusive offers and latest updates.
  • Pre-order for many games exclusively using GamersGate is available.

GOG (Good Old Games)

GOG could be a digital distribution hub created by the folks at CD Project, the developers of the well-regarded Witcher series. GOG is brief for “Good Old Games,” also known as GOG.com and for sure, it focuses on an oversized catalogue of older games which will generally be laborious to search out on alternative services. GOG.com is a true and overpowered alternative to Steam Client.

Features:

  • Although GOG has enlarged into newer high-profile and indie games as lately, the service and its Galaxy transfer consumer are 100% DRM-free. This limits the whole choice in some ways that (and there aren’t any Steam keys to be had, even once the older games are accessible on Steam’s store), however, the costs for older games are extraordinarily competitive.
  • If you are looking for some older games or looking for games in cheap to gist someone, or you just want to play the whole series of an old title, then GOG.com is the place for you as they provide quality price and easy search. As well as it is guaranteed that you will find the game in their library if not then god knew where you are going to find the game else.
  • com also features a big and active community, which will help you if you are facing any problem related to the games, download or purchase.
  • com is very much dependable for their services, so if somehow any problem occurred from their side, you are going to get a full refund.
  • You can create an account to become a member or also can log in with your Facebook account.
  • You can find their Support tab very useful if you are facing any technical problem with any game, even if you have purchased it from somewhere else.
  • While talking about the price factor, apart from sale and all, you can find some games even with 60%-80% discount on the retail price in GOG.com web store. So, no matter what game are you about to buy, GOG.com is a must check before you buy, if you value money.

Direct2Drive

Direc2Drive is really the root of IGN’s recent game store, currently gobbled up by a company associate degreed run as a freelance business. The core plan remains identical because it ever was: get games and transfer them at once. Most of the titles on the shop still provide direct downloads through the online interface, although the corporate conjointly sells major games with DRM activation completely on Steam, Origin, Uplay, et cetera.

Features:

  • Although Direct2Drive typically discounts individual games or giant sets in a very promotion, it doesn’t provide a loyalty program.
  • The collection is good and the library size is also decent, but you may not find many AAA rated titles here.
  • For some game, Direct2Drive or also known as D2D provides the highest discount.
  • The community is not quite big and responsive. But you can check the offers before buying the game from somewhere else, and you get surprised.

Humble Store (humbledumble.com)

Better familiar for its periodic DRM-free “pay what you want” game bundles, Humble currently offers an additional ancient on-line shopfront in addition. There’s an explicit concentrate on indie and tiny publisher games in Humble’s library, however, there are offerings from larger producers like Square-Enix and 2K as well.

Features:

  • Five-hitter of the worth of all purchases from the store move to children’s computer game charity Child’s Play, with associate degree possibility for an additional five-hitter aiming to charity or refunded to the player.
  • Additionally, to straight sales on the online and periodic bundles, a number of that accompany Steam keys, a $12 monthly subscription possibility offers away hand-picked titles that are then the players to transfer at any time.
  • The subscribers get very good benefits in terms of games and the library, as they provided with many paid games even for free.
  • The subscription service can be started, paused and continued at the time. SO, it also works like a game renting service as well.
  • You can find many AAA titles and also loads of indie games in the library.
  • The humble store also offers a very good discount and seasonal sales.
  • You can get frequent updates on the Humble Store as well as you can pre-order many games as well.

Itch.io

Itch.io is all regarding the Indies. Although most of the games offered on the positioning and transfer consumer are free (thanks to a mobile-style open submission policy), developers will add worth to their games, and lots of widespread freelance developers currently use Itch.io as a primary distribution platform.

Features:

  • There are zero games they had from major publishers, however, anyone who appreciates a flick through a big-variety of collection of various concepts in games is encouraged to give it a shot.
  • They also provide good discounts so look at the discounted game bundles if you’d like one thing a touch additional curated.
  • Itch is a very popular platform around the freelance game developers, for selling and distributing their games.
  • This Steam alternative to buying games io is not a cup of tea for everyone. But for some people with a specific type of taste, Itch.io is the best option.
  • It consists of a good community consists of freelancer, developers, coders and gamers and even game testers, so if you are a student in this profession, then Itch.io is a paradise for you.
  • You can even upload your own game project, which is still work in progress to get real reviews from the experts and live gamers as well.
  • You can also join the community, and also can donate the developer team to keep up the good work.

Windows App Store

Did you recognize Windows 10 contains an intrinsically game store now? Yea, it’s a straightforward factor to miss, since the additional general apps on the larger Windows Store hardly price a glance. Although the choice of games in Microsoft’s official curated market isn’t nice, there are some of the exclusives that can’t be found in the other stores beside computer versions of some widespread mobile games.

Features:

  • Some chosen titles will share saves and achievements across the Xbox and computer versions. sadly, the platform itself has some growing pains.
  • Here you can find all the games from Microsoft, and almost no games from other big publishers. Which in turn makes the library quite small.
  • To download and play any game from Windows app store you must own a genuine copy of MS Windows OS.
  • The price is not always the best here, but the big titles from Microsoft would offer you some add on features if you buy the game from here.
  • The community is not that good, but the customer service from Microsoft is very-very good.
  • Cloud Support for save games and leaderboard data sharing.
  • In Microsoft App Store you will find a load of free games from small developers under the banner of Microsoft, which are quite good children and even for normal gamers for the casual gaming experience.
  • PC counterpart of famous mobile games like Asphalt 9, Angry Birds 2 etc. can be found here for free.
  • Also, from Microsoft App Store you can buy and download tons of utility software application. Even many of the apps come for free as well.

Origin

Many gamers (including me) are hesitant to trust EA’s semi-exclusive game distribution system since its existence means that we tend to can’t get a number of the publisher’s biggest titles on Steam or anyplace else. However, it would be nice to price sorting out the Origin library, if solely passant, for the subsequent reasons:

  • There’s a restricted choice of indie games on the platform that aren’t revealed by EA.
  • Origin offers a “no queries asked” refunds on games for twenty-four hours once installation or seven days once purchase.
  • Origin typically offers out free digital copies of recent however notable titles from EA’s long business library. Origin Access, a $5 monthly subscription, offers players free reign on a restricted choice of older titles and free previews of coming games.

Features:

  • Origin conjointly functions as EA’s community and chat platform.
  • Offers all the games from the EA directly with exclusive rewards and offers.
  • Rarely you can see any sale going on, as EA tends to revenue as much as they can. They are really very money hungry.
  • You can pre-order any upcoming big title from EA from Origin even 3 months before the release. Also, you would be able to access the game 3days before the official release. For example, you can take FIFA.
  • But Origin also has some exclusive but hugely popular titles under their sleeves.
  • If you have heard the name of APEX Legends, which is the third biggest Battle Royale games of all, is exclusively available in Origin server only.
  • Many of the games do offer free to play trial versions, like FIFA. For FIFA every year a trial version is released and you can enjoy playing the trial version for free throughout the whole year.
  • Also, many time-bound trials games are also been offered sometimes, because of which Origin is surely worth checking before buying any games.
  • You can use the web-based app also you can download and install a dedicated Origin app for faster response, and offline mode facility for many of the games from Origin.

Uplay

Ubisoft’s Uplay is largely identical factor as Origin, a combined game shopfront and social/DRM platform and Stream alternative to purchasing games. however, in contrast to Origin, Ubisoft offers its major releases on alternative stores like Steam (though players sometimes have to be compelled to transfer and activate the Uplay consumer in addition, that could be a Brobdingnagian annoyance). Even so, it would be price checking the Uplay shopfront before a significant purchase from Ubisoft: generally, the newest releases have little discounts not accessible elsewhere, and also the company’s “Unit” rewards attained in-game in choose titles will be listed for digital merchandise.

Features:

  • Offers exclusive games only.
  • Sometimes they offer free to grab games as well, so it’s better to keep checking for such offers. As I have Trial Fusion, Price of Persia, Ghost Recon Wildlands etc. for free from such offers.
  • They also feature loyalty bonus and many other rewards for the customers. Cloud support for saves games and leaderboards sharing.
  • The community is good, responsive and supportive.
  • The customer care facility is quite healthy as well.
  • Like Origin, Uplay also offers trial version and time-bound trials before the launch of big title games, just like I played the ghost recon Breakpoint for free for 3days even before the launch of the game.
  • So, it is a recommended service to taste the new upcoming big titles from Ubisoft and also you can fetch some good and exclusive deals and rewards from Uplay.
  • Just like Origin Uplay also features an installable application for faster operations.

Epic Games

Another great alternative of Steam. Many people do not know but Epic Games is a giant game producer now a day, which is partly own by Chinese Giant Tencent Gaming. You can find exclusive games as well as some many other games from other publishers as well. Epic   Games offers a discount on purchases on their behalf and for many games, it can be proved to a great deal.

Features:

  • You can find some indie games in Epic Games library.
  • The Epic Games library is not huge but quite intriguing.
  • Epic Games also offers various sales from time to time, like Black Friday Sale, Christmas Sale, new Year Sale etc.
  • Epic also offers free games every week, using which I have already collected Batman Arkham Series, Batman Lego Series, Alan Wake, Observer, Metro 2033 and many more totally free.
  • You can also find the Legendary Battle Royal game, Fortnite, exclusively for Epic Server library for free.
  • You can also find the Ark Editor and development package, and another Legendary multiplayer competitive games Unreal tournament in Epic Games library exclusively.
  • The community is the best after the Steam community.
  • The customer service and after-sales service is very very good.
  • Using Epic games, you can place pre-order for some games as well, if that Epic game has the distribution license for that game.
  • Epic Games also features an app, and without the app, you can not access the full control of your Epic Games id and game library.

ReaperShop

ReaperShop is quite like Green Man Gaming itself, there is nothing much to say. You should check the offers before buying any game to know what kind of offers they do have. Normally for FIFA ReaperShop provides the best deal.

Net (Blizzard.com)

Battle.Net or Blizzerd.com is very popular among some specific gamers. Battle.net does not feature a big library, instead, they feature a very small library, containing some very popular, e-sports level games, which are also exclusive to the server as well.

Features:

  • The games like Overwatch, Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of The Storm, Diablo 3, Diablo 4 and StarCraft. Most of these games are mainly popular among professional gamers and e-sports players.
  • Essentially Battle.net only features online multiplayer games.
  • You will not get any specific kind of offers or loyalty rewards from this server. You can only buy a couple of games and install them and can buy other accessories from within the in-game shop.
  • As Battle.net or Blizzard.com is only meant for e-sports players, so it contains one of the best responsive community, without any doubt.
  • Also, Battle.net provides the latest news on their upcoming projects, releases and competitions.
  • The service is both web-based and client app-based and also has mobile app support.

Garena

Just like Battle.net, Garena Server is only meant for exclusive games from Garena itself. Garena is very popular in all parts of the world. But it features some of the most intense e-sports games in their library. Also, the games offered can differ from region to region. You should also know that Garena services are popular mainly in South and South-East Asia.

  • Garena features the legendary e-sports game League of Legends aka LOL.
  • Garena offers the very popular FIFA online, in their library as well.
  • Apart from that Garena offers some mobile games like Garena Free Fire, Call of Duty Mobile etc.
  • The Garena community is not that good, in many places and it also has a little bit of language barrier for English speakers.
  • The customer support is rigid. Also, all the games in the Garena server are free.
  • Again, just like Blizzard.com; Garena is also meant for professional gamers and e-sports players.
  • Garena only features multiplayer, online, competitive games.
  • Garena works with the client app only.

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Download Directly from Publishers and Developers using their Official websites

Some forward-thinking game developers like Taleworlds, Mojang, and Cloud Imperium (as well as most MMO publishers) provide games direct purchases on their websites and host game files themselves. Since this skips the centralized storefronts (which take a cut of the acquisition price), the worth is usually less than it otherwise would be.

This way you may get your game cheaper, and also the developer doesn’t have to be compelled to pay a distributor—everybody wins! make sure to see and see if the new game you would like is obtainable for an on the spot purchase on the developer’s web site, and bear in mind that non-Steam games will still be superimposed to your Steam library manually for convenience.

Buy Game Keys from Amazon, Flipkart

Nowadays major net retailers can sell Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net, and alternative activation codes similar to the other merchandise. Amazon, Newegg, GameStop, and Best purchase all sell normal codes accessible via their retail accounts or email receipts. make sure to buy around for the simplest worth once you’ve selected a purchase—the games portal on SlickDeals.net could be a sensible place to examine digital game codes discounted at specific stores.

Conclusion

Above I have expressed almost all the way of buying and accessing games. You still can stick with Steam only, or you can roam the world gaming according to my article. If you are enthusiast about gaming, and the gaming industry, then you must give all the above a try. Good luck and enjoy Gaming.

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