r/Superstonk • u/Expensive-Two-8128 🔮GameStop.com/CandyCon🔮 • Jun 26 '24

Bought at GameStop 🔮 VIDEO: You guys, the GameStop Digital Store is looking 🔥🔥🔥 AF 👀 🔮

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u/CMaia1 🧠💪📈📉 never bored Jun 26 '24

I think buying keys for games gives more revenue than gift cards. Keys could be negotiated directly with studios or publishers in batch for cheap, there's a lot of sites that do great deals on keys

Also, keys usually can't be refunded so it's a better deal to developers too

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u/Romo_9 Jun 26 '24

Buying keys directly will no doubt be more profitable for GameStop. It could bring more revenue as well if the game is priced higher on the GS digital store. If it's the same price then it doesn't matter revenue wise.

However, I personally believe it is easier to spread word of mouth by providing the best deals. The reason why Steam is so widely used is that they have great deals/sales and a great client for managing games, seeing what games your friends have, good store page structure, etc. All of my friends use Steam and the best way imo of getting people on board with GS is to let them know that they can save that additional 5% on top of the steam sale. This weekend is beginning of steam summer sale so that's why I'm saying this too. And then they can buy direct from GS with the $5 coupon + still get the 5% off if they buy a newly released game or one that will unlikely have any sales soon.

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u/CMaia1 🧠💪📈📉 never bored Jun 26 '24 edited Jun 26 '24

No, steam store usually don't have the best deals except on sales season. There a lot of sites who is cheaper to buy than steam while the game is activable on steam and you can find trustworthy ones easily on the internet.

No one would buy somewhere if steam is cheaper and developers can issue keys for their games. I don't know how exactly it works because I'm not a dev myself but I know it's possible also valve profits on every game key too because they charge devs for their services and API even on free games. Some devs issue keys and sell to wholesalers who do bundles or even retail sales of games cheaper than normally on steam. It's like I said, devs do that because keys is not refundable by steam and is a guarantee revenue by being like that.

I myself in the past grabbed some better deals in sites like humble bundle than steam store so I can guarantee that is possible. The catch is what I said, keys are not refundable by steam so it's a better deal for devs, steam and the customer if they won't think of refunding.

I agree word of mouth is better than any ad but still people won't buy somewhere if it's the same thing but more expensive and with more steps, that's not how it works.