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The goal of F2P nation is to spread the love of gaming. While the site may be called “Free”, I also have a great respect of devs who create these pieces of work that we enjoy. So as a middle ground, I would like to share a method that I’ve only recently found and from the conversation I have with my small circle of other gamers, it’s not as commonly known as I thought.

The process is legal and it’s also called buying discounted code. The selling company buy the Code from Steam (and other supporting platform, such as GOG, Xbox, PS) and you can buy them at a great discount (sometimes up to 90% off and often more discounted than when Steam does their regular discount).

So with this in place, let’s share the process

1. Go to any search engine (I use Google) and search for the name of the game that you are after.
2. On the search result, some of the results will also include prices. Look for the results which are very cheap or mentions the term “steam key” in their result.
   • If you used Google, you can further dig by clicking on the “Shopping” tab
3. From the search result, try clicking on the results that are very cheap. Some sample of sites that I found that worked well for me were.
   • Instant gaming – www.instant-gaming.com
   • Eneba – www.eneba.com
   • Kinguin – www.kinguin.net/
   • G2A – www.g2a.com
4. Go through some of these sites and create a new account and purchase the code.
5. After purchasing the code, you will either get the activation code emailed to you or you can access it via the account interface of the online store.
6. The code can be activated on the site, or grab the code and add it through the “Add game” button.

Tips and gotchas to watch out.

• Some of the very cheap codes is a “New Steam” code. This means that you are unable to add this code to an existing Steam account and you need to create a new account. – ok for new user, but not really for existing user.
• Watch out for available regions – not all codes are available in your region. Many sites I have seen gives you a clear idea (sometimes prevents you from buying) products outside your region.
• Watch out if you are buying the core game or the DLC. – some games are cheap because it’s the DLC and you need the core game.
• Yes, this process may require you to open more accounts online, but the benefit is that the codes can still be pooled under your one Steam account.

And that’s all there is to it. I’ve personally found some games under 10 bucks that it wasn’t a huge loss for me if it didn’t really turn out to be as good as I wanted it to be.