Amazon PCDD - Important Update New Community Manager Incoming!

[Amazon DVG Deals]

Hey CAGS,

I’ve got some news I’m both excited and sad to share with you at the same time. I’ll be leaving the Digital Video Games team in Mid-March to join the marketing team for Amazon.com’s Loyalty and Rewards program, Amazon Coins. My boss and I have talked extensively about how to maintain and continue our presence here and across the other communities we’ve created in the past couple of years. To that end I’d like to introduce you to Josh, who take over monitoring, updating, and responding to this thread. Josh will be ramping up over the next couple of weeks, he  will be posting shortly to introduce himself.

Now that the “what’s going on” part of the message is out of the way I want to tell you all how much I love CAG and the posters here. This was the first community I joined when I started this job (anyone still remember that first thread?) and all of you have had a huge hand in shaping how we think about and execute Community Development and Management here at Amazon, which has in turn shaped my career these last two and a half years.

I started to write out a section calling out the regular posters and realized the list would be both overly long and incomplete at the same time. Instead I’d like to thank you all again, you all have my deep and sincere gratitude. I’ll still be around and my gaming accounts aren’t going anywhere so feel free to hit me up anytime you want to chat. I’ll probably still hang out in the thread too .

Thanks again everyone, let me or Josh know if you have any questions!

The Indie Store has launched!
Amazon.com is launching a storefront dedicated to supporting and promoting PC/Mac/Web-based Indie Games. Our Digital Video Games team is a small group of passionate gamers and we’re all really excited to help Indie developers reach more customers quickly by providing a quick and simple process for bringing their games to market. Additionally we’ll be supporting the Indie Store with a ton of promotions, both at and after launch. Many of these promotions are designed to give the developer the opportunity to maximize their revenue. For example, Amazon is forfeiting all royalties from bundle sales and passing them along directly to the developer, we’ve also created an “Indie Spotlight” program to help customers learn more about the games and developers they love. We view the Indie developers as some of the most creative in the industry and we want to help them continue to create new and innovative experience for customers.

Why we are doing this:

• Allow customers to discover an entirely new category of games on Amazon.com
• Help developers reach new customers quickly. Our onboarding process is straightforward and we want to sell every Indie game available
• We want to leverage our strengths to support and help the developers who are driving forward innovation and creativity in the games industry

General Information

Hi CAGs,
I'll be posting deals we're running on Digital Games (PC/Mac, Free to Play, Sony/Microsoft Points/Subs).

I'm also here to answer questions you might have, get you closer to the developers by hosting Q&As, setting up podcasts, live streaming gameplay etc. If I don't respond to a question you have in thread please send me a PM. These ping my email address and make it more likely that I will see your question and respond more quickly.

Cheers,
Tony


FYI. EA Games sold by Amazon will not activate on Steam.
F.A.Q.S.:

1. Does the game I'm buying from Amazon Activate on Steam/Origin/Uplay? What DRM does the game use?

There are two places to identify DRM on a digital video game detail page:

At the top of the page, below the title:

In the "Product Description" section:

2. Note on Electronic Arts Games - For the most part, EA games sold on Amazon do not activate on Steam. Most activate on Origin.

3. Note on DRM with limited activations:

Our Policy



4. Sometimes I'll do giveaways.

5. I work with developers and publishers to get fun (or at least what I think is fun) content to share with you all. Here are some examples:

a. Check out the Pax Gameplay videos here: Xcom: Enemy Unknown I played Xcom with Jake, the Creative Director for the game, a few months before the game came out Also, on this page, check out the Q&A, also a community driven event.

b. Check out the interview on this page: Borderlands 2 we did this interview at E3 with Randy Pitchford this year.

c. We've partnered with the ++GoodGames Podcast to feature many of the games we carry. They talk to the developers about the game development process, how the games are conceptualized and managed, all kinds of fun stuff. I'm working on putting together full link list and will update when I have it.

What else do we sell?

Xbox Live Points and Subscriptions:

1600 Microsoft Live Points
4000 Microsoft Live Points
12 Month XBOX Live Subscription
3 Month XBOX Live Subscription]
12 Month + 1 XBOX Live Subscription

PSN+ Subscriptions and PSN Points:

$20 PSN Points
$50 PSN Points
12 Month PSN+ Subscription
3 Month PSN+ Subscription

We also have a Free-2-Play store supported by our GameConnect technology. Gameconnect allows you to link your Amazon.com account with free-2-play and MMO accounts so that you can buy things like in game currency, premium game time/subscriptions, in game items, etc. on Amazon.com using your Amazon.com payment options and have this content delivered directly into your game.

5. Price Matching notes: Generally we do not match international retailers (GMG, Gamersgate, etc) or physical retailers (Best Buy, Newegg.com, etc.)
To check out the Free-2-Play games we offer you can visit our storefront here: Free-2-Play Store

 

[Thermopyle]

I do not remember Need For Speed: MW being sold at 5 USD.

Anyway this year EC "promo" seems to be the worst Amazon promo to date... I saw better deals on Xmas time than now.

I'd like to see the Sega Genesis, steam, Bundle again... And some really cheap offer on Borlderlands 2 DLCs too... Anyway, I took Crysis 3. Don't know if will be playing it soon but it was so cheap...

MW was on sale for $5 the weekend before Thanksgiving. The DLC for it was all on sale as well--ultimate set was 7.49, IIRC?

Source: I snatched them up.

 

[Neuro5i5]

Tony, I need you to take  a look at my wishlisted games and only put those games on sale cause  sales, profit margins and everything else, mmkay.  And for the lowest they've ever been cause  Amazon if not, mmkay.  And live during hours that only I can buy them cause    everyone else, mmkay.  And if you could just hit me up a with a text message as to when they go live cause   the OP, mmkay.  And   you if you can't do all of the above, mmkay.  But, that's just my opinion.

[customspoiler=?]The above skit brought to you by delirium and insufficient caffeine.[/customspoiler]

 

[gilby]

Seriously, why are the prices fluctuating so much day-to-day (sometimes within hours)??? I may say it and just pass on my remaining coupons.

If you look on the posted list of sales you will see that there are dates signifying when the games will be on sale. I admit it may seem a little counter-intuitive, but if you look at those dates you should be able to figure out, in advance, when Amazon's prices will be fluctuating.

 

[spacejunk]

Seriously, why are the prices fluctuating so much day-to-day (sometimes within hours)??? I may say it and just pass on my remaining coupons.

Yes... you "may" ... but will you really? You can't dump your coupons. They'll be on your account throughout January and you'll keep checking the EC list every day like we all will. The past couple of years, the best sales were during the last week... so there's that. I wouldn't abandon hope during the 1st week.

 

[spoderman]

Tony, I need you to take a look at my wishlisted games and only put those games on sale cause sales, profit margins and everything else, mmkay. And for the lowest they've ever been cause Amazon if not, mmkay. And live during hours that only I can buy them cause everyone else, mmkay. And if you could just hit me up a with a text message as to when they go live cause the OP, mmkay. And you if you can't do all of the above, mmkay. But, that's just my opinion.

[customspoiler=?]The above skit brought to you by delirium and insufficient caffeine.[/customspoiler]

You forgot to add one "mmkay" at the end.

 

[tebowdragon15]

Tony, I need you to take a look at my wishlisted games and only put those games on sale cause sales, profit margins and everything else, mmkay. And for the lowest they've ever been cause Amazon if not, mmkay. And live during hours that only I can buy them cause everyone else, mmkay. And if you could just hit me up a with a text message as to when they go live cause the OP, mmkay. And you if you can't do all of the above, mmkay. But, that's just my opinion.

[customspoiler=?]The above skit brought to you by too much banderas and aj my gf spanking hhe [/customspoiler]

fied there u go

 

[Neuro5i5]

You forgot to add one "mmkay" at the end.

No, it was done on purpose to show indications of dissociative identity disorder.

Mmkay?

 

[tebowdragon15]

No, it was done on purpose to show indications of dissociative identity disorder.

Mmkay?

why u become aj bf slave u always talk bout her u her slave why u do this

 

[indef]

Oh gee golly I hope there's another SIMS expansion on sale tomorrow

As someone who is currently re-installing The Sims 3 (a two day adventure) to a faster HD, I sure hope you are right!

 

[asheskitty]

I might be interested, is that before or after EC coupon?

Sig. See sig.

I was tempted as well. But for me no steam no deal.
I just want to run one client and want to have all my games in one place.
Hopefully we will get maximum edition on Steam as it was with previous installment.

Good luck with that... C2 Max and Shift 2 were the last big EA titles released on steam almost 3 years ago. Read here to crush your hopes.

You can't ignore both ignore Origin and play newer EA releases.

Well, yeah. It was Xmas. It isn't anymore.

Today is Christmas in the Coptic / Eastern Orthodox world (e.g. Russia, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, etc).

If you look on the posted list of sales you will see that there are dates signifying when the games will be on sale. I admit it may seem a little counter-intuitive, but if you look at those dates you should be able to figure out, in advance, when Amazon's prices will be fluctuating.

It's complicated and long. And it sucks having to move your finger across the screen to read.

 

[Foxhack]

There are steam keys available for the individual copies of each title in the bundle.

1

2

3

4

5

I see no reason why the bundle didn't happen, since we just get keys for each individual pack anyway.

Except those sets do not include the Sonic or Toe Jam and Earl games. I bet Sega never delivered those on purpose...

Edit: I also just realized - the 48-game pack doesn't include Genesis Classics 5!

 

[MisterXYZ]

I had to laugh when I noticed a certain user I'm not even friends with in my Steam activity.

Apparently the madness never ends heh AJ spank cheapy

Nope, the madness never ends, and I am on your friends list, if that counts for something

 

[Trusty Mutsi]

To anyone who got "The Secret World", and hasn't installed it yet:

If you have the option to install on an SSD drive, DO IT. The game loads very slow for me otherwise.

 

[Thermopyle]

To anyone who got "The Secret World", and hasn't installed it yet:

If you have the option to install on an SSD drive, DO IT. The game loads very slow for me otherwise.

...there are people that still don't have their OS and games on an SSD?

I think you lie.

 

[Motoki]

As someone who is currently re-installing The Sims 3 (a two day adventure) to a faster HD, I sure hope you are right!

That's why I like the Steam version. It's just one download and you call it good. If you buy an expansion later then it just downloads that and automatically installs it for you. No fuss, no muss. The Origin way is a mess. Instead of fully integrating it into Origin they just posted everything separately and you have to install it all separately.

 

[Mooby]

< This guy.  I can live with ten second slower loading times.

 

[Gramis]

I don't have a SSD either.

 

[annihilator]

&lt; This guy. I can live with ten second slower loading times.

And you call yourself a PC gamer. Tsk, tsk.

 

[juanjava]

I don't have a ssd

 

[Palinn]

No, it was done on purpose to show indications of dissociative identity disorder.

Mmkay?

So is that the official spelling? I've always wondered.

 

[Mooby]

I splurged on the graphics card.  SSD's are one of these luxuries that people deem as a 'zomg must have.'  If it increased FPS or put out better visuals… then maybe.

 

[asheskitty]

That's why I like the Steam version. It's just one download and you call it good. If you buy an expansion later than it just downloads that and automatically installs it for you. No fuss, no muss. The Origin way is a mess. Instead of fully integrating it into Origin they just posted everything separately and you have to install it all separately.

I didn't fully appreciate this until I got the Humble Sims 3 Bundle... yeah, wow... The Sims 3 installer/patcher is an archaic mess.

&lt; This guy. I can live with ten second slower loading times.

I used my SSD money to upgrade from a GTX 260 to a GTX 660. Money well spent.

My laptops have SSDs... my desktop needs mega-storage (and I don't really care about boot time on it).

 

[annihilator]

To those of you without SSDs, have you used them before? Personally I can't go back to moving parts.  It doesn't make a huge impact on gaming, but for just getting around Windows I feel the hard drive speed makes more of a difference than most other components.  (This is just my perception as someone who builds his own computers but has little technical knowledge.)

 

[Neuro5i5]

Boot time?  People actually shut down their computers?

 

[madjoki]

I didn't fully appreciate this until I got the Humble Sims 3 Bundle... yeah, wow... The Sims 3 installer/patcher is an archaic mess.

I used my SSD money to upgrade from a GTX 260 to a GTX 660. Money well spent.

My laptops have SSDs... my desktop needs mega-storage (and I don't really care about boot time on it).

Just don't shutdown and boot times don't affect at all

Spoiler

Bluescreened at 38 days That's pretty good for Windows I suppose

 

[BigPopov]

Sounds like we have a bunch of barbarians in the thread. Do you play your games by the fire too?

 

[asheskitty]

To those of you without SSDs, have you used them before? Personally I can't go back to moving parts. It doesn't make a huge impact on gaming, but for just getting around Windows I feel the hard drive speed makes more of a difference than most other components. (This is just my perception as someone who builds his own computers but has little technical knowledge.)

Two of my laptops have SSDs. Once my spinner-HDD desktop is booted and my programs are launched SSDs don't make that big of an impact for my usage. I'd get a better improvement sinking that cash into a CPU &amp; GPU upgrades. Also there's no substitute for a lot of RAM (for my usage needs).

 

[r333k0]

Except those sets do not include the Sonic or Toe Jam and Earl games. I bet Sega never delivered those on purpose...

Edit: I also just realized - the 48-game pack doesn't include Genesis Classics 5!

Correct. For some reason Sega keeps changing the games in their classic packs on Amazon. They used to sell one that included 5.

I bought this one for $4.99 in 2012 that included it http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEV8HI2

 

[Mooby]

Boot time? People actually shut down their computers?

Hah, exactly. Or I just turn it on in the morning and go do something else for the minute or so it boots. I don't doubt there is a noticeable difference. I just question the wisdom of spending $100-$250 (or more) on one versus upgrading other parts of your system that actually result in a better gaming experience. I mean, for that money you can go from a 760 to a 770 or a 770 to a 780.

 

[Neuro5i5]

Until they come out with a $80 1TB+ EFD, I'm good with my plethora of old school whirligigs.

 

[georgebot84]

the most important thing for HDD's is reliability.  That's why I go BLACK

 

[seamoss]

To those of you without SSDs, have you used them before? Personally I can't go back to moving parts. It doesn't make a huge impact on gaming, but for just getting around Windows I feel the hard drive speed makes more of a difference than most other components. (This is just my perception as someone who builds his own computers but has little technical knowledge.)

Any commonly or recently used file (or portions of it) is already "cached" in RAM (in the I/O buffer cache) by any modern operating system. If you are copying a huge file or doing lots of I/O on data all over the place, then yes, an SSD will benefit you greatly. In most other cases though you won't see *that* much of a big improvement. As the kitty said, you're generally better off buying more RAM.

 

[Neuro5i5]

the most important thing for HDD's is reliability. That's why I go BLACK

Out of 20 or so, I've had about 7 Blacks go down on me. I do still consider them a good desktop piece, however.

 

[seamoss]

Out of 20 or so, I've had about 7 Blacks go down on me. I do still consider them a good desktop piece, however.

I've been building my own PCs since the mid-90s and I build one every two-three years. I always use mirrored disks for any PC that does not have its data backed up or mirrored somewhere else. For example, my desktop PC has two 2TB disks in a RAID 0 (mirror) array, but my HTPC only has one 2TB disk since I have all the music, movies, etc. backed up. Even with all these precautions, I think I've lost a single disk over the years to hardware failure (and, thankfully, it was mirrored). I can't imagine how you were unlucky enough to lose 7 out of 20...

 

[stimpy]

You know it's a sucky sale when more than half of the thread has nothing to do WITH the sale.

Reading thru the posts here is more like being in a tech support thread.

Pretty lame.

 

[Neuro5i5]

I've been building my own PCs since the mid-90s and I build one every two-three years. I always use mirrored disks for any PC that does not have its data backed up or mirrored somewhere else. For example, my desktop PC has two 2TB disks in a RAID 0 (mirror) array, but my HTPC only has one 2TB disk since I have all the music, movies, etc. backed up. Even with all these precautions, I think I've lost a single disk over the years to hardware failure (and, thankfully, it was mirrored). I can't imagine how you were unlucky enough to lose 7 out of 20...

I typically have triple redundancy. I also have a larger sample size that the average user, so my failure rate is bound to be higher. But I'm the same way. I've been maintaining my current rig since 2010 and 2014's holiday sales will usher in a new build. RAID will definitely be used, primarily for it's size and structure, not so much for it's data security. I haven't actually lost any data in a long, long time.

 

[Pheace]

To those of you without SSDs, have you used them before? Personally I can't go back to moving parts. It doesn't make a huge impact on gaming, but for just getting around Windows I feel the hard drive speed makes more of a difference than most other components. (This is just my perception as someone who builds his own computers but has little technical knowledge.)

It makes a world of difference in games like Fallout (modded to max), Assassin's Creed, Skyrim, Sims games etc.
Not loading screens necessarily, but anything that's going to be loading textures on the fly from the world around you greatly benefits from it. It's the difference between choppy loadin when walking around and an absolute smooth experience.

 

[MrRedrum]

I love my SSDs (yes, I have two in a RAID-0 because I can lol) for gaming with the awesome near instant load times. I use them for all sorts of other bits as well and couldn't recommend getting an SSD more but I can certainly understand others not wanting to go that route. Funny enough, I too pretty much leave my comp on for a couple weeks at a time as it also functions as a media hub so initial boot times are pointless. Either way, hopefully relatively soon they'll go about making the whole GB / $ ratio better but until that day it'll forever be a niche market. I just wish Samsung was still really in the HDD game. They have made the best HDDs I've ever owned and were always sold for great prices. I somehow need more space because I hoard digital media like I do games.

Out of curiosity, what's everyone's current recommended large capacity HDD brands?

 

[Solid-Snake-Eyes]

I've had games like Saints Row 4 where if I didn't put at least the save folder on my SSD it hitches up and does mini-freezing every time it saves. And in Saints Row 4 in particular it's constantly saving every time you come across one of the 500 collectibles that are scattered everywhere. So they do fast loading but they also do fast saving. I had at least one other game like that, can't remember which.

 

[Syntax Error]

You know it's a sucky sale when more than half of the thread has nothing to do WITH the sale.

Reading thru the posts here is more like being in a tech support thread.

Pretty lame.

You've never seen the Steam thread during sales, have you? Even the best sale days have a terrible signal:noise ratio (assuming you're only interested in the signal).

I'm not sure what sort of talk great deals are supposed to generate anyway besides variants of "Wow, Super-Mega-Champion for $1.95?! In!" over and over. Especially in a format like Amazon's where most of the deals are laid out well in advance on the front page or Tony warns you a day or two in advance.

 

[seamoss]

Out of curiosity, what's everyone's current recommended large capacity HDD brands?

My scientifically thought-out and patented method is to look for HDDs with the best Newegg rating (and pray that this means they are the least likely to fail). Statistically, despite the lack of any control, it seems to be working for me.

More seriously, I suspect that many people who constantly lose HDDs are not treating them very well (I always cringe when I see people slam the lid down on their laptops and immediately toss them into their bags). They're still sensitive mechanical devices after all...

Edit: FWIW, I used Seagate Barracudas for my last build in 2013 - relatively cheap and reliable.

 

[Solid-Snake-Eyes]

I've had about 7 Blacks go down on me.

 

[Neuro5i5]

Out of curiosity, what's everyone's current recommended large capacity HDD brands?

I've never had a failure with WD Enterprise editions, but they cost some hefty scratch. IMO, all the rest are hit or miss. I used to rely on Hitachi, but now being Toshiba/WD, I'll just have to see. I'm currently testing out two Toshiba (previous HGST tech) drives and so far so good. The only brand I currently have little faith in is Seagate (which i used to be a proponent of) as I've had too many firmware and controller issues with them over the recent years.

 

[madjoki]

No failures in WD GREEN or REDs for me

Using SnapRAID as redudancy to allow one failure (never happend so far and actually hasn't been worth it ).

Only some Samsung/Seagates have failed, but never Western Digitals.

 

[Thermopyle]

Gamefly just put Xcom:EW on sale at 14.99 and BI at 9.99. Submitted PM requests for both...

EW was already 9.99 a few days ago, but this could get us BI at 4.99 with EC.

 

[Solid-Snake-Eyes]

I had two WD greens fail within a few months of each other. Apparently they have some head parking issues which lead to failure (can be disabled via some utility but I didn't know this). Never buying another one of those, my last purchase I went with to replace the green was a WD black.

 

[cam5d]

Seriously, doe, I'm glad the Ace Patrol promo runs until the end of January. No pressure in deciding if it's worth one of my precious coupons in fear of some wacky deals down the road.

Ok, so counting cents - if you say you're saving on coupons: Ace Patrol goes on sale from time to time at GMG for $0.99 so adding their common 25% + $0.1 GMG credit they have, you can buy both Ace Patrols for US$1.3 total (I went for it this very weekend) ==&gt; amazon's coupon saves you US$0.3. So - if you have something else for your coupons, ace patrol's should not be a factor I think.

 

[iSerra]

I splurged on the graphics card. SSD's are one of these luxuries that people deem as a 'zomg must have.' If it increased FPS or put out better visuals… then maybe.

SSDs are more affordable these days compared to last time, they have already dropped to 1 dollar per gigabyte. Maybe not much benefits if you are just gaming but if you are into graphics or videos editing, SSDs do make a difference.

 

[Thermopyle]

SSDs are more affordable these days compared to last time, they have already dropped to 1 dollar per gigabyte. Maybe not much benefits if you are just gaming but if you are into graphics or videos editing, SSDs do make a difference.

I got my 250gb for $144 (Samsung 840) about six months ago, so it's already quite a bit below that for decent sale prices.

 

[Wolfskinx]

I hope amazon pm brothers with steam.