• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

How to save a lot of money when buying digitales games on PSN.

mili2110

Member
Many people dont like the PS5 DE because without a BD drive you are missing out on sales with retailers etc. Since im a PS5 DE owner here a a coupl eof ways how to save a lot of money when buying games from the PS store.

1. Dont buy on day 1:
This is simple. If you are not in a hurry or still have a lot of backlog to play, dont buy new games on day 1. After 3-4 months they are probably going on sale, even big games like TLOU2 and GoT were on sale for 30%-40% in 2020.

2. Buy PSN gift cards:
Dont purchase games directly from the PS Store. Purchase gift cards first! The reason being is that they are always cheaper than their actual value, meaning a 50€/$/£ PSN Card can often be had for 40 bucks or less! I recently bought 200€ PSN gift cards for 150€. thats 50€ for free. You can get those gift cards/keys at eneba, kinguin, gamivo etc.

3a. Dont purchase in your PS Store:
In USA/UK/Europe, games are really expensive, in europe sony games are around 96$ now instead of 70$ like in the US, so already by buying from the US store you could save money.. There are regions where games even cheaper like brazil, russia etc. So Just create a new psn id with the prefered region and buy the matching gift cards. You can play those games with your old PSN account. You only need to setup the second account on your console, download the game and switch back to you old account. You could also make it you main account if you dont have any purchases or friends on you regular psn account.

4. Sharing is caring!
Game sharing is the key word. Find a friend or a family member who you trust , who likes the same games as you do. Me and my best friend have been sharing my psn account for 7+ years. We make purchases on my psn account and share the costs. He has set up my PS Account on his PS4/5, downloads the games we purchased and switches back to his account. Only downside for me is that im the slave PS5, so I always have to be connected to the Internet (which has never been a problem for me anyways). By sharing games we are saving 50% on the regular price.


So in summary: I share most of my games with my bro which saves us 50%. I dont buy most of my games on day 1 (see Watch dogs Legion lel). I purchase gift cards instead of buying directly. When my friend and I dont agree on a game or he wants to get the physical copy, I switch to my US PSN ID and buy from the US PSN store to get a better price.

I forgot, we also share the PS+ subscription.


If you know any other methods, let me know.
 
Last edited:

odhiex

Member
Good tips. I just want to add that the PS+ discount for games on sale is also sweet.

I would also be buying the PS5 Digital this September (in store pre-order), maybe my wanted games be cheaper by then.
 
One thing to be aware of is Sony still lock the dlc to the region of the account/purchase

I used to have a different account in each major region to save on digital games....it’s great for the base game but the dlc is always locked to the region of the account it’s purchased.....you run into issues if you try and play it on your normal account

same issue if you import a copy of a game from a different country....it’s region free but unless your psn account matches the region of the disc your gonna be shit outta luck accessing dlc for that game
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
If you're in the US change your address in your profile to somewhere in Oregon. No sales tax on digital purchases there. Just google a city and find a random address somewhere.
I plan to 'move' to Delaware if Virginia ever implements sales tax on digital goods
 

KAL2006

Banned
My PS5 is fully loaded with different region accounts. I'm from the UK everytime a massive sale comes up on HotUKDeals website there is always a post where someone lists all sale items converted to £ from the different regions. My PS5 has a Brazil, Indonesian, American and Indian accounts. And I can play all the games I bought from different regions on my standard UK PSN account.

I just bought Lego Marvel Collection for £6 and Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate for £16 from Brazil store.

If I bought from the UK store I would have paid £20 for Lego Marvel Collection and £25 for MK 11 Ultimate. So I have made a saving of £23.
 

Lupin3

Targeting terrorists with a D-Pad
2. Buy PSN gift cards:
Dont purchase games directly from the PS Store. Purchase gift cards first! The reason being is that they are always cheaper than their actual value, meaning a 50€/$/£ PSN Card can often be had for 40 bucks or less! I recently bought 200€ PSN gift cards for 150€. thats 50€ for free. You can get those gift cards/keys at eneba, kinguin, gamivo etc.

I just checked Eneba as an example, and is was more expensive than buying straight from PSN in Sweden. Also, what's up with all the country codes for Europe? Are they only good in certain countries? I know nothing about PSN gift cards/codes.
 
If you're in the US change your address in your profile to somewhere in Oregon. No sales tax on digital purchases there. Just google a city and find a random address somewhere.
Does that steel work? I used to not pay taxes with my new York address but now they charge me, I guess the law here changed.
 

The Shepard

Member
My PS5 is fully loaded with different region accounts. I'm from the UK everytime a massive sale comes up on HotUKDeals website there is always a post where someone lists all sale items converted to £ from the different regions. My PS5 has a Brazil, Indonesian, American and Indian accounts. And I can play all the games I bought from different regions on my standard UK PSN account.

I just bought Lego Marvel Collection for £6 and Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate for £16 from Brazil store.

If I bought from the UK store I would have paid £20 for Lego Marvel Collection and £25 for MK 11 Ultimate. So I have made a saving of £23.

I do the same thing with my xbox consoles but my games are still tied to my uk account on that machine if I use a foreign xbox marketplace. I don't need multiple accounts.

On the PlayStation I use hotukdeals also to get cheap psn credit and store it until I need it for my UK account, you can get about £140 stored at one time, I usually get £25 for £35 worth of psn credit. The best I've got is £30 for £60 which I've got a few times, but it's rare. I recently brought rei 8 from the psn store for about £25 on day one getting cheap credit. I find that it's far easier to get cheap psn credit than xbox live credit so PlayStation games tend to be cheaper.
 
Last edited:

KAL2006

Banned
Sorry, but this is dumb... I just want all my games in one account..

It's as simple as switching back to your regular account. With your foreign account all you need to do is start the download. Once that's done you simply switch back and can play all your games on your regular PSN account online or offline. I've had my American account since 2011. I recently made a Indonesian, Brazilian and Indian account.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Many people dont like the PS5 DE because without a BD drive you are missing out on sales with retailers etc. Since im a PS5 DE owner here a a coupl eof ways how to save a lot of money when buying games from the PS store.

1. Dont buy on day 1:
This is simple. If you are not in a hurry or still have a lot of backlog to play, dont buy new games on day 1. After 3-4 months they are probably going on sale, even big games like TLOU2 and GoT were on sale for 30%-40% in 2020.

2. Buy PSN gift cards:
Dont purchase games directly from the PS Store. Purchase gift cards first! The reason being is that they are always cheaper than their actual value, meaning a 50€/$/£ PSN Card can often be had for 40 bucks or less! I recently bought 200€ PSN gift cards for 150€. thats 50€ for free. You can get those gift cards/keys at eneba, kinguin, gamivo etc.

3a. Dont purchase in your PS Store:
In USA/UK/Europe, games are really expensive, in europe sony games are around 96$ now instead of 70$ like in the US, so already by buying from the US store you could save money.. There are regions where games even cheaper like brazil, russia etc. So Just create a new psn id with the prefered region and buy the matching gift cards. You can play those games with your old PSN account. You only need to setup the second account on your console, download the game and switch back to you old account. You could also make it you main account if you dont have any purchases or friends on you regular psn account.

4. Sharing is caring!
Game sharing is the key word. Find a friend or a family member who you trust , who likes the same games as you do. Me and my best friend have been sharing my psn account for 7+ years. We make purchases on my psn account and share the costs. He has set up my PS Account on his PS4/5, downloads the games we purchased and switches back to his account. Only downside for me is that im the slave PS5, so I always have to be connected to the Internet (which has never been a problem for me anyways). By sharing games we are saving 50% on the regular price.


So in summary: I share most of my games with my bro which saves us 50%. I dont buy most of my games on day 1 (see Watch dogs Legion lel). I purchase gift cards instead of buying directly. When my friend and I dont agree on a game or he wants to get the physical copy, I switch to my US PSN ID and buy from the US PSN store to get a better price.

I forgot, we also share the PS+ subscription.


If you know any other methods, let me know.

Very interesting and sound ideas. I support that.

image.png

returnal-preorder.jpg


:messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
Last edited:

Duchess

Member
Just recently I decided to buy a PSN voucher from SimplyGames, at a discount. They've said they've emailed it, but so far nothing. That was on Friday. I'm a rather patient person and understand that mistakes happen, but they've not responded to a request for proof it was sent.

Anyone used them before? I'm worried that come Friday I'll be filing a dispute with them via PayPal :|
 
Never used them but any shop, the delivery is instant. At worst it would arrive an hour later but because its digital they release it with an automatic email. Send em an email.
 

LaochEire

Neo Member
I wouldn't advise that you gameshare at all. This is strictly against Sony's TOS and can get you and the person you're sharing with PSN banned. All those lovely savings are for nothing if you lose everything...
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrS
Top Bottom