Steam offers up a bunch of great last-minute MMO deals

Been looking for a last-minute gift for the MMO fiend in your life, but stuck for ideas? Or perhaps you have lots of ideas, but cash is tight this year. Well, if you said "yes" to either of the above, you'll want to head over to the Steam store and check out their MMO specials. With discounts ranging from 10% off all the way up to 80% off, you can net some crazy excellent deals on games from old to new.

Some of the titles up for grab over on Steam are:

EverQuest II Rise of Kunark starter pack or The Shadow Odyssey for $4.99 each
EVE Online for $5.00
City of Heroes for $9.99
Champions Online for $10.19
Final Fantasy XI for $11.00
Global Agenda for $44.99
Aion for $44.99

As a matter of fact, the only MMOs not currently on sale over at Steam are CrimeCraft and Warhammer Online, which we thought was kind of interesting. That said, demand is insanely high (as you can imagine) so the Steam store is getting hammered right now. With deals like this, along with other spectacular non-MMO titles (like we aren't all game junkies) to choose from, this may well prove to be the easiest, fastest, and most fun shopping you do this season. You know, barring that whole "slow webserver as everyone stampedes for cheap games" thing. Alternately, you could ask for Steam credit as a last-minute gift, since the sale will be on until January 3rd.

[Thanks, Ferno!]

Reader Comments (31)

If you're looking for a WAR deal check

http://www.ea.com/games/warhammer-online

It's on special for 10 bucks. Half off what it is on steam. I personally recommend it. I've been getting back in since playing the free trial and have been having a blast.

Champions Online for $10.19? Ouch, it's not even 4 months old.

Does that mean that because EVE is on sale for $5 it's in twice as much trouble? Or just that sale prices often don't mean much beyond "hey, this is cheaper?

I believe his point, as hinted at by the second half of his comment, is that Champions Online was $49.99 only a few short months ago. Generally when an MMO drops in price that much it's not a good sign - although it's great for gamers who want to give it a shot for a while.

And no, this does not apply to EVE, as it is a well-established game with a diehard fanbase that is steadily growing (if I recall a recent article correctly).

I'm not sure if you're a big CO fan that's trying to defend the game or what - but anybody who thinks about this for a couple of seconds should be able to realize the games are in two very different situations.

Every single game from Atari is discounted heavily in this sale; 7 of the 10 atari games on steam are more heavily discounted than CO.

Aion isn't as heavily discounted because it's from a different publisher.

I'm not saying that CO is perfect or without problems. But I'm tired of reading posts from folks that are just looking to bash the game.

The proof that this is a publisher-driven discount:
http://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Atari/

I got Stryker for $1.99, which to me is pretty durn amazing deal. I put this up one Facebook.

"The bricks & morter game store has been given another blow. The colossal sale on Steam. Games, and good ones like Stalker, for $1.99. Normally $19.99. A great way of making those that shelled out for the short and rather lame MW2 feel even more daft."

Dealing a blow to brick and mortar PC game retailers is slightly less spectacular when you consider just about everyone but Best Buy got out of the market years ago.

As with any FPS these days, the single player portion is never very long. You're paying for the multiplayer component more than anything else.

So here is my question. How do these discounts work? Do the game companies say "Hey drop this price for this long" or are they just allowed to do it? Do they have so many disttributions that they buy ahead of time and they can just do whatever they want?

And "experts" go and blame piracy for the decline of PC gaming, while it probably has more to do with exactly the fact that fewer and fewer stores actually sell them...

EverQuest II - OLD
EVE Online - OLD
City of Heroes - OLD
Final Fantasy XI - OLD

Champions Online for $10.19?

MEGA-ouch!

Oh noes, old games aren't good? Do the grafix need to be uber l33t for your coloriffic enjoyment?

Oh, wait, EVE has that in spades. FFXI has insane texture art. EverQuest II still looks good because the graphics are nuts. Even CoH still looks impressive.

Also, since when did the price of a game become a reason to burn it? A good game being offered at a decent price during a sale is somehow offensive? 'Tch, only to people who like spending 50 bucks on a game, I guess...

All do respect, and no offense intended Seraphina, but I think the point primetime was trying to make is that CO is still new enough that having a low price under $11 seems desperate when compared to the old games on that list with near the same prices.

It's not that we prefer to spend $50 to $10. Of course we don't. It's that already discounting a game that's only been out for a few months by that much sends out a red flag that maybe people aren't enjoying it or people aren't playing it.

I'm saying this having never played CO. I wouldn't know if it's a good game or a bad game, but I do see why a person would be taken back by such a large discount.

Or, a non-idiot will just say, "Hey, that's a great price for a game. I think I will buy it before it no-doubt goes back to full price."

Fallen Earth is not even that cheap, primetime has a really good point and I don't think it was meant to offend anyone or bash Champions, but it does seem peculiar for a brand new game and usually it means Cryptic is on hard times.

If 1+1=2

;)

And I'm not saying FE is a bad game either!! I love it, but it does have a smaller fan base and has been offered at half price pretty much all month long though it's just released as well. :)

When a game is slashed that much it means the seller (in this case Steam) isn't moving any "copies" of the game. Aion was released around the same time as CO and was only slashed to $44 from $50 because it's still selling. Just like you won't see a game like Modern Warfare 2 get slashed in price to much because these games are still selling well. For a seller to sell a still new game at only $10 it just says they're not moving any or as many copies as they thought they would.

Good game or not isn't the point, the point is they're practically giving away the game for free because they can't sell it. Sadly it's likely only going to get worse for Champions Online, what's going to happen when STO comes out and all the Cryptic "Fanboys and Fangurls" for lack of better words are jumping ship (no pun intended) from CO to STO? Unless they have some kind of "Subscription Pass" in the works, I'm thinking CO is in for even worse times ahead.

Why is CO cheap? Because they gain a potential subscriber. Companies can release the client for virtually free and still make a profit.

Eve Online was always a free download back when I started playing. (I cant remember but I think I paid an extra $5 on my first month subscription?)

You forgot Fallen Earth. I think it's half off; $25

The trick with Eve is to do the trial for 14 days. Then activate the account that you purchased for $5.00 at the end of the trial.

No need for that, the trial stacks with the 30 days. You can buy it right after creating the trial account, and you wont be limited by the trial restrictions while still having 44 days.

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Steam offers up a bunch of great last-minute MMO deals

Reader Comments (31)

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:33PM Cicadymn said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:40PM CCon99 said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 11:19PM DrDvorak said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 7:54PM Neurasthenic said

Posted: Dec 25th 2009 12:56AM DrDvorak said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 12:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:47PM dudemanjac said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:49PM Dumac said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 1:33PM MtthwRddl said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 1:38PM Seraphina Brennan said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:05PM Xtofer said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:08PM AlamoeJones said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:15PM Cendres said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:21PM Cendres said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 5:07PM CCon99 said

Posted: Dec 25th 2009 11:42AM Crode said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:06PM AlamoeJones said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 2:34PM Lateris said

Posted: Dec 24th 2009 3:06PM (Unverified) said

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