Win a Steam Deck OLED or a golden egg game bundle in Fanatical's Mystery Egg Bundle

Let's see what one shiny euro will get me... Heaven Dust!

Resident Evil but everything is kawaii? Worth a try!

These mystery bundles are always a crap shoot just like the lottery and the most you'll get out of all of this are games that a lot of people didn't want. Good luck to anyone that wins the golden egg or Steam Deck OLED but don't expect anything more from buying these bundles

Whenever there's a gambling bundle/promotion going on, you're almost guaranteed to get garbage that's altogether worth a lot less than what you paid for.

As much as I want a Deck, that's a big no from me. I'm not that foolish.

I still need to grab one of these! Only the 1 or 5 key options, though, which is what I usually go for these days.

Quoting: ToddLThese mystery bundles are always a crap shoot just like the lottery and the most you'll get out of all of this are games that a lot of people didn't want. Good luck to anyone that wins the golden egg or Steam Deck OLED but don't expect anything more from buying these bundles

Quoting: artixbtwWhenever there's a gambling bundle/promotion going on, you're almost guaranteed to get garbage that's altogether worth a lot less than what you paid for.

As much as I want a Deck, that's a big no from me. I'm not that foolish.

I've mostly done really well out of Fanatical's mystery-bundles. However, it's important to note that my Steam account is only two years old, and a lot of what I've gotten during that time has been older titles or oddball indies that I didn't mind giving a chance to. I've only ever gotten one bundle with only one keeper for me, but the bundle was still cheaper than buying the game elsewhere, and I was able to find new homes for the rest anyway.

To back that up, I've bought 20 bundles of various sizes over the last two years, and these were what I got;

Spoiler, click me

10 Second Ninja X
12 is Better Than 6 (x3)
Achtung! Cthulu Tactics
AER Memories of Old
American Fugitive (x2)
Anna's Quest
Anomaly Korea
Aragami
Automachef
Autonauts (x2)
Banners of Ruin
Biped (At the time, redeeming this got you Screaming Chicken: Ultimate Showdown for free, too.)
Black Paradox
Bot Vice
Call of Juarez
Caveblazers
Danger Scavenger
Dead End Job
Deadly 30
Desert Child
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Dishonoured (x2)
Dishonoured 2
Dog Sled Saga (x3)
Doodle Derby
Doom (1993)
Doom 2016
Doom 64
Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh
Dustforce DX
Edolie
Eternal Edge+
Fantasy Wars
Fury Unleashed
Game Dev Studio
Garden Story
Garfield Kart
Gigapocalypse
God's Trigger
Golf Gang
Goodbye Deponia
GRIP: Combat Racing
Hexus
Hidden Memory - Neko's Life
Home Sweet Home
Hot Brass
Hotshot Racing
I Am Fish
In Between
Iron Fisticle
Just Die Already
Kingdom Rush Frontiers
Last Word
Lost Words: Beyond the Page
Mad Tracks
Monsters' Den: Godfall (x2)
Morkredd
Nomad Survival
Nuts
Orbital Bullet - The 360° Rogue-lite
Paper Beast - Folded Edition
Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic
Point Perfect
Porcunipine
Punch Club
Quake
Quake II
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
Safety First!
Shiny
Skyhill
Smoke and Sacrifice
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Sparklite
Stick it to The Man!
Stronghold Crusader 2
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Survivalist
Syberia
Terrain of Magical Expertise
The Deed: Dynasty
The Deed II
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition
The Flame in the Flood
The Long Reach
The Mummy Demastered
The Spectrum Retreat
The Wild Eight
They Bleed Pixels
Those Who Remain
Trolley Problem Inc.
Turok (x2)
Unmemory
Unrailed!
Valfaris
Velocity Ultra
Voyage: Journey to the Moon
War Solution - Casual Math Game
Wargame: European Escalation
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
XIII Classic
Yono and the Celestial Elephants

I've always gotten contents worth more than I paid, and it's been a good way to both build up my library, and step out of my comfort-zone. But that's just me.

Anyway, just wanted to show the sorts of stuff that I've gotten.


Last edited by Pengling on 22 April 2024 at 8:51 pm UTC

Sorry for the double-post, but I grabbed the 5-key option and just had to share how it went;

Songbird Symphony, currently £13.99 on Steam, and a game I've had my eye on for ages.

Hellstuck: Rage With Your Friends, currently £6.99 on Steam, and though I'd never heard of it before, it's totally my sort of thing.

White Noise Online, currently £4.29 on Steam. Apparently this was originally on the Xbox 360 and people seem to think well of it; I'm not averse to the occasional horror game, so this one's a keeper, too.

Cook, Serve, Delicious, currently £6.99 on Steam. Exactly my sort of unusual title, and one that people have recommended to me before.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, currently £2.84 on Steam for the next seven hours because it's got a Daily Deal price today, but usually £11.39. I've heard many good things about this one and probably have no excuse for not owning it already.

Total spend: £4.79 for £35.10's worth of games (or £43.65, if we put Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion at its usual price). 5 out of 5, would mystery-bundle again, and this is why I like these bundles.

Quoting: artixbtwWhenever there's a gambling bundle/promotion going on, you're almost guaranteed to get garbage that's altogether worth a lot less than what you paid for.

As much as I want a Deck, that's a big no from me. I'm not that foolish.

Sorry, you're talking out of your ass. I agree with Pengling, as I too have bought many mystery bundles from Fanatical and always, always gotten a huge winning. It goes without saying that you can't expect to win the top tier prizes, that's the lure. If it happens, happy days! But you don't buy mystery bundles with an expectation to get something specific or extremely valuable.

I'll drop a little recap here which I posted in the GOL Discord back in August 2023. Just one quick example. Maybe the prices are different now, I don't really give a toss as I'm illustrating a point.

Summer Mystery Bundle + BONUS: Mostly Positive - Mystery Game
Bundle price: 13,31€

Windows
4,99  2013 - Garfield Kart
19,99 2014 - Styx: Master of Shadows
14,99 2018 - Bunker Punks (this was the bonus game)
10,79 2018 - I am not a Monster: First Contact
14,99 2019 - Automachef
11,79 2019 - Brunch Club
14,99 2019 - Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
39,99 2019 - RAGE 2
9,99  2019 - Re-Legion
14,99 2020 - Animal Rescuer
24,99 2020 - Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
21,99 2020 - Röki
16,79 2021 - NUTS
10,99 2022 - Trolley Problem Inc.
14,99 2023 - Backfirewall_
Windows games total price on Steam: 247,25

Linux
12,99 2015 - Ironcast
5,99  2016 - Rencounter
0,90  2016 - Wayout
16,99 2017 - Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition
19,50 2017 - Tacoma
9,99  2018 - Omen Exitio: Plague
Linux games total price on Steam: 66,36

Whole bundle total price on Steam: 313,61

I invite everyone to do their own math on this one.

Quoting: PenglingSorry for the double-post, (...)

Quoting: dpanterSorry, you're talking out of your ass. (...)

Well, I'll be damned. Indeed, I was wrong. I based my estimates on the countless times I ran across people buying "mystery bundles" on other sites, and getting half a dozen <0.10 EUR keys out of them.

Indeed, the value is there. I suppose they were bundle leftovers, which conveniently made it viable to offer them for such a low price (but also invalidates comparing to regular store price).

Indeed, they don't appear to be garbage, some of them at least. Probably the same reason as the one above.

Still, I find much more value in knowing what I get. Indeed, their not-so-mysterious bundles tend to provide a lot of value, and I make use of the fact quite often, and don't have to deal with keys I don't need.

Lastly, the biggest reason why I was so negative was that it is clear that this type of bundle encourages addictive spending behaviour. I know that gambling is technically legal, but whenever I see a service employ these types of behavioural mechanics, it feels wrong to me.


Last edited by artixbtw on 26 April 2024 at 8:20 pm UTC

Quoting: artixbtwWell, I'll be damned. Indeed, I was wrong. I based my estimates on the countless times I ran across people buying "mystery bundles" on other sites, and getting half a dozen <0.10 EUR keys out of them.

There are some rubbish key sites out there, but I'd have to say that Fanatical's definitely not one of them.

Quoting: artixbtwIndeed, the value is there. I suppose they were bundle leftovers, which conveniently made it viable to offer them for such a low price (but also invalidates comparing to regular store price).

Indeed, they don't appear to be garbage, some of them at least. Probably the same reason as the one above.

Oh for sure - Fanatical's clearly got the buying-power to do that. But we don't, so I don't feel that it's too cheeky of them (or me, haha ) to compare to the regular price, because that's all that we'd get otherwise!

Quoting: artixbtwStill, I find much more value in knowing what I get. Indeed, their not-so-mysterious bundles tend to provide a lot of value, and I make use of the fact quite often,

Oh man, I love those too! I've gotten plenty of good things out of them as well.

Also, their prices for single titles are very often cheaper than Steam, too. Back when I was waiting for Super Bomberman R 2, last year, I ended up pre-ordering at Fanatical because their price was a good chunk lower than the launch-day RRP and there was an offer on at the time where certain spends got you a mystery Steam-key as well. I did well out of that.

Quoting: artixbtwand don't have to deal with keys I don't need.

My rule for buying mystery-bundles is that I go for the cheap options, so I'm always likely to get at least one keeper that would've cost more than the bundle otherwise (and it's usually more than one keeper). Anything unwanted goes into a giveaway thread on the GOL forum.

Quoting: artixbtwLastly, the biggest reason why I was so negative was that it is clear that this type of bundle encourages addictive spending behaviour. I know that gambling is technically legal, but whenever I see a service employ these types of behavioural mechanics, it feels wrong to me.

That's totally fair, and I must admit that it's something I didn't think of because I'm not prone to that sort of spending myself (I was always the kid who never set out to "Collect Them All" with blind-bags, as well - I'd just pick up a few as long as I knew I'd be happy with any of the options ). I have to agree with dpanter on the below, though;

Quoting: dpanterIt goes without saying that you can't expect to win the top tier prizes, that's the lure. If it happens, happy days! But you don't buy mystery bundles with an expectation to get something specific or extremely valuable.

This is my approach, and it hasn't steered me wrong. For me, these are always "It'd be nice to get some random new stuff because there's not a Steam sale right now, and it'd be a neat bonus if I won a prize." type spends.

I can still remember how thrilled I was to get the Doom titles, too - they weren't something I'd've bought normally because I get motion-sickness from first-person games, and they prompted the discovery that a little at a time on a handheld doesn't make me queasy, which has opened the gates for me to try out more stuff than I ever would have otherwise.


Last edited by Pengling on 26 April 2024 at 8:43 pm UTC

I'm only in it for the golden egg and the Deck lottery.

I figure with a €1 egg my chance of winning goes from zilch to infinitesimally small. Buying a second, third, or even twenty eggs would still put me in the infinitesimally small bracket of winning, so I stopped there.

Even if I don't win I either get the joy of a random new game, or the joy of giving away the game to someone else!

Now Pengling, you seem to be doing exceptionally well at these, so don't go nicking the Deck too, that one is mine!

Quoting: whizseNow Pengling, you seem to be doing exceptionally well at these, so don't go nicking the Deck too, that one is mine!

HAHAHAHAHA! I'll do my best.