Guide to bundle threads

Information contained in each of the chart columns

🟢 Game

Content: The title of the game, together with a link to its Steam store page. If it's a DLC, it will have the '(DLC)' suffix.

• The charts display the title as listed in the Steam API (the title displayed when activating the game) which can sometimes be different from the title displayed on the store page.
• There are often cases in which the titles on your bundle purchase page (Humble Bundle, Fanatical) are inconsistent with the actual titles

Mouseover: A list of Steam tags applied to this item, plus some tags that indicate if the item is Steam limited or not

• Due to character limit constraints, this info is sometimes omitted, especially for long charts (example: Mystery bundles)

🟠 Ratings

Content: Review percentage and number of reviews.
Mouseover: -

⚪ Cards

Content: ❤ if it has cards, ("-" if it doesn't) and a link to the item page on SteamCardExchange
Mouseover: Displays the number of cards

🟡 Cheevos

Content: 🏆 if the game has achievements ("-" if it doesn't) and a link to the item page on AStats.nl
Mouseover: Displays the number of achievements

🟣 Details

Content: Various details about the item:

• CV value and a link to all SG giveaways using this item. See the remarks below regarding the CV displayed.
• Icon indicators for the item state. See the Icon Legend below for explanations about each icon.
• AppId / SubId (for easy copy-paste in the search function, when creating a giveaway)

Mouseover: -

⚫ Platforms

Content: the platforms on which the item is available, as indexed from the Steam API.

• W = Windows, M = MacOS, L = Linux
  Steam Deck info: D✅ = verified, D🟡 = playable, D❌ = unsupported, D? = unknown

Mouseover: -

🔵 Bundled

Content: The number of times this item has been bundled and a link to its ITAD page.

• Special bundles (Mystery, expensive Pick & Mix etc) are not included in this count. However, when the item was previously included in such bundles, an "*" is appended to the bundle count.
  Note: On 11 Feb 2024, ITAD underwent a full redesign which made the old links to game pages and search URLs obsolete. The charts created prior to this date will thus have broken links, until a redirect policy will be implemented on ITAD.

Mouseover: A list of bundles that featured this item.

• Because the ITAD bundle database is not as comprehensive as the Barter.vg one, the bundle count and details are fetched from Barter.vg.
• To indicate the current status of a bundle, the following icons are used:
  ▶ = ongoing bundle, ■ = ended, ⏸= perpetual (no end date specified)

🟤 Retail price

Content: The retail price in USD and a link to its ITAD page.
Mouseover: The retail price in EUR.
Note: On 11 Feb 2024, ITAD underwent a full redesign which made the old links to game pages and search URLs obsolete. The charts created prior to this date will thus have broken links, until a redirect policy will be implemented on ITAD.

Sample chart row

Icon Legend

☠ - Game was free at some time and does not grant any CV if given away.
⚙️ - Steam is learning about this game, therefore some features will be limited (no card drops, achievements won't count, the game will not give a +1 to your library etc.) More Changes Addressing Fake Games
🔞 - Adult-content / requires age check
🚫 - Banned (the game will not give a +1 to your library and will not appear in your public library)
⎚ - Delisted (no longer available on Steam) / Purchase disabled (the store page still exists, but the item can't be bought any more)
❤ - The game has cards (info not available for packages)
🏆 - The game has achievements (info not available for packages)
* - the game was featured previously only in Build-a-Bundle / Pick & Mix bundles that are usually priced too high for the games to receive partial CV (exclusions apply) and are therefore not included in the bundle count.

FAQ

The game was not bundled before, yet I see it having partial CV in the chart. Why is that?

For new-to-bundle titles, the chart aims to list the target CV that you will obtain after the SG moderators process the bundle for CV adjustment.
When switching from full CV to partial CV for such an item, an effective date is also inputted (bundle release date) and your CV will be retroactively recalculated based on this date.

The game link does not lead to a Steam store page. Why is that?

It happens often in bundles (mostly Humble Bundle) that the keys provided are for subs that are not sold on the Steam store.
Since a lot of SG users use ESGST or RaChart for wishlist / library highlighting and since the highlighting does not work unless the title column contains a link to the Steam store or SteamDB, it has been decided to use the link as such, even if they might show as "invalid".

I want to create a giveaway for this item, but I can't find it on SG. Why is that?

It happens often in bundles (mostly Humble Bundle) that the keys provided are for subs that are not sold on the Steam store.
These cannot be indexed automatically by SteamGifts. In exceptional cases, moderators agree to adding these kind of packages manually but most of the times you will need to find another way to give that item away (for example, as the base game only).

Why is the bundle count different from what I see on ITAD?

Due to the fact that the ITAD bundle database is not as comprehensive as the Barter.vg one, the bundle count and details are fetched from Barter.vg.
The link will still point to ITAD though.

The item was featured in a Mystery / Pick & Mix bundle, but the bundle count is 0. Is that an error?

No. Items from special bundle like Mystery / Pick & Mix are not considered as "bundled" by SG (will still give full CV even after being featured in such bundles). Based on this logic, these bundles are also not counted as "bundles" in the chart, but rather as "deals". However, mouseovering the bundle column will show them in the list.

The bundle provides a key for base game + DLC, but the base game was bundled before. Why is the bundle count 0?

The package containing the base game + DLC and the package containing just the base game are two separate items and have different prices / CVs, therefore the bundle count is also considered per individual item.

What is a sub?

When you purchase something on Steam (or activate a key from a bundle), you purchase a subscription to some specific products (a sub).

Note: Subs can contain multiple items, some of which are not visible in your library.
Activation will succeed if there is anything included that you do not own (technically: app IDs and depot IDs).
Therefore, if the sub you just activated contains such an item that you didn't own already, then the key will be used up to add this hypothetical extra content to your account.

Example:
Sub 1 contains Item1, Item2
Sub 2 contains Item1, Item2, Item3 (not visible in the library)
You activate Sub 1 and when you check your library, you see Item1 and Item2 only.
If you try to activate Sub2 now, you'll see that it will also activate, because it contains an extra item: Item3. But if you check your library afterwards, you will still see only Item1 and Item2.
Note that Item3 can be an app / DLC, but it can also be a depot.

What does "RUN LOCK" mean?

During the first 3 months after the key activation, the game can run only in the countries belonging to the region defined by the sub that the key activates. This means that you won't be able to play the game if you travel (even temporarily) during these 3 months to a country outside of that region.
It was one of the systems Valve created against cross-region game purchases, getting cheap retail keys from third world countries, etc. You could VPN-activate such a key, but not play them in a higher-priced country (for three months).
Now that you cannot activate keys anymore that don't match your account region, it's really an obsolete system.