Stop Paying Full Price for Video Games
It’s November, which means it’s Black Friday season again (the Friday after Thanksgiving now somehow lasts a full month) and online retailers – and the remaining traditional chains – are backing out of deals. Traditionally, this is the best/worst time for video game fans. The best because a lot of A-level games sell lavishly, some of them for the first time. And the worst part is, because you probably bought a lot of these games at full price when they came out, and – if you’re anything like me – you’ve barely played them since.
That’s why, to never feel the sting of unrealized savings, I vowed never to pay full price for a game again – and you should too.
FOMO versus reality
Before you rush to tell me I’m wrong, I’ll start with a word of caution: if you’re the kind of gamer who has to play a hot new game when it’s newest and hottest, then by all means, do it. . But be honest with yourself before you pre-order: how many games do you have left? How likely are you to actually start playing on launch day? Waiting even a few months can get you a substantial discount off the $50 or $60 list price, whether it’s through a sale at Target or a price cut on a digital download.
I’m not exactly a hardcore gamer – I currently only own a Switch, which I didn’t get my hands on until last year. However, I’ve accumulated dozens of games over the past year and a half, almost all of them heavily discounted, so I currently have more games in my inventory than I could ever play . You probably do too. So why not just play one of them while you wait for the new game to go on sale? I promise you, Celeste is still as good as it was the day you first downloaded it .
Bonus: If you’re not hungry for the latest games, you’ll also feel more satisfied looking forward to buying that PS5 or Xbox Series X without tearing your hair out – and by the time you finally win one, you’ll have a large library of old ones. cheaper games to choose from.
Avoid Mistakes, Enjoy the DLC and Don’t Get Burned
A bit of anticipation also means you won’t have to suffer the frustration of launch day bugs that thwart more established games than they really are (two recent examples are Cyberpunk 2077 and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet ). By the time you buy a game on sale, the biggest bugs will most likely be fixed – or too big to fix, meaning you can avoid them if you need to. Accordingly, you will also be able to explore more reviews. Yes, the biggest games are usually reviewed by major publications (like our sister site Kotaku) within the first few weeks. But a review from a professional trying to cram 20+ hours of gameplay into a few days so they can file timely critiques may tell you less that applies to your own gaming preferences than a review or video from a smaller source or content creator posted weeks in advance. . or months later. And because of the sheer number of games released every week, many indie games don’t get a lot of coverage until weeks or months after release. What’s more, many games these days – from major developers and indie studios alike – are getting new features and DLC improvements that could arrive weeks, months, or even years after the initial release. Sometimes these updates are free, so you can enjoy them right away if you wait. Other times the DLC will cost you a few dollars, but then again, often the wait means you’ll be able to buy a “luxury” version of the same, including all the DLC, for a lower price than you would pay for the base game at launch. (A good recent example of this: the indie hit Children of Morta was $ 22 on the Switch when it released in 2019; earlier this year I bought Children of Morta: Complete Edition, including the $7 DLC, for about $10.)
There is also the fact that even after your research and reading all the reviews, you may simply not like this game. And since returns are rare these days, especially if you prefer digital downloads, you’ll be a lot less annoyed if you pay $7.99 instead of $25, $40, or $60. ( Children of Morta is actually a good example too: I’m really glad I only paid $10 since even though I enjoy the atmosphere, it turns out I’m really bad at it and I can’t get past the first dungeon. )
Never pay retail price for a new game is easier than ever
It used to be much more difficult to buy cheap games. (I’m a bit old in gaming years, which means I remember when the only way to get a Nintendo game priced below retail was to hope it ended up as Player’s Choice.) However now the magic of the internet means you probably don’t have to do much to find every game on your giveaway wishlist other than being patient. Sites like DekuDeals (for Switch games), CheapAss Gamer , and many more allow you to create a wishlist of all the games you’re interested in and sign up to be notified when they drop in price. My DekuDeals wishlist currently has about 30 items, and on any given day, four or five of them are on sale. Useful bar charts show me how this day’s price compares to past sales so I can make an informed decision as to whether now is really a good time to buy, or if I should keep waiting and go back to my backorder instead. Just this week, in a flurry of pre-Christmas shopping, I bought both the latest Mario Party and the critically adored Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for a total of $60 – which is what I’d pay for either of them on the release date.
And that’s not even to mention subscription services like PlayStation+ and Xbox Game Pass, which give you access to dozens of top-notch games every month for less than the price of a single game on sale every month. Many big games will end up on one of these services, and in the meantime, provide you with plenty of other games.
Exceptions prove the rule
From time to time there will be games that reflect the zeitgeist and seem to require immediate play: Elden Ring and Animal Crossing are two examples that come to mind during the pandemic era. But consider how rarely these juggernauts show up. Far more common examples are the recent indie sensation Neon White , which created a huge buzz before release and kept everyone talking… for about five days. Then the interest of the gaming media switched to the next thing, and you had enough time to buy it at a discount .
I’m not saying I’ll never buy a full price game again. But every game I don’t buy until it’s on sale frees up $10, $20 or more in my gaming budget to spend on older (cheaper) games that will be just as satisfying. Just don’t wait too long – you don’t want to risk your must-have game turning into a vintage collectible .