Why It’s Smart to Be 10 Years Behind in Games
2011; Bethesda released Skyrim , Nintendo released two Zelda games, and Valve released Portal 2 . Overall, it has been a fantastic year for gaming. Now in 2021, pretending to be 2011 is not only a fantastic way to forget about this absolutely terrible year, but also a clever game strategy.
I suggest that you ignore most modern games and game consoles and waste your time and money on older systems. PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii and Wii U (yes, really); all of these consoles have excellent game libraries and can provide as much, if not more, fun and entertainment than the games released today.
You will save a lot of money
To play on the latest consoles, you will of course need one of the newest consoles. PS5 and Xbox Series X / S are notoriously hard to find; If you flip through a department store’s tech page from time to time, you most likely will never find one in stock. Instead, you need to use tracking sites to alert you of new deals, or to call you to see if any of your regular stores have items in stock.
Sony even has a system that allows you to sign up for a PS5 purchase for a specified period (imagine the privilege of buying a product). Even Nintendo switches are getting harder and harder to find . However, once you find one of these consoles, you have to pay the full price tags of the current generation.
Now consider getting to, say, PS3. You can buy one of these classic consoles for a fraction of the cost of a PS5 or even a PS4 (the latter is surprisingly very expensive to find online). Heck, you might even know someone who doesn’t use them anymore. This is the main advantage of old play equipment; After a generation or two, many people tend to let these consoles gather dust in their basement. Maybe they will sell it to you for a good price; maybe they’ll let you take it for free.
Let’s continue our thought experiment and move on to games. While new, undiscovered PS3 games are considered collectibles and require a high price tag, used games are very cheap. You can experience gems like The Last of Us for $ 10 , Dark Souls for $ 9, and Uncharted for $ 5 . Even a sealed copy of GTA V on PS3 only costs $ 20 on eBay.
When you buy games for existing systems, you tend to spend a lot. Sure, there are deals and discounts (especially on Steam), but new AAA games often cost $ 60- $ 70 long after the game was released. Nintendo, for example, is unlikely to lower the price of its mainstream products; while the Breath of the Wild is currently sold through Amazon’s , the Super by Mario Odyssey is $ 50 , and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still worth $ 60 .
You can learn from the past
Since modern games are so expensive, many of us rely on reviews to guide us through the buying process. Of course, pre-orders and early access ensure that we invest in the game before we know if it’s really worth our time and money.
You don’t have this problem when you are one or two generations away. Games released for PS3 and Xbox 360 (or PS4 and Xbox One) have been played, reviewed, and revised many times. A simple search is enough to find the best collections and this is a great place to start your journey. While these lists are not exhaustive, they can be a great starting point for finding the best games for your Wii U or getting started with collecting for the Xbox 360 .
Sometimes games that were not noticed when they were released eventually gain recognition and respect; in other cases, games that have gained acceptance are not really getting too old and may not be the best place to start or spend money. Being late gives you the opportunity to realize these scenarios and get the best of both worlds.
Today’s games will always be there
I love saving money, and I love getting great historical advice on what to play first, but above all, it’s nice to know that all of these games will still be here when I finally play them. No need to search and pay full price for PS5 right now; I haven’t even played all of my PS4 games!
I am not saying that you have to wait 10 years to test your PS5; Even a single generation of remote can make a console, games, or an entire suite much more accessible. Of course, some of us always want to be aware of what games have to offer, and that’s okay! That said, in my opinion, for those of us with a huge amount of classic games that we haven’t even started yet, it would be wise to choose to live in the past.