All Good Things

[Iwata]

So having bought Assassin's Creed III and Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen this week, I'm glad I waited all this time.

Bringing me to the question, with the amount of DLC that is later inevitably packed together in a bundle for half the price of the game on release with no DLC whatsoever, what is the point of buying games when they're launched anyway?

 

[DoPo]

what is the point of buying games when they're launched anyway?

You get to play it earlier. And maybe get a preorder bonus. That is if you care - I pretty much always wait half a year or a year at least before getting a game, so clearly I don't.

 

[badgersprite]

That's a good question, actually.

I guess it depends on how much you want the game in the first place. Like, obviously, if you're a huge Assassin's Creed fan, you want to play the latest Assassin's Creed at around the same time as all the other fans so you can all talk about it and enjoy it and get the rest of the story. If you don't care all that much about Assassin's Creed, then when you play it is pretty much irrelevant. You're more likely to want it when it's cheap and then, if you enjoy it, get the DLC.

In other words, the DLC bundles and lower prices are there to appeal to people who aren't particularly interested in the game and maybe wouldn't otherwise have tried it. People who are really interested in the game are going to get it as soon as possible.

 

[The_Scrivener]

Yeah, basically I only get it asap if I'm dying to play it (Bioshock Infinite), but a lot of the time I'll wait a bit if I feel like it is going to be DLC-overloaded and I can get a GOTY [sic where applicable] edition with a ton of stuff.

Important distinction: As long as it is available and it is by a company I want to support, I'll buy new. Skyrim was the last used game I bought--in response to the disastrous PS3 bugginess. Didn't feel like I should pay full price for a product that wasn't finished, so I didn't.

But in general, new at any cost.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

The most obvious reason for me is avoiding spoilers. Spoilers can happen anywhere and at anytime and can ruin a game's story for you and the longer you wait the harder it gets to avoid them.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well they can get more expensive if the game is rare the longer you wait but usually if you are patient there is little downsides to getting the game later. In competitive games it can be bad because obviously you lose practice time but thats only if you care about that.

If you can afford games new though then there is no reason not to, some like to wait some dont I used to be the latter now I am the former it all depends on how much you have to have the new release.

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, at the most basic level the point is that publishers don't care about sales after the first two months or so, unless they're like Atlus and not driven by a single-minded goal of siphoning as much money as they can from their consumer base.

To take the extreme, if nobody bought games outside of one or two franchises, let's say Phone of Business and Giant Ring, at launch because they wanted to wait for whatever reason, publishers would think those games make no money and would likely have to sack multiple development teams or entire studios to recoup their lost costs. Then they would try making something that does sell, which would likely mean copying those two franchises. Cue the rabid screaming of gamers everywhere driven insane and the subsequent fall of civilization as we know it.

On a more complex level, it depends on how much you care about DLC, how much it actually relates to the story, and how much you want to support games such as the one that has your interest -- In my opinion at least. Contrary to popular belief, there isn't a whole lot of single-player DLC that's literally just lifted right out of the story to be sold later for a premium price. Also, not every game is guaranteed to have DLC, or at least single-player DLC.

 

[RustlessPotato]

Phone of Business and Giant Ring

I stared at them for a while before i got it and now i can't stop laughing ^^.

O.T

I don't see the appeal of buying new either. Games that have yearly releases and are mostly focused on online play have the advantage of buying early, because most of the fans will just buy the newer one, leaving the old online community somewhat diminished...

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

My current financial situation is forcing me to wait to get games (even those like Bioshock Infinite that I was dying to play), and I don't regret it one bit. In the past I've bought games at launch only to feel like I didn't get my money's worth out of them, so I'm OK with waiting (still, it does suck when you miss out on free bonuses and such, but hey, it's not going to kill anyone). As an added bonus, it's given me time to think about whether I really wanted a game rather than just buying it for... some reason.

 

[Tazzman]

Other than to avoid spoilers I don't really see the point of buying games at launch. You can't go wrong when stores offer DLC + the full game for much cheaper

 

[MysticSlayer]

There are many reasons, but I'm going to assume the person in the following examples is a logical individual who wants the DLC and also has self-control over their spending:

You might want to buy it early because around the time of release is when there will be the most discussion on the game. If you want to engage in that discussion, it helps to have played the game, not to mention you can enter conversations about it, either online or with friends, without having to worry about someone spoiling major plot points for you. On the other hand, if you have polite friends, then they may try to pressure you into playing it so they can talk about the game without having to worry about spoiling major plot points for you.

If a game is centered around multiplayer, then buying early also has the advantage of getting a head start on developing skills for the game (though at this point, a lot of games like BF and CoD really don't change enough to warrant an early start). There also is the appeal of developing your own way of play rather than coming in after everyone else has already found out the best ways to play.

In a much less likely scenario, some actually understand how the business works and how important sales are when they occur close to the release date. If they feel like giving the greatest support they can to a developer they like, then they may just buy at release. If the game is good, they can give further support by buying the DLC separately.

Finally, there are just simply games out there worth the $50-60 that they are on release. One reason I enjoy the RPG genre so much is because quality is really the only determining factor in if it is worth the release price, as length is generally not an issue. A good multiplayer game can almost always pull this off, given that they have a near limitless length. Of course, all this depends on what a person deems worthy of $50-60.

 

[The]

Depends on the game. If a game is so good that it can't wait, like Far Cry 3 for me, then it's worth it to play it earlier. If I'm unsure about a game or if it has a shit-ton of DLC, Borderlands 2 in this case, I can wait for the complete edition.