Do you buy games at release or do you wait till it is cheaper?

[Nuke_em_05]

I never buy games at release.

Mostly because I don't pay attention to when games came out.

Usually works out cheaper, though, so bonus, I guess.

 

[EHKOS]

There are very few games I will buy at full price. Amazing Spider-Man because I had a manic episode and spent a shit ton of money I wasn't supposed to (although I did get Mafia 2 with all DLC on disc for $8 at the same time). Skyrim was a neccesity. If I can secure the Ultimate Loot Chest edition of Borderlands 2 I'll be buying that, and the only two other games I can see myself buying full price in the foreseeable future are Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us.

 

[Marik2]

I always wait when the price drops, especially when theres going to a GOTY edition with all the DLC in it.

Gets me more bang for my buck, and I always wait on Steam sales to buy new games.

Yeah Im a cheap bastard

 

[the doom cannon]

If I'm really into a game, in the beta tests and all that jazz, then I will buy the game on release. Examples: battlefield 3, guild wars 2, planetside 2(hopefully it's good). If I don't know what I'm getting though, I can't justify dropping 60 bucks on it. Take sc2. I'm not very good at rts games, though I played them a decent amount with friends. I was convinced by them to buy sc2 on release. Worst decision ever. I'm terrible at it (more so than other rts), and that makes it a terrible game for me to play. I haven't touched it in over 6 months. The only good thing I got out of it was a month of free WoW in which I played to level 45, then decided it really isn't worth 12-15 bucks a month and didn't purchase it.

 

[Lunatic High]

depends on how much I want the game I don't typically buy on launch day most of the time I think the last game I bought on launch day was Borderlands only because doing so would only cost 40$ was too sweet a deal to pass by for a brand newe release.

 

[Rawne1980]

I pay full price for roughly 1 or 2 games a year.

There is usually at least 1 game in a year that I look forward to and am too impatient to wait.

As for the rest ... I get them when I see them cheap on Amazon.

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

I wait for the price to drop now that I'm in university and money is tight. I'll only buy day one for games I'm really excited for like Assassins Creed 3 and Guild Wars 2, or for a developer I trust like Bioware or Bethesda.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Very rarely do I get games on release Usually 1 per year and this year it was My ME3 collector edition why would I go out and pay $120 every game on release when I can just wait 6 months and get it for $50

 

[Beautiful End]

I only buy LE at release. They still go down in price after a couple of months but there's a risk of someone buying it before me ('m looking at you, Killzone 3 LE). Other than that, I wait at least a month for a sale or something. But then there's those special cases when it comes to games. I bought Arkham City LE and I was happy and all. Then boom, months later we get the GOTY ed. Now, I don't regret getting the LE, but at the same time I do want that GOTY ed. So I don't know if I did well or not in buying that one on Day 1...

I've noticed the stores always get sales on new releases after a month or two. For example, Max Payne is on sale right now for 40 bucks.

 

[Darren716]

Usually I'll buy a game a few days after launch to make sure it's going to be worth my money after looking up reviews and reading a few forums.

 

[Goro]

I'm at least six months off the curve. I know there's going to be a GOTY edition, with all the DLC, and it's going to be 50-60% of the originals price. Which is why I still haven't played Skyrim. But Fallout N.V is cheap, and has all the add ons, which is where i'll send my $40. (Australian pricing, don't get me started on why US pays $60 and we pay $100 - and our dollar is worth more!). There are a few things I'll get day one, Colonial Marines is on I'm putting money aside for, unless it starts to look like the XBox AvP (broke my hear, much like Prometheus). I have two kids and a mortgage, and while I read all the gaming literature, and keep up with reviews and news, I simply can't afford day one purchasing.

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

I'll usually wait for a price drop before I buy a game. That's not really a conscious financial decision, I'm just a really effing slow gamer and I'm usually preoccupied with the last big release when something comes out. The only exceptions are Pokémon games. I always preorder that shit, and I always have it on release day. Because my raging fanboy boner cannot be delayed in its gratification.

 

[soren7550]

I hardly ever get new games, but in the rare instances that I do, I tend to save up for a while and get it new on or close to when it's released.

 

[mirage202]

I used to buy games on release, though with the way things have been going the past couple years I've slowly learned to wait a week or so after release to see what the general consensus is.

Better to be patient and not get screwed out of hard earned cash.

 

[Casper Andersen]

I just find it sad that game companies foster this behavior in us, with these price points and "complete editions" there are a lot of mid-level games that have no chance to sell big on release.

I think Jim Sterling has talked about having new price points, like 40, 50 and 60$, the problem is then, what company is gonna own up to that their game is "only" a 40$ game?

I believe things like Dark Void or Lollipop chainsaw would have been able to move a lot more units on release if they had 50$ or 40$ price point at release.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

If it's a game I'm looking forward to or from a good developer I'll think about getting a CE copy on release, otherwise its a Steam sale purchase.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

If I really want a game I'll pre-order it, or buy it on release.

Otherwise I wait until it hits the £15-20 mark, before I get it.

(I mostly buy 3DS games these days anyway...)

 

[Soxafloppin]

I wait, I rarely have to wait long.

My cut off price is £25. Thing is I have enough disposable income to afford maybe 2 or 3 full priced games a month but I honestly don't know how someone can justify paying £50 for a game.