Poll: Buying New Games For The Full Price

[4RM3D]

How often do you buy new games for the full price?

Spoiler: More clarification about the question

The description 'full price' might be a bit vague. So let me give a clear definition for this thread: the full price is the cheapest price for which you can get the game new and within the month of release.

The poll is only for those game you actually thought of buying during their release. If you suddenly got interested in an old game and bought it (for a few bucks), doesn't count.

Personally, nowadays I rarely buy new games for their full price. There are a few reasons for that. Things that have changed over time...

1) More and more (good) indie games and bundle sales
2) I am more more patient and in no rush to play games ASAP.
3) I have less affinity with games.
4) I am less looking forward to game releases.

To expand on the last two points. In the old days I was literally counting the days till the release of the game. I can still remember looking forward to Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Diablo 1 and 2, amongst others. Nowadays that feeling is gone. Too many triple A studios screw up. So I can't really look forward to games anymore. And if I can't get excited, I might as well wait till a sale comes up.

What about you?

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I voted Sometimes

Though maybe I should have voted Rarely.

If there's a game I'm particularly looking forward to, yes, I'll buy it on launch for full price. There's usually one or two of these in a given year.

Lately I've been shifting my buying habits, though. Let's look at Max Payne 3 for example. It's a game that I should have purchased on launch for full price at $60, since I love the first two and I was very much looking forward to the third. I didn't though, because I already had a few games I was playing, and it didn't make sense to me to buy a game just to have it sit on a shelf until I could get around to playing it. So I waited. Five months later I bought it discounted down to $15.

Considering how much I saw the price drop in such a short period of time, I could see myself just being patient and making all of my game purchases 5 or 6 months after launch.

 

[Rawne1980]

I did up until Dungeon Siege 3. But even before then it was rare I bought sparkly new games at full price unless I really wanted it.

So we come to Dungeon Siege 3.

Shit game, average gameplay, generic fantasy story, forgettable characters, bland environments and a god awful camera. On top of that the game can be finished 100% in a few hours.

For £40.

Biggest waste of money i've ever owned. I played it once, for 7 hours total (finishing the game, all side quests included) and returned it to the store I got it from 2 days later.

After that I waited until I saw them on Amazon or used for bargain bin prices or, more recently, in Steam sales (or elsewhere on digital download sites in a sale).

Never again will I buy a game at release for full price.

Ever.

Also, as Tuesday said above, a lot of games drop drastically in price after a few months so it's cheaper to wait.

I bought Mass Effect 3 a few weeks after it's initial release on Amazon for £9.99 rather than the £39.99 they wanted everywhere else I looked.

 

[krazykidd]

Very rarely . I don't feel the need to play games on release and talk about them on internet forums . Games i did buy on release were , Persona 4 Arena , and Dark souls in the last year. Totally worth it.

 

[SovietSecrets]

I rarely do it now since I found Gamedeals on Reddit.

 

[BearMinerals]

I voted (almost) always, but I probably should have picked sometimes. I buy new games all the time, but thanks to Steam and Amazon, they're usually slightly below full price within a few days of their release if they aren't a huge release à la Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed.

 

[Razentsu]

Rarely. Nowadays, unless it's a fighting game I am highly anticipating, there is nearly no chance I'll buy that game on day one.

 

[The Nossa]

I don't pay full price; I pay the online price (which is 50% cheaper for me)

 

[SecondPrize]

I haven't purchased a AAA title new since Halo:Reach, and that was the first in a long time. I'm patient enough to wait for steam sales for anything on the pc. When I was back in the states I just used my blockbuster $20 a month dealie to rent new console releases and play through em. I kinda wished I'd bought X-Com new, as it would have been worth it, but it's more than worth what I paid during the steam sale. I paid full price for FTL at the end of the Thanksgiving sale, only to have it go on sale when I got back to Europe but it worked out to be about the same without having to pay the VAT and in euros. There's no real reason I do this, there have been so few spectacular releases in recent years and the number of developers on my instant-buy list has shrunk alarmingly so I've been more cautious on how I spend my video game bucks.

 

[The_Echo]

Almost always. If I have sufficient funds, I'll buy a game as fast as I possibly can after launch.

I tend to speed through games, and always want something to play, so patience isn't really... 'snot really my cup of tea.

 

[Doom972]

Rarely. There are few franchises that make me excited enough to get as soon as possible. I get most of my game through Steam Sales and Humble Bundles. This year I only got Hitman: Absolution and Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition for a full price.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I suppose it depends. I bought Dishonored, Skyrim and Resident Evil 6. I bought them on release at full price for various reasons. Either I wanted to take a risk on the IP (Dishonored and soon The Last of Us), I'm a long time follower of the series (The Elder Scrolls and soon Bioshock: Infinite) or because it's a tradition I've upheld for as long as I've been gaming (as is with Resident Evil, I've gotten every game on release since I was old enough to play them). All of this being said, they were all pre-ordered and purchased online which meant I got them all for a lower price then I would in store. Then there have been times like Arkham Asylum where I had some left over cash and it was an impulse buy.

But more often than not I find myself waiting, because the value depreciates quite rapidly and a month or so later I can always snap it up new for the £19.99 - £24.99 mark.

 

[DanielBrown]

Rarely. I used to do it with the few games I was intrested in, but these days I don't even bother with that. Usually wait until the price has dropped by at least 50% before I buy the game.

 

[munx13]

Almost never.

The only ones I can remember are L4D2 (which I didn't buy myself, but asked as a gift) and Symphony, which was only about $10 on launch.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

Voted Rarely, mainly because I hardly ever buy games that have just been released. The one time I can say that I did was for Pokemon White 2. I generally don't buy new games due to a lack of a good enough PC to run new releases.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Only if it's something I absolutely want to play on release, as was the case with Dishonored and XCOM this year.

Thinking about it I've probably only bought on release or thereabouts (outside of digital distribution) about five or six times in my life, bought full price maybe nine or ten times, I don't care much about keeping up with what's new.

Admittedly I've bought new due to fancy limited editions, so I'm not sure if it counts; only one I've regretted was Assassin's Creed 3, for fairly self-evident reasons.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

God damn, didn't read the clarification and look where that got me. I have been known to immediately look it up on eBay and settle for 40 dollars, considering 110 is the norm here in Australia. Thankfully for me, I often discover great games long after launch. It's a bitter multiplayer but often worth it in price.

 

[Catfood220]

If it is a game that I really really want, I will pay full price for it on launch day. If it is a game that makes me think it has potential I will wait until it gets down to about £20.