Gaming has always been quite an expensive hobby, from arcade games designed to keep us pumping in our coins to the emergence of Pro models of consoles that can have us double-dipping. Many of us grew up renting games rather than buying them (or having them bought for us). The furor around Mario Kart World's retail price, not to mention the speculation of the long-delayed Grand Theft Auto 6 costing around $100, is a stark reminder that new games can be very costly.
Every Video Game Confirmed and Expected to Be $80 So Far
Gamers are bracing for a wave of games released at $80 and while there aren't many on the market at the moment, more are sure to be on the way.
In trying times such as these, it's important not to go overboard on game purchases. There are certain pitfalls that are all too easy to fall into, and our wallets never appreciate them. Here are some of the mistakes we can all fall into when buying games.
Getting Sucked In By Sales
50% Off, You Say?
If you're a regular Steam user, you'll know just how dangerous this can be. A lot of the time, we're caught out not by single larger purchases, but by lots of smaller ones. Steam does a masterful job of creating the Likes of Humble Bundle, sets of games for much less than their full combined price. Individual titles, as well, are heavily discounted, as often happens on other storefronts like Nintendo's eShop.
It can be difficult to be selective when presented with a bargain, but there's a difference between saving on something you were already going to buy and impulsively picking up something from the "maybe play" pile because it's cheap. If you weren't going to, you didn't really save 75% by buying a game for $10 that's usually $40. You just spent $10. Sometimes, we can all feel as though we're collecting games rather than playing them. There are some super deals to be had, but be sure to think them through.
Not Waiting For A Sale
As Noted, A Bargain Is A Bargain
On a similar note, though, there are many games that we'd happily buy at full price, but anticipate a sale in the near future. Resources like Deku Deals for Nintendo's eShop can show you when a game was last on sale and what the price was then. If the game is currently on sale, it'll let you know how long it will last, and whether this is a new all-time low for the game in question.
Silksong: All Vendors Location (& What They Sell)
Here is how players can find the vendors who sell different items and tools in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Armed with this information, then, we can get a better idea of whether to wait to make a purchase. Sometimes, there's also a pre-order sale for an anticipated title. If you're not going to play a given game right away on release, you may be able to buy it cheaper by the time you're ready to.
Jumping In Straight Away On Seeing Review Scores
A Glowing Recommendation Doesn't Have To Mean A Purchase Then And There
Game reviews can be very in-depth and analytical pieces, as they should be to give the reader the best impression of the game in question. Sometimes, the reader will simply skip to the score a game's been given and, on seeing a 10/10, mark it as an essential purchase or a must-play immediately. The trouble is, this can result in an overly hasty purchase and a title that doesn't interest the buyer as much as they may have expected. As Anthony Taormina put it when explaining The Best War Games's own review process, for instance:
"One person’s 8 is another person’s 5. What you might think is a 10 out of 10 game could lose a point for a reason that won’t ever bother you."
"Must-buy" isn't necessarily a literal term, and it's all about your appreciation of the genre itself and, crucially, gathering some more information and context about the game before a purchase. There might be a dealbreaker in there that ruins your experience and could have saved you the purchase. At the same time, a title that has received lower scores might be a great fit for you if it isn't for the reviewer, and review bombing can be a disruptive force, too. Reviews can provide some interesting insight (some RPGs reviewed even better than Clair Obscur: 33), so it's good to take the time to absorb it all.
Not Considering Your Backlog First
When Will You Play It?
Time-limited sales have a way of suckering us in with "for when I get around to playing it" purchases. Naturally, if you fully plan and expect to, that makes perfect sense, but it's always a shame when a game just sits in your catalog unplayed. When tempted, it's always helpful to think about when you're likely to get around to playing the title in question, and if you aren't, hold off on the purchase.
Report Claims to Reveal How Often People Buy New Games
New marketing survey results reveal surprising gaming habits, showing that most people aren't buying very many new games anymore.
We've all got so many games that we'd like to play, that we've brought from previous sales, or are next on our lists, but there's always another game of a higher priority that finally releases. In the meantime, the backlog becomes ever more daunting. If you want to attempt to keep it manageable, impulse purchases can be a real mistake. Steam could use some features that help with backlog management, but dealing with it as best as you can yourself is also very helpful.
Falling For A Double-Dip Situation
Another Common Stumbling Block
Some of the biggest titles have a way of being ported around other systems, sometimes very late after their original releases (if there's been a remaster or remake, for instance). Should this be a favorite game, of course, the appeal of buying it again is high, and so we can arrive in a situation where we own a title like Resident Evil 4 on perhaps four or more different systems.
This isn't really a mistake if you're going to get the value out of the game again, and perhaps you might no longer use the other systems on which you have a copy. The thing to consider, though, is whether this isn't the case, and another copy is going to be a waste. If so, consider resisting the purchase.
Buying Digitally And Physically
Ultimately, You Shouldn't Need Both
Slowly but surely, physical games are becoming harder to come by. It's a sad trend, but one that makes an awful kind of sense from a cost perspective. Through streaming services, we consume much of our entertainment digitally today, and digital storefronts provide instant access to our games too (unless a much-anticipated release like Hollow Knight: Silksong has crashed them on arrival). Nonetheless, as the many physical-enjoyers in the industry will attest, downloading a game digitally isn't the same as owning it in a physical sense. It does nothing for video game preservation and leaves players vulnerable to server and access issues.
While a lot of major releases are still available physically, some are download-only. Still others, however, pull the predictable trick of releasing a physical version some months after the initial launch. The dilemma in these cases is this: To wait for the physical, or to go for the instant gratification of the download? Factors such as your patience, just how much you've anticipated the release, and whether a physical has been confirmed or you're merely hoping need to be considered. Ultimately, you might end up buying both versions, doubling your outlay - or more, as physical editions can be more costly.
I Need This Steam Quality of Life Feature Yesterday
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