A reader explains how and why he’s never paid full price for a video game in over a decade and why he never gets a new title on day one.
There was some talk recently about what the term hardcore gamer really means but I think it’s clear that, like most things, it’s all a matter of perspective. I’m sure there’s lots of and fans that play the games non-stop and consider themselves hardcore, but to many other people they’d be considered casual gamers, since they only play the most mainstream of games.
I’ve been gaming for over 30 years and have a collection of literally hundreds of games from across those years, from the Amiga all the way up to the PlayStation 5. I know who is and I was downloading what would now be called mods for Doom off a BBS in the early 90s. I’m pretty sure most people would call me a hardcore gamer (if they didn’t just opt for nerd or something even less pleasant).
And yet I haven’t bought a brand new game, on day one, for over 10 years. Everything I’ve purchased has either been in a sale or second-hand, and where possible physical. This includes digital-only indie games, which I find are discounted just as often as anything else. The idea of spending over £100 on digital deluxe versions of games seems crazy to many people but to me the idea of paying £60 or £70 is just as mad. I doubt I’ve paid more than £50 for anything in over a decade.
I imagine I don’t need to spell out my main reasons for doing this, but I feel the ever increasing prices of games makes the savings I enjoy all the more important. Despite the maximum price of games constantly rising I find the minimum is exactly where it always was and even if a game is sold for £70 at the start it can quickly drop to £20 or less in a few months, or at most a year. I just checked Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and it was £23 on Amazon earlier in the month and is now £18 in their Black Friday sale.
I’m not sure Ubisoft fully realise this, but the moment Star Wars Outlaws got an August release date its fate was sealed. Every sensible person knew it would end up in the Black Friday sales and lo and behold it’s currently the headliner for most stores, at around £40 depending on the format. I’ve already picked it up.
Actually, I say Ubisoft don’t realise it but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the game’s big new patch and the Lando Calrissian DLC came out this week. I don’t think they realised the game was doomed when they first planned its release date, but they clearly know now that everyone’s waiting to get it cheap during Black Friday.
I’m not going to insist everyone do what I do or suggest anyone’s wrong for buying day one or soon after, but for me it makes no sense. Maybe if I was into multiplayer games I could see some exceptions, since nobody wants to start the latest Call Of Duty after everyone else has had six months of practice, but that’s not my thing so it doesn’t affect me.
I will say though that buying late not only saves money, but it means that the game itself is almost certain to be working properly, no matter what it was like at launch, and often it has some substantial DLC ready as well, that I don’t have to wait a year or more for.
The only downside is potential spoilers for story-based games, but I can’t say I’ve ever had any real problems with that, since it’s fairly easy to avoid the places that would obviously give things away.
It’s a great way to buy and enjoy games and allows me the freedom to take risks with what I buy, in case I don’t like it, since I know I can easily just resell the game on eBay if I don’t like it. There really is no need to buy games the way publishers want you too and I feel I’ve both saved money and kept my hardcore credentials.
By reader Tacle
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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