For some, buying games full price at launch is a fool’s game. And, to be fair to them, it’s difficult to argue with their logic. The arguments for buying a game at full whack are often floaty and ephemeral - whether it be riding the hype train, wanting to get in on the ‘zeitgeist’, or good old-fashioned impatience. Whatever your reason and no matter how cogent your logic seems to be, it’s difficult to argue against waiting being the smarter.
But we’re humans, not computers, we’re more often fuelled by emotion rather than logic. We’ve been sat around waiting for Doom Eternal, we want to play it RIGHT NOW goddammit. Give it three months and Doom Eternal will be 50%; give it a year and you can probably pick it up in a sale for the same price as a McDonald’s.
A further nail is driven into the Day 1 coffin by the simple fact that you are paying the most money for what is typically the worst experience. Typically, a game will come out with a few teething issues which are subsequently patched out in the months after launch. It could be game breaking, like Red Dead Redemption 2’s widespread boot-up and crashing issues, or it could just be frustrating, like Death Stranding’s unskippable cut-scenes, or The Witcher III’s input lag, or No Man's Sky’s, well, everything. Most of these widespread problems are patched out, usually be the time a game is half price. Folks are turning up a few months later and getting a superior experience for half the price.
For multiplayer games, things are arguably a little different. There’s a definite advantage to getting on the ground floor with an online game and learning its ins and outs. There’ll be plenty more content for new players further down the line, but they’re always going to have a knowledge hole compared to a seasoned player.
You’d think that would be it but really we’re only just scratching the surface on why anyone would or wouldn’t pick up a game at launch. For some, price is a total non-factor - they’ve simply got enough cash they don’t need to even think about waiting for a game to go on sale. Then there’s picking a game up at the same time as your mates. Wanting to buy a game at full price to support a developer. Running out of games to play. Banking on it retaining resale value. Being a first-party Nintendo title that’ll conceivably never drop in price. The list is practically endless.
But now it's over to your - are you into day one culture, do you often find yourself buying games at full price? Are your a bargain hunter who patiently waits until the cheapest possible deal?
Get voting and be sure to let us know why below!
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PC Specs
I usually look at the price history on sites like steamdb and camelcamelcamel, and decide if it's likely enough to go on sale. Factorio took a different route.
PC Specs
Depends on the publisher and the reputation of past game releases. I usually wait for Reviews to see if it's worth it or not.
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Ive im being honest here, I think we all here just wait for some juicy % on Steam or something, and when that time comes... we buy everything we can, right?
?
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To support the "little" indie guys I sometimes will, or even special editions if I personally think they are making something great or with potential.
Triple A titles, never.
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Only collector's editions. Heavy Breathing Doom Eternal.
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You'll get to be the somewhat cool kid at the Comic Con
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Wow a lot of ppl participated in this one.
KUDOS people.
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: D
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I buy games that i like, with cdkeys. I never go for sites like g2a or marketplaces generally, i usually buy them or from cdkeys.com which doesn't allow users to sell keys, or when it's diacounted on the main game platform, like the division 2 i bought yesterday from epic games store.
PC Specs
Just call of duty, that one has to be mine within the first week of its release. Sorry but i entered the pc gaming world with mw2 and since then i can't resist cod.
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After my experience with fallout 76. All the games that I owned are ALL pirated. It's better to save money on buying new PC components.
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Is that good thing to brag about tho?
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buys one broken game
"ALL games are garbage!"
#PirateLogic
PC Specs
So, because of one good game you are willing to basically punish all developers, even ones who make good games? Basically you are proving part of game industry that wants to only make live services how right they are, because you can't pirate those. Just saying. If game is good, buy it, because that is how good developers make more games. If no one would buy it, there would be no more new games.
PC Specs
I might if regional pricing is available from day one
PC Specs
Here is how I usually buy games: 1. Pirate the game. 2. If I liked it I add it to my wishlist in Steam. 3. Depending on how much I liked the game I buy it on full price or a discount (if it is a game with DRM like Denuvo I never buy it unless DRM gets removed, Such games that I bough are Doom, Hitman 2...)
PC Specs
So basically what you are saying is you rarely pay for a video game, and the odd blue-moon you will if and only if, you really like it and it doesn't have any form of DRM in it. Hmm...so out of the guess of say 100 video games you have stole, you paid for maybe 2? And this is good for PC gaming because why exactly?
PC Specs
I'm not saying I rarely pay for a video game, what Im trying to say is before I make a purchase I pirate it first to try it out and usually after about 2 hours decide if I should not buy it, or buy full/discount price. Sure you can use refunds but at some cases you might not get it or have to wait before getting back $
PC Specs
And for me it is usually paid for 100 games and pirated maybe 2 kind of situation lol . Ideally I could use a refunds but if a game takes 50GB or more it would take me too long to download it to be eligible for refund. Also at some cases DRM version runs worse than pirated one, so why should I pay for worse experience
PC Specs
Yeah,sometimes there is a Collector's Edition i want,e.g. Witcher 2 and 3,Darksiders series,and where i live,they tend to supply just a few copies due heavy price.So i go full price,full pre-order mode.
PC Specs
I will buy a game when is a Dev I believe in which is few & far apart as too many not up to scratch.
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Only DOOM.
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Thing is I've been playing games at release day for quite a while but I've always got them on discount somewhere. I think that Animal Crossing will be the first $60 game I buy at full price since like 5 years.
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Had to pre order from my favorite dev team CDPR, couldnt resist, so they got full price from me lol
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Something is wrong, why games sell the most copies on their first days?
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On occasion I will. Like for example I am a big fan and player of the Homeworld series and if a HM3 was launched tomorrow at $59.99. I would bite...
PC Specs
Never, especially when I almost exclusively play single-player games and nowadays DLCs and patches come out way later after game-launch, I'd rather wait and get the full experience at a cheaper price.
PC Specs
Sure, if it's a game that is worth the money, Doom eternal actually is a great example for me personally. seems to be an insanely good game I've been waiting for for over a year, hell I'm not gonna wait for a price drop that's for sure.
PC Specs
Only pay full price for certain MP games because as much as I love SP games, they've been sorely lacking the last couple of years and I cannot justify paying $60 for such short games we have been getting. It's part of the reason why I'm contemplating on getting Game Pass for PC specifically for SP games.