Buying full-priced games

[Valay]

It's sort of crazy to think that most games these days cost $60. Prices of handhelds games are rising (up to $40 on 3DS, $50 on Vita, maybe more in the future), and who knows what will happen next-gen. I don't know about you guys, but I find it difficult to purchase games at full-price these days. I mean, $50-$60 just seems really expensive.

These days I barely purchase games at full-price. I'm mainly only willing to dish out that kind of cash to the Marios, Zeldas, etc. What about you folks?

[Patrick]

I usually only buy full-priced games if:

1. It's a Nintendo-published game that just came out, since they rarely drop in price.

2. It's pretty much guaranteed to have a small print run and be highly sought after in a few months (e.g. Tales of the Abyss/Xenoblade).

3. It's part of a story-centric series I'm really interested in and don't want anyone giving me spoilers to (or why I almost don't regret paying full price for Portal 2). The same goes for games with online multiplayer that might drop off over time.

And when I say "buying full-priced games" I really mean "importing them from Europe or the US". New game prices in Australia are about $70 for 3DS games, $80 for Wii games and $100 for the PS3/360, which is crazy.

[thomas]

I import virtually all my games from the UK, even with the weak Euro it's cheaper that way. It ends up being about €30 for a full-priced game; half the price of the retail prices in the stores here. Also, Amazon is an absolutely amazing company with the best customer service I've ever encountered.

Yup, it's rare for 3rd party games to be good enough to shell out the full money for. Nintendo has set a ridiculous standard with generally incredible replay value.

[Triskiller]

I buy at full price when I know it will be worth it.

Most Nintendo series, most Valve games and some adventure and survival horror games are usually a must buy for me. Nintendo published titles like Xenoblade and The Last Story I will also buy in a wink, whether it's just to support the creator or to have another great game in my collection.

[pie]

I buy most nintendo games at launch for full price, but thats almost the only case. If the game is worth getting earlier than before a price drop then i probably will. If it the difference between used and new games, if the price isn't a huge difference, or i can afford it, i will usually buy new. With that being said almost all of my ps3 collection, which is about 23 games, are used. This is because Gamestop has been offering buy one get one free sales, so its been really easy to acquire some high pricing used games at low price. I've only bought one game new for full price, which is skyrim. Also i bought uncharted 3 for 50 dollars used. Other than that all my game purchases, new or used, have been from free-$31. So i am willing to buy full priced games, they just have to be worth it.

[TiggyPudding]

I very rarely pay full whack for games, unless like people have said its a mario/zelda or somethimg I'm desperate to have. Usually I either hang on & wait for some kind of sale, for example when It came out I was after Super Pokemon Rumble, and it was £35-40 pretty much everywhere I looked. Not long after Gamestation had it for £20. And now I finished it & traded it in at HMV and got £17. Ka-ching!

I also buy quite a lot of pre-owned games.

[Sr.Gabo]

I always pay full price Games at big stores sell at $100 or even more. Luckily, there is this store, kinda like a big market with independent sellers and they have everything and Video Games are part of that. Im good at haggling so I can get games at 50- something. Overall the price is 60 for PS3 and 50 for Wii.

[ehead]

Nintendo titles usually retain their full prices even after several months from release, so I have no choice for that. As for third part titles, its mixed. I buy a game full-price if its on my most anticipated list. Although, I remember seeing RE4 Wii for bargain price and I just bought it.

On another note, I find it quite funny that third party developers say that they're not developing for Nintendo systems because their games don't sell. But comparing 3rd party software with Nintendo titles, its obvious that Nintendo's titles are pricier and still, their games are best sellers. (I know there are other components but this situation is rather amusing.)

[thomas]

Nintendo games are pricier because they keep selling well regardless.

[Ron]

Yeah, I remember Twilight Princess being like $40 for years until it became a Nintendo Select title.

[Valay]

The one thing I love about buying the PS3 when I did is that I've been able to pick up a lot of games for dirt cheap. I don't think I've payed more than ~$20 for most games.

[ehead]

Let me just say that DD is a great place to buy games for dirt cheap. This is the first time I've really used any DD service and I'm pretty impressed with their pricing unlike their retail counterpart. The only sad part about using DD for me is the download speed, my ISP sucks or at least my DSL plan.

[thomas]

DD?

[ehead]

Digital Download services (Steam, Origin, D2D, etc.)

[thomas]

that's what I thought, "DD is a great place" got me confused though