It’s the time of year when I look at the credit card and see where all the money went…
Steam: 182
Green Man: 108
Humble: 92
Gamebillet: 65
CDKeys: 39
Gamersgate: 27
Origin: 5
Apparently I spent $518 last year, or $10 a week, which seems pretty damn ok on a $ per hr basis.
How about you?
I generally drop about $50-75 each big Steam sale (summer and holiday) and then never play the games in question, and then grab a couple of fresh releases people on Qt3 are super excited about every year that I also never play. Sub $200 total annually.
My tabletop RPG habit is also pretty cheap insofar as I’m not hooked into any systems that just drop a dozen splatbooks a year anymore. This year has actually been one of the priciest, as I got a couple of brand new cool systems (Blades in the Dark and Forthright Open RPG) as well as the second-ever official splatbook for Fate Core, the Adversary Toolkit. Toss in an extra set of dice I bought for GenCon, the miniature speaker I bought primarily for my gaming duties, and some guitar picks and fake gold coins I bought as thematic tokens to use during some of the sessions I wrote, I’d say I’ve gotta be getting close to $100 for the year. . . for a hobby that generally produces 12+ hours/week of fun and games :)
The year ain’t over yet.
A few years ago I introduced, as an experiment, a firm cap of $200 on games (but excluding hardware). I discovered that I wasn’t any less happy, so I decided to maintain it. As an upside, I get to continue playing all the same games as everyone else – just usually a year or so later.
That said, I’ve only spent about $90 of that cap this year and I don’t anticipate any more purchases before January. I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of multiplayer games (7 Days to Die, Minecraft, Space Engineers, etc) and Early Access games (Kerbal Space Program, RimWorld, Stardew Valley, etc).
I’m currently at $577 for the year ($49+ per month). My goal was to spend half of what I did last year, but I’m a little above that. This year is the lowest I’ve spent since 2010, so I’m pleased with the reduction. Next years goal will be <= $40 per month.
I refuse to answer this on the grounds that my wife may find out.
Hey we’re like twins…
Ha yeah, this information is so need-to-know that I don’t even know what I spent. And I think that’s how I want it:
It depends wildly on if you count hardware, like when I bought a Switch and a nice HDR TV for my PS4 Pro (which itself I got right at the tail end of 2016, not even a year ago). Or my new Geforce gaming monitor and a 1080 Ti to drive it. Because even without all that stuff I don’t really want to think about it. But WITH that stuff!? Ugh. I maybe need to diversify my hobbies.
I noticed our numbers were very close. Maybe we bought exactly the same games too! :-)
Way too much, specially last year.
About $75 a month or so, and that’s not counting boardgames (which is probably higher this year). Of course some of it can be counted as work research, but it’s thin ground to thread.
Next year it will be very little, though, since I don’t think I will have ANY free time at all, so on average I can bring it down ove the years.
Hmm, let’s think… I spent all of $40 on games this year. Plus another $80 of you count the SNES classic I am getting for Christmas from my wife.
I’ve also played less than 100 hours of video games for the year so…
2 hours a week? That’s dangerously close to videogames < sex, and who wants to be in that state?
Too much, my friends. Too much.
Well I played Witcher 3 early in the year, and I spent 3 months out of state/ country for work . Between those two I spent most of my time looking for a new job so, yeah. 2 hours a week, but only 2 hours total since August ( not counting taking my turns on Ascension and Race for the Galaxy on my phone)
Literally quintupling me here buddy!
I would really love to be able having 2 hours of sex a week. Or even month!
Huh. Now that I think about it, this year I’ve actually spent more on boardgames (~$300?) than computer games. That’s a first!
Oh, yeah. I’ve easily doubled my spend on board games. The Hogwarts Battles sets, Captain Sonar, various Xwing stuff. Hell im probably closer to $200 than $100, which would be quadrupling it.
Less than I spend on eating out, movies, drinking, vacations, brewing, boating, (insert most other hobbies here,) and even streaming for my Roku’s.
Approximately more, however, than satellite radio, Pandora and Spotify combined for the year.
So … $200-400 a year?
As part of financial planning, you should apply logic based on payback for that amount, tallying up your gaming TIME for the year, as well as the cost.
[quote=“Skipper, post:19, topic:132975”]… your gaming TIME for the year …
[/quote]
That’s my real constraint right there. Not that I’m rolling in cash mind you but I’ve only got so much time available to me for myself in a given day, basically when everyone else is asleep.