I’ve found that lately, with the number of great games and how quickly they go on sale, I buy very few games at full price. There are some that I preorder (Crackdown 2, for example, and Dragon Quest IX) but these are exceptions. I’m just curious about the breakdown.
Also, does anyone have any good stats on the general percentages? How many of a game’s sales could be said to be at full price?
Almost none. The last one was Mass Effect 2, and that was only because I was trading in a bunch of stuff and it was the only thing out that I really wanted. Last one I pre-ordered was Skate 3, and before that was probably Skate 2.
I occasionally go to buy something brand new but usually come away with something cheaper instead.
Went to get Bioshock 2 when it was released, bought the recently released Stalker 3 instead for much less money.
I think about the only games I can see paying full price for in the next 6-12 months are Fallout: New Vegas and Civ V. This is only because I might be tempted by the collectors edition.
Otherwise I will wait on both and buy them after launch digitally. Might be hard with Civ V because they have region priced it (a lot ore expensive to preorder for Aus currently).
Using Gamefly means I almost never buy games at full price. For most multi-platform games, I play the 360 version I get from Gamefly, and then wait for the PC version to get really cheap if I feel the game is good enough to own.
I say about 25%. Xbox live arcade titles make up the bulk of that. The only 3 games this year I’ve bought at the $50 or more mark were Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, and Alpha Protocol.
If we’re talking AAA games, it’s somewhere between 10-20% the last couple of years. For other games, price isn’t usually a consideration for me (but then, some never go on sale either).
Back in the day, I bought everything full price. Then PC games died. OK, they’re not dead, just seriously ill. In any case, I became a console player, mostly. Since I hate most console games, I shifted first to Gamefly, then eventually to Goozex. I don’t feel bad anymore about hating a game once I open it, since I can resell it.
If there’s a PC version, but I’ve played it through on the console, I usually wait for it get really cheap before buying it. I’ve purchased Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Borderlands from Steam, even though I played all of them to death on the 360. The PC version is usually better… if it works. I bought KOTOR for the PC, and it was hideously buggy, and ended up getting it for the original XBox instead.
I’m not sure what the percentages are, but I buy most of my console games new on Amazon, with a small but significant minority kept from Gamefly usually the moment I figure out a game has long term interest for me. Out of the 36 or so total xbox games in my drawer right now, for instance, probably about 28 were purchased at or near full price. The others are usually second copies of multiplayer games that I kept after long stays from gamefly or games that plummeted in value quickly enough after release that opting to keep from Gamefly resulted in a significant discount. All 7 of my PS3 titles were purchased new from Amazon shortly after they were released.
With DS games I buy most at full price when they release, only to sit on them and rediscover them months later. I think I’m at probably 20/25 that I still keep around that were all full price. Could be more.
With PC games, the ratio is closer (11/20, looking at my current steam list). I almost always buy new releases from Steam, but have also picked up a fair number of old things on sale (the xcom pack, for instance).
I do rent a lot, though, as a filter for titles that I’m less sure about.
Games I bought at full price (30 euros)…
Mirror’s Edge, Risen, GTA4, FarCry 2, Alpha Protocol and that’s about it.
I bought about fifty games for 20 euros range. The rest even cheaper.
For the rest of this year I will buy Mafia 2 and Fallout New Vegas on release, probably even CE versions. Nothing more. Playing my backlog games in the meantime.
I don’t buy all that many games, maybe 2-3 a year, and usually at release.
I have been buying PC games at full price but only those I’m going to play right away, and I’m going to become more discriminating. I bought Bioshock 2 at full price and still haven’t played it. I bought at full price and have played but haven’t finished Fallout 3, ME 2 and Dragon Age. I should have waited and bought all of those at sales.
I’ve bought a lot of PC games on sale though and will continue to do so. I’m not much interested anymore in console games because you can get great PC games so cheaply vs console games. I do play Nintendo DS games but I just put in pre-orders at Half.com for the games I want at the price I want to pay. That’s worked well to get DS games cheap.
The percentage is skewed because of the many many sites that do regular sales now. I’d be buying the same amount of full price, but fewer sale offers, if the latter weren’t so regularly available these days.
Exactly, Marcin. That’s what led me to ask, actually. Sales are so plentiful now, even close to release, that I wonder how publishers/developers are making money. Perhaps the games are never worth the 60 dollars or whatever, but they all know that most of the sales will happen in the 40-50 dollar range anyway. People will feel like it’s a deal compared to the 60 dollar original price.
I’m starting to feel almost like a fool for buying a game at release, when I could have waited a couple of weeks and saved 10 bucks. I know that’s not a ton of money, but it adds up.
And it depends on the game. If the past is any indication, Starcraft II is not going on sale anytime soon. Blizzard is still charging full price for Wrath which came out nearly 18 months ago. I have to say though that I have been surprised at the speed in which some good games have dropped in price. I paid the full $50 for SupCom II and in less than 6 months it’s on sale at $7.47. Wow. You can bet I won’t be paying full price for SupCom III!
Very few full price purchases, thanks to Steam. For the rest of the year I think I’ll be getting Starcraft II and New Vegas at release; earlier I got Just Cause 2, Supreme Commander 2, Alpha Protocol, and Mass Effect 2.
Due to my backlog I can hold back when buying new games, I still want to buy Just Cause 2, Red Dead, Alan Wake and a few others but due to steam sales and such I can pretty much wait for them to hit $20-30.
The only times I buy brand new is if it’s a game that I’m absolutely dying to play, if it retails $30 or less, I know the price is not going to drop any time soon or if it’s from a niche company that I know will probably sell out before the game drops in price. The last game I bought at retail was Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the $20 preorder offer from Amazon pushed me over the edge to get it.
I picked 10%, it’s somewhere around that. To quote my all-time hero:
Unless it’s a niche game or it hits retail at under €30, I barely ever buy games at full price, even back when there weren’t any digital retailers.
Giving a game a few months to come down in price does not only mean you pay less, but also that the worst bugs will have been patched out, and the hype will have died down a bit so you can get a more accurate idea from others who did buy the game about what the game is really like.
There have been a few exeptions, this year so far we’ve bought Pokemon heartgold/soulsilver full price (belated birthday present for my daughter, and mother’s day present for me) but those games take forever to go down in price anyway.
About 25%, including games available on Steam.
If I want it today, and I know I’ll play it, then I’ll pay full price for it. For example, I will pay full price for Guild Wars 2 and love it. I bought Dragon Age Origins on sale, but paid full price for Awakenings. I will pay full price for Portal 2 and whenever Half Life 2 Episode 3 is released (or Half Life 3). Generally, if it’s multiplayer, I’ll likely pay full price. If it’s single player, I can wait.
Right now, I have a tremendous backlog of games, due mostly to Steam sales. I’ll have to feel really excited about the game (and see above for which upcoming releases I’m excited about) before I’ll pay full price.