Are digital stores bad for launching games at full price?

dirtyferret · Apr 4, 2019

I'm not knocking digital store, I love them. I own way too many games, most of them purchased for only a few bucks. I recently bought Mass Effect Andromeda for $4 and Titan2/Battlefield 1 combo for $11. Three games for $15 total or less then 1/3 the price of Metro Exodus $49, the only new game of 2019 I have on my price watch list. By the time I finish playing those three games, Exodus will probably be on sale for $29 a few times and I may still pass on it until it hits $19. I think the last time I payed full price for a game was the launch of Mass Effect 3 and the last time I payed $29.99 was a few months after Dragon Age III came out. Typically I pay $15 or less for a new game.

So my question is with most of us having a full catalog of yet to be played games purchased during sales, does anyone buy games at full price anymore?

FordGT90Concept · Apr 4, 2019

Only games I pay full price for are almost exclusively crowdfunded. Yakuza Kiwami was the only recent pre-order I did. Before that would be Rimworld over a year ago. Before that is probably SimCity (before I knew they trashed it) which was in 2013.

kastriot · Apr 4, 2019

Atm no rich people

newtekie1 · Apr 4, 2019

The poll doesn't really match the question asked in the title.

No, they aren't bad for releasing games at full price, what do you expect them to do?

Yes, it definitely makes me selective with what games I buy at launch, but I'd have to do that if there weren't digital stores.

dirtyferret · Apr 4, 2019

newtekie1 said:
The poll doesn't really match the question asked in the title.

No, they aren't bad for releasing games at full price, what do you expect them to do?

Yes, it definitely makes me selective with what games I buy at launch, but I'd have to do that if there weren't digital stores.

fixed the thread title

erocker · Apr 4, 2019

I don't think I've bought a non-digital game for around 5 years.
I might buy a couple games a year at full price but mostly I wait for a sale.

Rahnak · Apr 4, 2019

I rarely buy games full price/when they come out, with the exception here and there.

Deleted member 67555 · Apr 4, 2019

I purchased 2 games this year at full price.
I regret both of them...BlOps4 being the worst game I've ever played.
However the free games I got with purchases are rocking out.
I mostly don't buy games at all anymore tbh... Most of what I play is on EA access or it's a CoD game

Deleted member 24505 · Apr 4, 2019

Rarely full price. I usually add them to my wish list in steam and wait to be informed it's on offer. :lovetpu:

Rahnak · Apr 4, 2019

tigger said:
Rarely full price. I usually add them to my wish list in steam and wait to be informed it's on offer.

If you use the site isthereanydeal.com you'll get more and often better bargains. You can import your wishlist from Steam and then you'll get emails with sales. You can also set the max you're willing to pay by percentage or absolute value and only get notified when it falls bellow that value.

Just in case you or anyone else didn't know about it.

Vario · Apr 4, 2019

A lot of these AAA games offer only 15 hours of single player content. The cost is usually $49.99. For the same price, I can buy two $24.99 independent games for double the hours of content for my money. I can also buy these games during a Steam Sale for a greater discount, typically $14.99 each. But why bother only buying them only when they are on sale when I can buy them at that price year round from G2A. Then the question is, do I really want the game? Often it is no. I only buy a few games a year. But I do buy games occasionally, and only at a discounted price.

rtwjunkie · Apr 4, 2019

I buy half my games full price, which is misleading because half are triple A and the rest or either Indie or double A. The other half I will buy at reduced cost.

So my option is not available. Not rich, but I have enough that I can usually buy what I want without worry.

moproblems99 · Apr 4, 2019

I don't understand the title. Why would anyone expect games not to launch at full price?

Shoot, newtekie beat me. Needed to read the whole thread first.

Edit 2: Wait, the thread title was fixed? Still doesn't make sense.

jmcslob said:
Most of what I play is on EA access or it's a CoD game

Sorry to hear that

eidairaman1 · Apr 4, 2019

Considering games require dlc which tends to be payed for now, the game is not considered complete to me so really the games initial price at most should be 10 dollars since they require you to buy dlc...

Also screw gaming networks like PSN and XBL...

vega22 · Apr 4, 2019

Bias poll is baaaaaad

We should be moaning about 150w GPU costing 600 quid not a games price.

I remember paying 120 for cartridges back in the day. You can get games for half that today and it's too much?

If games had gone up in price like graphics cards we would be talking about 200 per game xD

I pre-order games from Devs I know are quality and take punts on those I don't know in the sales.

rtwjunkie · Apr 4, 2019

So I am expanding my answer with a question: why does the poll only go from all games/ rich to only one at full price? You don’t get honest results with an either all or one approach.

64K · Apr 4, 2019

I wasn't sure how to answer this poll but I chose #3. I buy almost all of my AAA games for $10 to $15 and occasionally $20. I have to wait a couple years usually. The last game I paid full price for was Guild Wars 2 back in 2012 and that's because it was an MMO and it's best to get in those when they are new and have the most people playing imo.

Vayra86 · Apr 4, 2019

I am missing the 'I buy games at or shortly after launch, but find the lowest price outside of the official retailers - eg keysellers'

Because really, that is my SOP, because yes, paying full price for games is ridiculous, there was never a need to do that, bar some exceptions (Blizzard's catalog is a good example). Pre orders never not once in my life. Wait.. I lie. I pre ordered Guild Wars 2 after being in beta.

My comfort zone for game pricing is 40 EUR max, but I almost always jump on any game I want that is between 5~20 EUR. You won't see my backlog growing from the 40'ers though, those get digested straight away

64K said:
Guild Wars 2 back in 2012 and that's because it was an MMO and it's best to get in those when they are new and have the most people playing imo.

Hah! Hadn't even read your comment yet, great minds think alike I suppose. Bit offtopic, but did you get as far as the recent expansions? Pretty good, new class specs are great and the content is huge.

64K · Apr 4, 2019

Vayra86 said:
Bit offtopic, but did you get as far as the recent expansions? Pretty good, new class specs are great and the content is huge.

No but I did thoroughly enjoy the game for many reasons. iirc I put in around 300 hours before reaching a point where I wanted to move on and leave it behind. Never went back.

Vayra86 · Apr 4, 2019

64K said:
No but I did thoroughly enjoy the game for many reasons. iirc I put in around 300 hours before reaching a point where I wanted to move on and leave it behind. Never went back.

If you ever feel the itch at some point hit me up, we could walk through some of the new stuff. My GW2 mostly died because the guild I was in got dissolved, and solo just doesn't do it, except in PVP and some free roaming and Fractals. The latter is pretty cool right now, its much more accessible and a fun challenge.

WhiteNoise · Apr 9, 2019

I cannot partake in this poll because I buy games at full price all the time, I have money but I am not rich. I don't care about sales or saving $5 or $10. If a game releases that I want I just buy it.

I also work 5 days a week and have kids to raise and property to take care of and a wife, dogs, over 100 koi (two ponds) and still have time to game.

Your poll statement makes me look like a douche though lol.

Yes I buy all my games at full price, I'm rich and have lots of free time

Shihab · Apr 9, 2019

The "full price" these days is roughly half my earnings in an average month! :laugh:

Yay! Hyper inflation!

I voted the last option, though I may go for a $20~$30ish ones sometimes. The last game I bought at full price (for myself) was CoD: Black Ops (the first one), and before that I think the last one was CnC:Tiberium Wars...

Deleted member 158293 · Apr 9, 2019

Game backlog so huge I don't shop for games anymore except GOTY editions or sub $10.

WhiteNoise · Apr 9, 2019

Shihabyooo said:
The "full price" these days is roughly half my earnings in an average month! Yay! Hyper inflation!

Hmmm out of curiosity I wonder how a $59.99 game is half your monthly salary yet you have a pretty nice PC with a GTX 1080 and i7? what do games cost out there? What am I missing? Serious question by the way and I am 100% not trying to insult you.

TheMadDutchDude · Apr 10, 2019

I typically wait to get them on sale and/or buy as keys from other people.

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Processor	faster at instructions than yours
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Video Card(s)	better rasterization than yours
Storage	more ample than yours
Display(s)	increased pixels than yours
Case	fancier than yours
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Are digital stores bad for launching games at full price?

Do you still buy PC games at full price?

Yes I buy all my games at full price, I'm rich and have lots of free time

Maybe one game per year at full price then I'm shopping winter, holiday, summer sales

I can wait a year post launch, if it's not 50% off I'm not interested

I shop the $10 and under bargain basement bin exclusively

dirtyferret

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

kastriot

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

dirtyferret

erocker

*

Rahnak

Deleted member 67555

Guest

Deleted member 24505

Guest

Rahnak

Vario

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

moproblems99

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

vega22

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

64K

Vayra86

64K

Vayra86

WhiteNoise

Shihab

Deleted member 158293

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WhiteNoise

TheMadDutchDude

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