Video games and spending habits

[Sheep]

How are your spending habits when it comes to video games and game-related-purchases? Do you tend to be more frugal and only buy the games you're sure you want, or are you more on the side of making more frequent purchases with the intention of getting to them eventually? Do you mainly tend to buy when things are on sale, or are you okay making purchases at full price? Do you spend a lot on IAP (in-app purchases) in games, maybe? Feel free to outline anything regarding your video game-related spending habits.

I used to be a bit more frugal but nowadays I'm a little more open to buying games, with the intention of playing them when I can. But I almost always buy things when they're on sale... except for a select few that never really get cheaper (like Kirby games), or things I want to play ASAP (Pokémon games). I've been really into buying cozy indie games lately, especially from Humble Bundles. Got a few sitting around which I got on a good sale and can't wait to play them!

 

[Juliyet]

I'll be honest, I don't buy a lot of games a year. Usually, it's like one or two full $60/70 games a year, and then a couple smaller ones whenever they're on sale.

I used to not buy other games til I completed others, but that's admittedly falling to the wayside. I still haven't finished the Apollo Justice Trilogy but I went straight into buying Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5, granted that was on sale and I already played those technically, but still.

As for DLC, it depends. If it's additional gameplay stuff (like fighting game character passes or new missions etc.) 9 times out of 10 i'll buy the just for completionist sake and to get the whole experience. Regular cosmetics though I typically don't bother.

 

[Queen Of Space]

I rarely spend money on in game purchases as much as I used to if at all. I don’t have as much of a need. Although I do wanna get more stuff

 

[Princess Viola]

To quote The Secret of Monkey Island: 'Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.' (or 46 bucks and 79 cents, adjusted for inflation)

While there certainly are exceptions to that (cough*Nintendo and them almost never discounting their games*cough), I pretty much mostly hold true to that statement when it comes to actually buying games (although I do go ahead and round the $46.79 up to $50 and even then I rarely buy games at $50).

I do not purchase IAP, at least not with actual money (meaning 'my credit card') because I think in-app purchases are a predatory business model that should be highly regulated, if not outlawed entirely. I will sometimes buy IAP in mobile games but only with Google Play credit that I get from answering surveys in the Google Opinion Rewards (at least I think that's what it's called) app. I'm not gonna spend that credit on anything else, so if I occasionally decide to buy some in-game items for like 99 cents or whatever, it doesn't matter.

I also don't really purchase DLC either. Like I have the DLC for Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Scarlet that I bought and I have 12 add-ons for The Sims 4 (four expansion packs, one game pack, four stuff packs, two kits, and the free Holiday Celebration pack DLC that was the first ever Sims 4 DLC ever and was and still is free for anyone) but here's the thing with The Sims 4 add-ons I own: I only paid for four of them. Just the four expansion packs and two of them were on sale for just $19.99 each, one was like $16, and one was less than $5 at Walmart, every other one I own was ones that were given away for free.

But yeah I'm really frugal with what I spend money on in terms of games, I already have tons of games to play already.

I'm not gonna go and count all my physical games or whatever but just on PC alone I got 83 games on Steam (not a lot considering there are people with thousands of games lol), 14 games on the EA App, and 139 games on the Epic Games Store. (And that's not counting all my retro games that I play on emulators are 100% legally ripped copies and not at all just ROM collections I downloaded because who really gives a shit most of these games aren't being sold anymore)

 

[mastermind lissi]

I’ll buy a few games, and maybe dlcs if I think they’re good but I basically never spend anything on in game purchases. For actual games, I’ll buy a few every year and some my dad will find cheap so he’ll buy me them, or I’ll get games on things like birthday or Christmas

 

[KatrinaSForest]

I'm pretty fine with in-game purchases if they'll genuinely boost my enjoyment of the game. I'll use buying them as a reward and such when I finish a big project. Goodness knows I don't need any more physical stuff on my shelves. ^_^;;

 

[TotodileStars]

I'm a fool who keeps buying games with the intention to play them someday, only for "someday" to potentially be years later, because I keep going back to my favourites instead. ^^;

I am trying to change that, though - once I'm done with this uni year, I'm going to try to get through some of my backlog, and hold off on buying more games until I do.

 

[colours]

hm.

for me personally, i don't like purchasing games if they're going to sit on my backlog. if i'm buying something, i have the intention, free time, and interest to play it and put my hours into it. i watch/read reviews and watch gameplay to see if the style is suited to my tastes. even then, i don't immediately buy it until i can clear out games that i already have the intention to play/finish "at some point" and just haven't, and i'd rather not add onto that pile.

like, i'm already stuck on final fantasy xiv, which is taking time away from playing other games and finishing trails of the sky the 3rd, which is taking time away from continuing with the rest of the trails series. and i also have octopath traveler i need to start and finish too. >.>

also, if possible, i'd really rather wait for games to be on sale. buying full price is something i'd prefer not to do unless the game just never goes on sale anyway lol...