OMG, SO EXPENSIVE!

Started by Mr Cat Dog May 16th, 2012 7:22 AM
  • 2134 views
  • 38 replies

Cosmotone8

silhouette of the past

Male
Boston, MA, USA, Earth, Sun Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe
Seen July 22nd, 2016
Posted March 20th, 2013
1,758 posts
11.4 Years
I usually spend about $100-200 a year.... But half of it is gifts so, whatever that would be I guess XD.
Normally prices are juuuust right, except for the inflated 3DS prices. But give those a year or two and they'll come down.
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I'm a silhouette, chasing rainbows on my own
But the more I try to move on, the more I feel alone
So I watch the summer stars to lead me home.

Age 28
Male
Ontario, Canada
Seen June 22nd, 2012
Posted June 22nd, 2012
411 posts
11.2 Years
I don't know for sure, but I'd like to think I spend about $500 on video games a year. Is that too much? Hell yes it is! As a gamer, I think it's only right that I spend the money I do when it comes to doing what I like the most.

As for prices of retail games, anything that isn't marketed by Nintendo is absolutely outrageous. I mean, paying $70 for a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 game? Other forms of media don't cost nearly this much, and quite frankly I think it's far too absurd.

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
It depends, sometimes I spend less, sometimes I spend more but it's usually £100+ I'd say.
Age 27
Male
Sydney, Australia
Seen May 10th, 2021
Posted October 13th, 2013
1,402 posts
15.7 Years
Oh god,

I regret nothing. Last year, i'd definitely say that I spent well over $700. Yeah, what of it? I'd got a 360 the christmas before, I couldn't NOT get all the classics. And this year's looking pretty good too, I'll say. :D
CLEAN SHEETS ARE COMFY
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Cherrim

Age 34
she / her
Toronto
Seen 20 Hours Ago
Posted 20 Hours Ago
33,052 posts
20.4 Years
I spent about ~$400 last year. A good amount of that was on my DSi (which I have since dropped on concrete and partially broken the R button--which is the main reason I replaced my DS Lite--fml) and the other $275 was on games. (And $100 of that was on just one game lol.) I think I did fairly well last year as far as holding myself back. I also had a lot of people to split game purchases with. XD Most of the games I bought near the end of the year were split between myself and a roommate (or both roommates) so I got a lot of games pretty cheap.

But umm... this year, before I gave up on my log, I was at $82 and the last date in there is early February. Since then, I've probably spent like $500. (Most of that was on my 3DS which I was mostly reimbursed for since it was my birthday present from my parents but I still had every intention of buying it even if I hadn't gotten the okay from them for funding. XD;) The year's not even halfway over but I'm... pretty sure that aside from buying KH3D again... although I do intend on selling off the game itself!, there aren't any games I intend to buy this year. I'll pick up a few things during Steam sales here and there, for sure, but I don't think any retail games are on my radar. I'm kinda broke anyway since I'm not working this summer.

I'd say I probably spend ~$300 a year when I don't buy any consoles. If I do buy consoles, I've never bought more than one in a year, so I guess that's something to be thankful for. :P I'm not too bothered by this since (at least when I was working) that's about what I'd make in a week and a bit. I'm pretty good with game prices, too. I can usually wait for prices to go down for games I'm not super antsy for... although unfortunately, the ones I AM gung-ho about usually end up eating the difference of the games I'm patient on since I always import them, hahaha.


paired with professor plum.
Seen September 18th, 2020
Posted February 18th, 2018
7,741 posts
16.6 Years
I would guess around £140 for the games themselves. Perhaps I buy too few, but only as much are of interest to me.
Linear singleplayer games are very often overpriced for the time one is untimately likely to spend on them, but are thankfully rare nowadays. Generally, with the scope of video games ever-increasing I sometimes wonder if they're a bit cheap; that said, as a PC gamer I do get the better end of pricing, and for all platforms there is the newfangled extortion of DLC.

Now, regarding peripherals and systems... my computer in particular of course, some things are cheaper than I tend to expect, but then I'm not a high-end buyer. I couldn't provide an average value since getting new hardware is such an occasional occurance.

donavannj

Age 32
Male
'cause it get cold like Minnesota
Seen 4 Days Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
22,513 posts
18.2 Years
Uh... it depends on whether I'm feeding my other hobbies or not in a given year, but it's been toned down quite a bit simply because I realized I already have a ton of games I own that I have yet to play through and beat. This year, I figure it'll be between $100 and $200, but in recent years, it was closer to $400 or $500, which is a lot considering I also average about $400 per year on my collectible card game hobbies and about $300 to $400 per year on my anime and manga hobbies.

Some games I do feel are quite cheap, but that's because many games have teams of over 100 people working on them.
whoops

Spiderz

old hat

Age 34
Male
Brisbane, Australia.
Seen January 6th, 2018
Posted January 6th, 2018
58 posts
12 Years
oh the topic of console titles.....

considering EA and playstation started releasing the multiplayer via the "online pass" which is only redeemable via that regions PSN store, this means sony region locked multiplayer so no more importing from hong kong :( i used to get brand new releases for an average of $40 AUD delivered, eliminating the 10% tax and even not having to leave the comfort of your house, although DLC focused games this was a bad choice as DLC was region locked to that specific regions store, it seems these days its best to hire standalone story games overnight from your local video store, slay them on the hardest difficulty over two nights than return them as you'd have no reason to play something you've conquered on nightmare again.

anything like battlefield 3 or something that holds a certain replay value is definitely worth the retail store coin as its a long term investment

on the topic of PC titles, Steam is a no brainer, its fantastic as it saves all your purchased games and will install them all automatically for you, if you loose your hard disk or your computer, you've always got your PC games and the licenses saved within your steam cloud so you can never loose them, it also includes a very robust social system, the best benefit of steam is weekend specials or publisher/developer super specials where you can get sometimes 80% off purchases, leaving local retailers in the dust.

i'd spend maybe $1000+ a year but i definitely make it go along way, always trying to get that bargin price.

Mr Cat Dog

Frasier says it best

Age 32
Male
London, UK
Seen September 29th, 2017
Posted July 12th, 2017
11,344 posts
19.1 Years
To answer my own question, it varies a lot. I don't think I've had any more than 10 games for each console I've owned (probably about half of all of them being Pokemon related), but I do tend to go through binges and droughts when it comes to purchasing them. Last year, for example, I bought Pokemon Black, and that was it. This year, on the other hand, I've already bought a 3DS and will probably be getting at least 5 or 6 games over the course of the year to accompany it. So, as much as I asked the question, any attempt to average my yearly game spending would be a really inaccurate of my spending habits.

With regards to game purchase prices, I do think they seem to cost too much. I understand that they often have thousands of people working on them, and that - especially early in a console's run - they're the main source of income for companies given that consoles traditionally lose money in the first few years of release but... £40 for a newly-released PS3 game? I could buy 5 newly-released books for that money; or 4 newly-released DVDs. I dunno... there'll be a reason why games cost so much, but I do wish they were cheaper. [/grinch]

Cherrim

Age 34
she / her
Toronto
Seen 20 Hours Ago
Posted 20 Hours Ago
33,052 posts
20.4 Years
With regards to game purchase prices, I do think they seem to cost too much. I understand that they often have thousands of people working on them, and that - especially early in a console's run - they're the main source of income for companies given that consoles traditionally lose money in the first few years of release but... £40 for a newly-released PS3 game? I could buy 5 newly-released books for that money; or 4 newly-released DVDs. I dunno... there'll be a reason why games cost so much, but I do wish they were cheaper. [/grinch]
Yeah, but even if the DVDs are two hours long each, it'll only take you eight hours to go through them all. For the same price, a game typically lasts you twenty or forty hours. For books, it depends on the age level and number of pages and all that, but you're paying for a very different experience either way. Your book will always be the same every time you read it. It's not really a big multimedia experience and it's much more passive. So if you like both gaming and reading, it can indeed be a better deal to pick up a few books and buy a game much later when the price has gone down, but this is really more up to tastes. Also, high fantasy is the only stuff that would probably take me 40+ hours to get through if I had five of them to read so depending on the game it still might not be more value for my money. XD;

Games are neat because even as far as linear blockbuster games go, when you replay it, you can probably find things you've missed. Plus, since they're typically so long, you get a much more fleshed out story and characters (hopefully) than other forums of media. Games are about $2/hour if you get them at full price here (maybe a little less) and play for 40 hours which will usually get you through any single player plot and a few extras here and there. I mean, it'll obviously change by genre--you might get 300 hours out of an RPG with lots of sidequests or 500 hours out of a game's multiplayer--but there's still a much higher hours-of-media-consumed to price ratio with games over other forms of media. So I don't think it's too out of line to sell games at the initial prices they ask today. It kind of makes sense considering the size of the teams that make them and all that now.


paired with professor plum.

Firox

eepz, come help pwease!

Age 37
Male
Seattle, WA
Seen September 15th, 2021
Posted July 17th, 2020
2,585 posts
11 Years
1 maybe 2 games a year. Nothing new. In my opinion all my favorite games have been released (such as Pokemon Leaf Gree/Fire Red/Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Diamond/Black, Hoyle Card games/Board Games/Casino Games, and Sim City 4) - most of the "new releases" aren't the same - I mean from my favorite games.
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TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness

Age 33
Male
Temple of Light
Seen November 25th, 2017
Posted October 21st, 2016
8,122 posts
19.1 Years
Luckily most big name titles come out near the holidays. If it is released in fall, I'll be busy with school and won't really be playing. So, I just hold off and end up getting it as a Christmas gift. Costs me nothing :p

One game for my birthday. And since my brother and I share all our games, his birthday gift is mine too XD

For some games that I'll pickup myself throughout the year though... I am a super shopper. Gift cards, coupons, promotions... I stack it all up and save majorly. Metroid: Other M for twelve-cents? Mass Effect 3 for $25 on launch day? Batman: Arkham Asylum for $19 on launch day? Did it.

It extends to the Christmas and birthday gifts I receive too too. I do the "shopping"... just not the paying lol One the wishlist for my brother and I, I will outline where to buy it, which other retailer to price match, what day to buy, etc. So, my parents end up saving a lot of money too, and I benefit in the end as well. Beatles: Rock Band brander guitar/drums bundle shortly after launch for the same price as Rock Band 2 with just a guitar? Yup, pulled it off :p

As a family unit, so whether I've bought it or if I've worked it out as a gift... I'd say that in the last four years, maybe only 25% of it did we actually end up paying full price for.

Palkia

Male
Seen December 16th, 2022
Posted May 30th, 2022
2,304 posts
13.1 Years
In 2010 I spent only about £200 on video games, mainly as there were not a lot of intersting games released. 2011, probably £500, thanks to my 3DS mainly. I'd say I've spent about £150 on games already this year, counting my purchase of my PSP.

I don't spend a lot of on video games, mainly as I own consoles were the games are usually £40 at the most. (well, I did see NSMBWii go for a cheeky £55 once, but that's about it)

BakingBluePotatoe

The Red Death Alchemist

Age 28
Female
Catatonia
Seen March 28th, 2016
Posted February 12th, 2016
2,279 posts
15.8 Years
usually, I'd say about $70-100 a year?

Of course, if it's a year where I get a new console, then at least $400 or more...

I think this year I've cost like... close to $500 O_O
With my brother's stuff, that's probably about another $200

How my Mom got all that money, I have no damn idea, but hey, I'm happy, so my bro. :D

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Archer

NSW, Australia
Seen January 26th, 2020
Posted January 5th, 2020
3,956 posts
16.6 Years
I stick to the specials, because game prices in Australia are absolutely ridiculous. New PSP/DS games are $70, new Xbox/PS3 games are $90-110 and PC games are $70-90.

I'm glad I do stick to the specials, because my Steam library, calculated at full price (today, not on release) is worth $1065.36 USD.

I would probably spend more if I had a console as there are a few PS3 exclusive games that I would want to play.