Stop buying games at launch! (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Gotta say, I'm definitely on this bandwagon. If you want me to buy a title at launch it better be under $35. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/11/when-to-wait-why-buying-games-at-launch-is-a-fools-errand.ars

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm all for buying a game at launch if it's a game I want or by a company I want to support, but I tend to buy games used and under $30 otherwise. I bought Uncharted 3 and Batman Arkham City at full price last week (albeit with a $55 coupon) and I'm planning on buying Mario 3D Land and Zelda: Skyward Sword at full price (to be fair, Nintendo games seem to be full price for-freakin'-ever, anyway). I have no interest in BF3, MW3, Skyrim, and many of the other big games this season so I don't feel bad skipping them completely. Personally, I think that games that come out with a big multiplayer component should be cut into two $30 games. I was pretty disappointed with Uncharted 3 overall and have no interest in the competitive or coop modes, so I'd rather pay only $30 and skip those two. Same goes for almost all modern FPS games.

 

[joshEH]

Skipping games like Call of Duty and (perhaps) Assassin's Creed on launch-day? Sure -- there's gonna be another one at this same time next year, likely as not. A brand-new Elder Scrolls game, though? Even when DLC is already officially announced? Not a chance in hell -- six years between entries, as opposed to 11-12 months, makes all the difference in the world. Too, Skyrim's gonna contain 300+ hours of content "vanilla," right out of the box on release-day, which I'll still be blissfully playing through long before I even start thinking about expansion-content. $60 at launch? Bethesda could easily charge twice that amount, and I'd gladly pay it (and I am, with the LCE ). That said, I largely agree with the article...Bethesda's stuff (and Rocksteady's, and Naughty Dog's) are more the exception that prove the rule. On the other, other hand...I don't regret buying masterpieces like Red Dead Redemption on day one, either. It's a complex issue, to be sure.

 

[joshEH]

Two games I'll unquestionably be purchasing at launch in 2012, though, at full price -- the Mass Effect 3 Limited Edition, and The Witcher 2 on the Xbox 360. The latter title I'm buying at full retail to help support CD Projekt Red, and the former title because I own the other two LCEs, and have no intention of not not completing the trilogy with anything less than that fat-ass box sitting on my shelf right next to the other two.

 

[Simon Massey]

Oblivion was actually the game that got me out of buying games at launch - I played it for so long by the time I had finished it I was way behind in lots of games. Now Im usually a sequel or two behind on pretty much every major release - Im only on Gears of War 1, Bioshock 1, etc which is way cheaper and by the time Im finished their sequels are already cheaper too. But I will have to buy Skyrim on release date

 

[dmiller68]

I buy all my games at launch but normally through pre-order on Amazon. A lot of the times you get a $10-$20 dollar credit towards the next game. I will say I'm a video game junky though with 218 MS Xbox 360 games and growing...

 

[CaseyL]

I usually do the same thing, buy way after release, and/or buy used (as long as the game includes everything like case/manual and is in pristine shape). Occasionally, I'll buy new, like I pre-ordered Skyward Sword. But it's the only one that I did this year.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Buying first-party Nintendo games means that you'll probably be paying near full price for a couple years after release. You'll pay $50 for Skyward Sword right now or $50 for it in 2 years. I'm surprised that the Call of Duty games seem to retain a lot of their value, considering how they've become an almost Madden-like franchise (primarily online multiplayer, annual installments replacing each other). I still have bought Red Dead Redemption and will wait until a "Game of the Year" collection with the DLC is available for under $30. Open world games aren't my thing and tend to take up way too much of my time, so I want to plow through it quickly, play the DLC expansions quickly, and move on to something else. (This is why I'll probably skip Skyrim altogether; I've never played an Elder Scrolls game and don't really have the interest in sinking THAT MUCH time into it.)

 

[Ruz-El]

All depends on the title for me. games like Red Dead and LA Noir I bought on launch, others like God Of War Origins and the new Assassins Creed I'm waiting for the price drop.


I'm the same with movies and music, if it's something I'm really excited for, I'll spend the money on launch day.

 

[Jerome Grate]

For me, it all depends on the time period. Christmas usually gets me to buy new releases for the eager younglings waiting for Santa.

 

[Sam Posten]

Hooray!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/24/uk-pre-orders-take-a-nosedive-as-gamers-grow-wary

 

[Bryan^H]

I think the last game I pre-ordered was NHL 15 from Gamestop....and I changed my mind after I read reviews for it so I lost $5.

I have never been a pre-order person when it comes to video games.


As far as buying games when released, sure I can wait until a price drop. But why would I want to? If I'm buying it when it is released there is usually a good reason. Mainly, I want to play that game badly.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

God forbid word-of-mouth should have an effect on first-week sales.


Maybe now they'll worry more about having a functional, quality product by its release date.

 

[Carl Johnson]

15 years ago I would buy a new console the day it was released and I got games the week they came out all the time. Now I have so many more toys that my video game playing is a fraction of what it used to be, so I save money by getting titles that are used or ones that have been out for a long time.

I don't think that I have ever paid more than $30 for a game for my 360. By the time I get an Xbox One there will be more dirt cheap quality games than I have time to play.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I will say that the marketing for Mortal Kombat was perfectly done. The reviews didn't come out until the day before the game was released but they had so many previews, so many live streams on twitch, so many teases on twitter, and such good community involvement that the game could have sucked hard and people still would have bought it. The reviews happened to be great, anyway, and the game went on to become the best-selling MK launch, but they still did a great job with promoting the game despite the late embargo on reviews.


Compared to Assassin's Creed Unity, which launched terribly, was buggy as hell, and had awful reviews, but has since become worth getting (at $30 and the free DLC pack included, with 99% of the bugs patched out).

 

[Ruz-El]

Compared to Assassin's Creed Unity, which launched terribly, was buggy as hell, and had awful reviews, but has since become worth getting (at $30 and the free DLC pack included, with 99% of the bugs patched out).

I was just about to mention Unity ha ha. That one released pretty much broken.


I've changed my tune a bit on pre-orders. I don't see myself buying on launch day anymore. With the PS+, I got more free games than I know what to do with, and nearly every a list game ends up as a GOTY version with DLC packs at a cost less than when it launched. I can wait to play games.


That said, my brain is twitching a little bit of Elder Scrolls Online when it launches on the PS4. It's the only Elder Scrolls game I haven't played.