How many games do you need to buy?

[Comixbooks]

I don't think I'm going to buy very many games this year due to past purchases and hardly grazing my collection of games. Once you buy a near 1000 games you get the idea. Plus Epic just gives stuff away for Free. I have Elden Ring and Rainbow Six seige in the pipeline for 2022 maybe go for Darktide and Suicide Squad maybe Midnight Suns.

 

[Bankie]

Yeah, I'm cutting back a lot. Have God of War 3 ready and then Elden Ring; other than those I don't think there is anything else I'm looking forward too. I do have like 50ish games on my Steam wishlist but that's based on if they go on sale for 50%+ or more sometime this year. The game I'm looking forward to the most is Silksong but it's release date is perpetually unknown at this point.

 

[Dan_D]

I buy games for two reasons: 1.) I want to play it now, so I bought it. 2.) I buy them for benchmarking in reviews. In which case, I use the game for that purpose but may have no other interest in it.

I buy less than 10 games a year on average. I don't hit up Steam sales and buy games simply because they are cheap. Games I have no interest in are a waste of money. I'm not a collector of games.

 

[auntjemima]

I bought a game a few years ago, I think. Don't remember what it was, but I distinctly remember buying one and thinking it was weird.

 

[Domingo]

I buy roughly a dozen games per year, give or take. Although I supposed Game Pass has lessened that a bit. In 2021 I downloaded and played 8 Game Pass titles from beginning to end. For the most part I play AAA large budget stuff, but I'll occasionally snag an indie title that seems compelling.

 

[NattyKathy]

I ran through years of wishlists in 2021, many dozens of games. So I probably won't buy much in 2022, gotta actually play all the titles I just bought lol. Off top, I'm looking forward to Elden Ring and maybe the Saints Row reboot this year but honestly I'm probably going to just keep playing modded Cyberpunk 2077 all year like I did in 2021.

 

[Dan_D]

I buy roughly a dozen games per year, give or take. Although I supposed Game Pass has lessened that a bit. In 2021 I downloaded and played 8 Game Pass titles from beginning to end. For the most part I play AAA large budget stuff, but I'll occasionally snag an indie title that seems compelling.

Game passes do help a bit. I can try some games without having to go all in on buying them. It saved me from buying Battlefield 2042, that's for sure.

 

[Domingo]

Game passes do help a bit. I can try some games without having to go all in on buying them. It saved me from buying Battlefield 2042, that's for sure.

Yup. In a several cases (Back 4 Blood, Outer Worlds, Gears 5, Forza Horizon, etc.) I would have paid $60 each for those games and Game Pass saved me quite a bit of money. In some others (Ori 1 and 2), I probably would have never played them and ended up having a total blast. In other instances (the Ascent and Medium), Game Pass saved me from buying games that are straight up broken on the PC. I'm a big fan and with them dropping the UWP requirement it's only going to get better.

 

[Sickb0y]

can't stop and won't stop gotta catch them all!

 

[Armenius]

How many? All of them.

 

[staknhalo]

Most of this is free from when Steam Card farming was a thing, was having like $120 of free money every year for a couple of years that I only spent during sales because then I got more cards to sell for buying during a sale.... and you get the point - before that I only had like 50 games on Steam after 10 years

I still get a few bucks from residual cards coming in that I spend on games just to have

I only spend actual money if it's a resident evil game or kojima game or something I know I'm gonna play

 

[sharknice]

I rarely buy games, and probably only spend $100-200 per year on games.

You could have no job and only game and you still wouldn't be able to play through all the free experiences. There are a lot of good free to play games you don't need to spend anything on, and EGS gives out at least one free game every week. Twitch, GOG, EA, and Ubisoft also occasionally give them out too.
If I do spend any money on games it's usually a free to play game that I probably spent hundreds of hours playing and I feel like they deserve some money for it.

I think Cyberpunk 2077 was the only PC game I bought last year, and that was during a sale and I used one of the $15 epic coupons on it. I bought 3 games for my Quest 2 and Half-Life Alyx which I guess is a "PC game".

 

[ChosenUno]

I tend to buy a bunch until I find that one game that sucks in all my time.

Bought 10+ games on the Quest 2 during various sales, ended up playing Eleven Table Tennis exclusively...

 

[carcar1996]

On sales haha or if I really really am a fan of it.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

I buy precisely the amount of games that I want to play (in the next 5 years ) I'm pretty picky about what I want, or what I'm anticipating, but I buy most of it as it comes out, even if I can't play it for a bit.

 

[Westwood]

Nowadays I spend more time flipping through my game library than playing.

I'm about burnt out on the whole thing.

 

[staknhalo]

Nowadays I spend more time flipping through my game library than playing.

I'm about burnt out on the whole thing.

I've been benchmarking just for myself more than playing for about 9 years now lol

 

[M76]

I buy around 5-10 games a year, sometimes even less, because that's about the number of releases that are of interest to me.

In 2021 I purchased 9 games, most of which were older releases at deep discounts. I didn't buy any new AAA titles except for Days Gone, which I haven't played yet.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

Nowadays I spend more time flipping through my game library than playing.

I'm about burnt out on the whole thing.

I used to do that a lot. I have a lot less time than I used to, and at first that caused MORE flipping around the libraries (now add a MAME and MiSTer library, and we're talking 20,000 games... ) After a while though, I started realizing which types of games I actually make time to play, and which ones that even if I love their series or genres, I probably won't. Had to just be honest with myself about them. I LOVE the concept of the huge RPG. I used to play them a lot. I grew up on Ultima games for example, and later some forms of JRPG. Loved the Mass Effect games, and the first Dragon Age. Well, I just can't get through them now, or I stop mid-way for a bit, then forget where I was at when I go back, and it's pretty much ruined if I don't start over. So, I stopped buying them. I still play action RPGs like Zeldas, Hyper Light Drifter, Unsighted, and the like. They're a little easier to pick up and put down at will. One exception is Chrono Trigger though. I'll play that to completion every other year or so.

I don't really enjoy most shooters anymore unless they're id games, so I stick to Dooms, and old Quakes when I want to play a shooter now, or some old favorite hybrids like the Shocks, Prey, Dishonored, etc. If a new game comes out like these, then I'll grab it, but otherwise, I stick to my favorites.

I love indie games, especially action RPGs like the ones I mentioned, or excuse the term Met-Vans. So I buy the best ones I can find, and play them.

Just got an Index, so I guess I'll be playing some VR games here and there. Most of which I think fit the pick up and put down thing.

Then I also play fighters, and classic games on my MiSTer and MAME Appliance.

Just knowing what I'll actually get to in my backlog and what I wouldn't not only saves me a bit of money, but I actually manage to play the damned things.

I also noticed that I get more game hours in, if the game is on the Switch. So I save my PC for big AAA 3D games like Doom Eternal, and play all my indies on the Switch now. (because I can play it in bed, on the couch while my wife watches TV, etc.)

It took many years for me to finally just stop buying every game that I thought I'd like, or liked the concept of, and just get the ones that I know I'll play. I'm also a bit of a creature of habit in that I'll replay old favorites a LOT. So keeping both of these things in mind, I do pretty well now, whether it's a new Metroid clone, or my 50th play through System Shock, 100th play through MegaMan 3 etc.

I can also stream my main game PC to any machine in the house, which is 90% of the rooms, some even have multiple computers and displays. I even stashed a PC in the living room cabinet WITH a monitor, so if the TV is in use, I open the doors, and can play PC games (provided they work ok with a gamepad). Being able to do that helps a lot, since I can't always just sit in my computer room/studio...

 

[staknhalo]

I can also stream my main game PC to any machine in the house, which is 90% of the rooms, some even have multiple computers and displays. I even stashed a PC in the living room cabinet WITH a monitor, so if the TV is in use, I open the doors, and can play PC games (provided they work ok with a gamepad). Being able to do that helps a lot, since I can't always just sit in my computer room/studio...

Yeah I prefer to GameStream to my SHIELD TV and play with controller that way TBH unless it's a FPS/m&kb game

 

[Krenum]

Starfield, Avowed, Stalker 2 & Diablo 4 are the only games on my radar for 2022-2023

 

[matt167]

A game has to be free or cheap for me to just obtain it on a whim. Something I want, I wait for a good deal.. I've probably gotten 3-4 $10 Fanatical bundles in the last year. Most have at least 5 games, so I guess I probably bought 20 games or so this year.

My 'big' purchase as far as games go was $25 for Watchdogs Legion

 

[AceGoober]

I buy games that I want to play; GoW being the latest and damn is it good. There are exceptions. When a free game is offered up I'll normally take it.

 

[Armenius]

I buy games that I want to play; GoW being the latest and damn is it good. There are exceptions. When a free game is offered up I'll normally take it.

I was with you until the last sentence. Let's not forget the Apple iTunes U2 incident. I wouldn't claim something just because it's free.

 

[harmattan]

I guess I'm more patient than others, but my purchase strategy is to wait for games to go on sale to buy. Why buy a single game for $50 when I can get three (albeit year or two-old) games for the same money? I'm likely still spending the same amount on games, but I get more for my money.

I rarely, if ever, feel the need to buy a newly-released game and would rather wait until bugs are ironed out, DLCs are out, and reviewer consensus (including folks here at [H]) has distilled. The last exception was CP2077 which only reinforced my points.

 

[Nebell]

I have 650+ games on my Steam but those were from the days of Humble Bundle subs. I don't think I've played more than 10% of those games.

Diablo 4 is pretty much the only game I'm going full out on. I absolutely love what they have shown so far and IMO nothing will come close to it.
CE physical edition if it exist is what I'm gunning for. I have Diablo 3 CE physical edition, the goodies you get are awesome.

This year, the only stuff I've bought was cosmetics for Guild Wars 2 and Voidtrain on Epic store (only because of that €10 coupon lol, the game ended up costing €7).

 

[vegeta535]

I guess I'm more patient than others, but my purchase strategy is to wait for games to go on sale to buy. Why buy a single game for $50 when I can get three (albeit year or two-old) games for the same money? I'm likely still spending the same amount on games, but I get more for my money.

I rarely, if ever, feel the need to buy a newly-released game and would rather wait until bugs are ironed out, DLCs are out, and reviewer consensus (including folks here at [H]) has distilled. The last exception was CP2077 which only reinforced my points.

Idk support the developers? I have no issue buying day one if it is a game I anticipating. I did draw a hard line at the new $70 price point but I am going to break that for the new GoW.

 

[AceGoober]

I was with you until the last sentence. Let's not forget the Apple iTunes U2 incident. I wouldn't claim something just because it's free.

Out of every free game taken from Epic, I've only installed one. Maybe one day I'll get around to installing and playing the others.

As far as purchased games go, I've purchased six games so far this month.

 

[Denpepe]

I don't have much on my radar so far for this year other then the new Horizon game and Tiny Tina's wonderlands if that releases this year on steam.

 

[Westwood]

 

[Dan_D]

Halo Infinite is on my radar for after they add co-op to the game. Stalker 2 is something I'm interested in but I have no idea when that comes out. I can't think of anything else.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

I was with you until the last sentence. Let's not forget the Apple iTunes U2 incident. I wouldn't claim something just because it's free.

I’ll grab free ones, but only on GOG, and only for games I want, or think I’ll play.

Epic couldn’t pay me to take any of their free games. I’d rather pay full price.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

I guess I'm more patient than others, but my purchase strategy is to wait for games to go on sale to buy. Why buy a single game for $50 when I can get three (albeit year or two-old) games for the same money? I'm likely still spending the same amount on games, but I get more for my money.

I rarely, if ever, feel the need to buy a newly-released game and would rather wait until bugs are ironed out, DLCs are out, and reviewer consensus (including folks here at [H]) has distilled. The last exception was CP2077 which only reinforced my points.

I’ll buy day one at full or intro pricing for games from studios that I like, or indies.

If it’s a game from anyone else, I’ll usually wait for sales, as I may or may not have grabbed it otherwise.

The time I REALLY make use of sales is when I’m buying additional copies (for my kids or friends), or to rebuy classics that I may not have in Steam or GOG already. Ditched all my physical copies a while back.

 

[hity645]

I've stopped buying games in the $20-50 range. I wait till they are less than $15 now. If its something I absolutely want and will defiantly play immediately then full price it is. Which actually works for me. I've got ten year old games I've yet to play. I'll get there one day.