Will you every pay full price for a PC game again?

Will you pay full price for a video game again?

  • Yes, always or most of the time.

    Votes: 8 2.5%

  • Yes, sometimes for high profile titles (SP / MP).

    Votes: 124 38.9%

  • Yes but only for games that are MP focused and there is disadvantage for late joiners.

    Votes: 29 9.1%

  • No, not for most titles that I am going to purchase.

    Votes: 110 34.5%

  • No, never for any title that I am going to purchase.

    Votes: 48 15.0%
  • Total voters
    319
KickAssCop said:
The only game I paid full price this year was Dawn of War 2 Retribution only because I love Dawn of War series. Everything else, now that I come to think of it, was never at full price. That in itself is an achievement imo.

However, I still feel burnt because I got games at 20% discount whereas, within days they were at 35-50% discount. Great examples are Batman AC, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Ass Creed Revelations.
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On a $60 game, the difference between 20% and 35-50% is $9 to $18. I just can't bring myself to feel "burnt" by that when I just put $50 of fuel in my car which lasts me a week, I paid $5 for a smoothie after my $7 lunch and my $300 GPU, $250 CPU and $200 mobo just got superceded... again. When I only buy a new release game maybe once every 3 months, I just can't get up the emotion required to feel burnt by a few bucks on a game. When I was a kid and I bought all my own games with my own money and it'd take me 3 months to save for a single game, yeah, then I'd feel burnt.

Especially for games like Batman AC and AC Revelations... if you bought them at release thinking they weren't gonna drop in price, you really just weren't thinking. They're prime candidates for the type of game that drops in price rapidly and has absolutely no value in buying it at release compared to a few months later. You can look at the 3 previous AC games, or the previous Batman game and know with reasonable assurity that Batman AC and AC Revelations were gonna drop in price, fast. BF3 and MW3 I could maybe possibly understand feeling burnt, but if you bought them at release I'm guessing you bought them to play online, so you're better off buying at release than a month later, and even then during the Christmas sales the most I saw BF3 reduced was 33% and I wasn't really paying attention to MW3, but wasn't it only 25% off in the Steam sale? Not quantities I could bring myself to feel "burnt" over.

Granted, I ALMOST got burnt by LOTR: War in the North. It had some really nice preorder loot and me being a LOTR fan I had decided I was gonna buy it either way. Luckily the logical part of my brain took over and I realised, given the genre and gameplay videos, there was a good chance it was gonna suck balls and the only loss to not buying it on release day was missing out on some plastic preorder figurines... so I waited until it was released, it got mediocre reviews, then bought it a few days ago (about 2 months after release) for $15, down from $50.
 
I got BF3 for $29.99 on Amazon (I was all over this one)
I got Batman: Arkham City for free with an SSD purchase
I got Dirt 3 for free with a video card purchase

I missed Skyrim @ $40, but it's still only $50.. not too bad.

Tudz said:
On a $60 game, the difference between 20% and 35-50% is $9 to $18. I just can't bring myself to feel "burnt" by that when I just put $50 of fuel in my car which lasts me a week, I paid $5 for a smoothie after my $7 lunch and my $300 GPU, $250 CPU and $200 mobo just got superceded... again. When I only buy a new release game maybe once every 3 months, I just can't get up the emotion required to feel burnt by a few bucks on a game. When I was a kid and I bought all my own games with my own money and it'd take me 3 months to save for a single game, yeah, then I'd feel burnt.
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I agree 100%. I'm cheap to begin with, so I am going to look for the best deal regardless, but you are definitely right. Considering how much we all eat out (sometimes necessary with certain jobs) and how much unnecessary daily things we buy, we really are not losing that much by spending slightly more on a game. I work in retail and don't feel like bringing my lunch everyday, and quite frankly there isn't any sanitary place to put my lunch, so I end up eating out nearly every day. $7 here $3-4 there really adds up.
 
I did with Skyrim. Skyrim was one of those games where you sort of knew what you were getting. I think I also paid full price for Dead Space 2 because I loved the first game. There's not too many games out there these days that I'd do that with. Amnesia:The Dark Descent is a game I bought on sale but if I had known it was that good then I would have paid regular price.
 
Depends on AAA title, My first time spend $50 for BF3 on sale from amazon that is it.

I think had enough spend too much money on video games from past.

I swear I could have owned house, boat, barn, cars, etc...

Right now very tight budget, I had to wait for games price drop on sale at Steam, etc...

New PC games are mostly come with some bugs, drm, etc... with full price yeah FU !!!

Buggy PC games should be range price around 9.99 - 29.99 TOPS.
 
I paid full price for BF3, it had been years since there was something that I thought I'd get my $60 out of. :)
 
To make my [H] job easier, I buy as much as I can on Steam. That means that I mostly pay whatever Steam is charging, when I need the product. Sometimes it's full price, and sometimes not.
 
I've bought some collectors and special editions at full price. If it is a game I'm really excited about I'll pay full price. Otherwise, yea it's too easy to avoid paying $60+
 
Mark_Warner said:
To make my [H] job easier, I buy as much as I can on Steam. That means that I mostly pay whatever Steam is charging, when I need the product. Sometimes it's full price, and sometimes not.
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Steam is a really bad place to buy steam games outside of deals. Many 3rd party sites will sell you steam games, steam keys and retail (all legit) for much cheaper prices, you can activate the key on steam and away you go.

My friend got Serious Sam 3 from a site for about £9 during the holiday, even steam deals weren't that cheap, it think the cheapest it was about £15.

That is the UK though, steam (or should I say the "publishers") have a habit of ripping off non-US countries with retarded prices and release dates. That would make a good gaming article actually *hint hint*
 
No. most games today are nowhere near worth $60. I usually wait for steam sales. Only really high profile ones are worth it. Guild Wars 2 is a day one purchase for me and Diablo 3 and thats pretty much it. I'll be too busy playing these two to really care for anything else.
 
You guys think once the new consoles come out they will "experiment" with $69 dollar pricing?
 
I did it with BF3 a week or two after release. I will do it for sure for Diablo 3.

I usually wait for a drop.
 
I"ll pay for Mass Effect 3. Because I love the series, and I want to support developers.
THe other games? with playing MMO, I don't have much time for other games, so I'll propably pick them later on when they are cheaper/ in classic series.

But ME3 CE is a day one purchase for me :)
 
I don't buy games at full price for the reason that the games come broken on release. Bugs, glitches, poor performance, more... Also the price of games drop dramatically after a month or more.
 
There are three main reasons to never ever pay full price for a PC game.

1. It's a crap shoot if it will even work properly. I'm not talking game breaking bugs either. For a lot of PC games the experience is downgraded if you aren't running it on top end hardware. There is no way to know if it will run properly. Take Crysis. If you managed to max it out when you first played through it and it was fresh it was OK. If you couldn't, well, it was kinda bleh. And playing through it later when you knew everything about it on better hardware was bleh as well since you'd been there and seen that. PC games that try to show off and push limits should always be purchased in the bargain bin later when you can properly run it. Game breaking bugs and other stuff only help contribute to this. But the simple fact of the matter is even on a perfectly working PC game there's a good chance you won't be able to properly enjoy it off the bat and so you should wait.

2. Digital distribution has made PC games worth about 20 bucks max. I don't care how much it cost to make or how good it is. It's a PC game thus it has to be cheap as dirt. Steam and D2D brought this about but a PC game just isn't worth more than 20 bucks and should be less than that. With the amount of digital distro channels as well you can just shop around for bargain prices at your own leisure. And given that I'm lacking a physical copy of anything and often stuck dealing with authentication services it should be even cheaper.

3. There is virtually no resale or collectors value in them. Limited edition console games and console games in general can hold their value or even go up in it. If you held on to your old SNES collection and parted it off now and had some of the right games you're good. Ditto with say an original PS1 FF VII vs the "greatest hits" FF VII. No such luck with PC games! Their value evaporates fast as hell. Blame Blizzard for reprinting Diablo who knows how many times or blame every company for selling their product till the end of time. But the truth is as soon as you buy that game it's worth spit.

You guys think once the new consoles come out they will "experiment" with $69 dollar pricing?
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Why not?

Things to remember about console games.

1. Console games used to cost 60-90 dollars back in the 80's and 90's. Move the money into what that's worth today and consoles used to cost a ton more money than they do now. While prices have dropped, charging 80 bucks for a console game is not something that was never done or is completely unheard of.

2. Console games are rarely the problematic clusterfuck that PC games are. Blame this on whatever but when I put a game in a console it's going to work barring some sort of crazy fluke. Installing a PC game even if you meet the system requirements, who knows! People are more willing to pay a little extra for peace of mind that their product functions as advertised than taking a random crap shoot on just what's going to happen.

3. Console games don't evaporate in value as fast. You're not going to get 70 bucks out of a consumer for a greatest hits version of something but a first run version of a popular game or a collectors version can probably be recouped for much of it's value down the line.

4. You don't have a ton of distro channels price cutting each other to hell and back. For the most part, the games cost what they cost and there isn't a way around this short of buying used or waiting for a greatest hits.
 
They also had cartridges that were more expensive to manufacture than CD/DVD type distribution. Digital distribution has cut costs even more.
 
If it's a big game like bf3 then yes,but i usually wait till it's discounted most main stream games.
 
MikeTrike said:
They also had cartridges that were more expensive to manufacture than CD/DVD type distribution. Digital distribution has cut costs even more.
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While true it still doesn't dodge all the other issues.

I have no problem paying $60 for a console game I know will work, I could potentially recoup some of the cost later if I cared to, and is pretty much a set price.

On the other hand I have a problem paying more than $10 for a PC game that's a crap shoot if it runs properly or not, is mostly worthless the second I make the purchase, and competing sales have turned into "everything on the PC is bargain bin".

In the end PC stuff just holds none of it's value and turns worthless the second you make the purchase and may or may not work. Console stuff just doesn't work that way.

Of course full digital distro on consoles and removing of "greatest hits" type boxes and packaging could change things.

And as someone that imports games, they frequently cost a bit more as well.
 
Of course I'll pay full price. But only for multiplayer games. BF3 for example I would have gladly paid more than 60 for considering the amount I've played and will continue to play. Most SP games I don't even get 5 dollars worth of fun out of. They're more of a chore than anything.
 
sd11 said:
While true it still doesn't dodge all the other issues.

I have no problem paying $60 for a console game I know will work, I could potentially recoup some of the cost later if I cared to, and is pretty much a set price.

On the other hand I have a problem paying more than $10 for a PC game that's a crap shoot if it runs properly or not, is mostly worthless the second I make the purchase, and competing sales have turned into "everything on the PC is bargain bin".

In the end PC stuff just holds none of it's value and turns worthless the second you make the purchase and may or may not work. Console stuff just doesn't work that way.

Of course full digital distro on consoles and removing of "greatest hits" type boxes and packaging could change things.

And as someone that imports games, they frequently cost a bit more as well.
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Your wrong used pc games can easily hold value. I bought the majority of my pc games used because im not so impatient that I have to have the game the day it comes out. The people who sold me the games got money back for them, how can you say they hold no value????????????????????? ?
 
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I don't pay full-price for any game regardless of platform. Games come out barely in beta form on both PC and console thanks to the "get it out the door and maybe patch it later" mentality towards game development. With consoles that weren't Internet-enabled, if you released a game that didn't work properly, you copped it sweet from customers. That's just not the case now.
 
Only for games that I know are not going to drop in price (MW3). I did however get Battlefield 3 and Skyrim at full price but BF3 just because of the preorder bonus.

But seeing Steam offer games at sub $10 6-12 months after it came out has spoiled me.
 
Staples said:
Only for games that I know are not going to drop in price (MW3). I did however get Battlefield 3 and Skyrim at full price but BF3 just because of the preorder bonus.

But seeing Steam offer games at sub $10 6-12 months after it came out has spoiled me.
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Actually even for games like MW3 (and BF3 and Skyrim) you could have gotten them for 15% or more off and been able to play at launch.

Even just reading the "hot deals" section on this forum can net you savings on games these days for very little effort. Also since if you are buying preorder or at launch, the savings come out of the distributor not the developer/publisher, if people are just wanting to pay more to support those parties. The only way the developer/publisher may make more is if they have an in house distributor and you buy through them.
 
limitedaccess said:
Actually even for games like MW3 (and BF3 and Skyrim) you could have gotten them for 15% or more off and been able to play at launch.

Even just reading the "hot deals" section on this forum can net you savings on games these days for very little effort. Also since if you are buying preorder or at launch, the savings come out of the distributor not the developer/publisher, if people are just wanting to pay more to support those parties. The only way the developer/publisher may make more is if they have an in house distributor and you buy through them.
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Although I have not purchase any games off these Russian sites, I am warming up to the idea since it seems that it is becoming common place.
 
Well, Skyrim was $40 on the 1st thru Steam. I missed/had no interest in this deal. Almost two weeks later, no deal on Steam again so I had to buy full price. The most I would have saved is $20 so I am not too worried about it. I'd rather start enjoying the game than wait another month for price cut that is hardly significant to me.
 
Staples said:
Although I have not purchase any games off these Russian sites, I am warming up to the idea since it seems that it is becoming common place.
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Actually you can get savings from authorized distributors for western regions even, basically no risk or moral dilemma and still most likely contributing the same amount to the developer/publisher as paying full $50-$60 MSRP. Off region gray market keys tend to have bigger savings though.

Just using Newegg.com as an example, they had preorder prices of <$48 for the major titles last year such as Skyrim, BF3 etc. Not the biggest savings, or best preorder deal for those titles even, but a fairly simple way to save compared to the $60 MSRP.

This is why I'm indifferent to the complaints about raising game prices. I was able to play BF3 and Skyrim at launch and did not buy them using gray market keys, nor did I pay close to $60 each. The lowest preorder/launch savings I had this year was 10% for The Witcher 2, but that was more of a conscious decision to more directly support the developer and the DRM free model. Also with digital a big thing for me is I save very big on taxes (we don't have the same out of state type tax model as the US) compared to years ago with retail only as the option, stronger dollar also helps in this case.
 
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BF3 is probably the last time I buy something from EA full price. Got burnt with MoH and Crysis 2 (at Australian prices no less, so it's like $90) and BF3 is boring to me now.
 
I paid for BF3... and I have played it for like 2 hours... :( However I have probably gotten hundreds of hours out of SC2 so it probably balances out.
 
The price i'm willing to pay is based on 2 factors

1) How much I will probably play the game
2) How much I want to support that company

Of all the games i' ve bought in the past 3 or 4 years, I've only paid full price 1x (excluidng MMO)..and that wa Skyrim. Everything else..not so much.
 
You already pay for internet, why pay for games?


Wait for sales here.
 
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Nope, never again. Not when I can wait a few months and eventually get any game I want to play on Steam for $5-10.
 
Never ever again ... I used to get serious online multiplayers on release but after what the experience with BF3... I am never going to buy a game on release date. I payed 48$ for the limited edition BF3 preorder and was thoroughly disappointed with the product..another consolised POS
 
cukoodukoo said:
Never ever again ... I used to get serious online multiplayers on release but after what the experience with BF3... I am never going to buy a game on release date. I payed 48$ for the limited edition BF3 preorder and was thoroughly disappointed with the product..another consolised POS
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its too bad that its not your game, ive got 128 hrs on it though....
 
cukoodukoo said:
Never ever again ... I used to get serious online multiplayers on release but after what the experience with BF3... I am never going to buy a game on release date. I payed 48$ for the limited edition BF3 preorder and was thoroughly disappointed with the product..another consolised POS
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Oh yea i've heard to look at the serverlist you have to minimize the game or something?
 
cukoodukoo said:
Never ever again ... I used to get serious online multiplayers on release but after what the experience with BF3... I am never going to buy a game on release date. I payed 48$ for the limited edition BF3 preorder and was thoroughly disappointed with the product..another consolised POS
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It's a trade off to me. MW3 was pathetic. BF3 could have been better and designed better for 64 player maps but MW3 was by far the worse of the two.
 
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