Games are $80 now…here’s what I’m doing instead
Gaming is not exactly a cheap hobby and never really has been. Not only do you have to factor in the cost of all of the hardware, you now also have to consider whether you need a subscription to play games online and then there are the games themselves which are now more expensive than they ever have been.
With Mario Kart World launching at $80 and setting the precedence of games being more expensive for this generation and more games rumoured to be considering launching at a similar price tag or higher later this year, you may have found yourself wondering what you can do to continue enjoying video games when they are so expensive. If you need some help on what you can do next, here are some of the things I’m doing either instead of or before I buy a really expensive game.
Be more critical of every game
You know what sucks more than most things in the gaming world? Buying a game which you think is going to be incredible and you are really excited to play which then turns out to not be everything you hoped it to be. Honestly, I can count numerous games which this happened to me on and it’s the biggest frustration that I have with game developers and publishers when it comes to big launch titles.
Credit: Singularity 6
Let’s be honest for a second and think about the last time you bought a big game which looked glossy and perfect in all the game trailers and gameplay footage. Did the game end up meeting all of your expectations? If the answer is no, you’ve probably fallen foul to the same issue on multiple occasions.
Both developers and publishers can sell you whatever narrative they want in order to get you to part with your hard earned money. That’s not a bad thing, that’s how businesses work. But, when it comes to selling a game which doesn’t meet your requirements, it doesn’t feel particularly great and that’s why when it comes to games which are priced at $80, you need to be more critical.
One thing that I’m going to be doing is watching gameplay and trailers incredibly closely. If you do, you may notice that very often with those trailers you’ll see something which may say something like “not final software” or “not gameplay footage.” Those are really good signs that a game publisher or developer is trying to sell you on the best bits of the game and not showing you missing features, bugs or glitches or micro transactions which may make you question if you need to buy the game at all.
Credit: Sunblink
To me, this is a big red flag and when I see it, I do like to question what is trying to be hidden or avoided. Are the developers trying to say that you will have the best ever experience but what you see in the footage seems a little funny? That could be a sign that the game may be too good to be true, and if you are feeling that way, it probably isn’t worth buying at full price if you are interested.
If you are concerned that you may be having a game marketed to you which may not meet your expectations, the best thing to do is to not buy it and wait for the initial reviews and gameplay footage to come out from small content creators. In a lot of cases, they will have bought the game for themselves to try and if they are saying that the game doesn’t meet their expectations, then it’s a good sign that you may not be as into it too.
With any reviews though, there are several big things which you should watch out for. Sponsored reviews and posts may be painting an overly positive picture of a game and if a lot of your favourite creators have been playing the same game and saying the same positive things about it, there’s a strong chance that the developers or publisher has paid for a review and signed off what the creators are saying.
Where you can, listen to both positive and negative game reviews, if there is a consistency across multiple different opinions in how a game looks and feels, and that opinion resonates with you, use this to guide you on whether or not you should be buying the game in the first place.
Stop pre-ordering games
Now, I get it. The game looks amazing and you still want to play it. There doesn’t seem like a reason to not purchase a really expensive game. But before you pull the trigger and pre-order it, I want you to stop for a moment and ask yourself one question: do you really need to pre-order the game?
Credit: Nintendo
I understand the sentiment behind pre-ordering a game, you don’t want to be behind everyone else playing the game. You may have even been offered a pre-order bonus to be able to play the game, maybe in the form of in-game items or getting early access to play the game sooner than everyone else. However, despite the incentives for pre-ordering a game, it’s worth asking yourself if pre-ordering is the right thing to do.
The game you want to buy is still going to come out on launch day and it will still be there a week after it launches. Those in-game bonuses may be items you aren’t going to use on a regular basis and getting early access to play a game slightly ahead of others probably make you loads better at it when it finally launches for everyone else.
There’s also another issue with pre-ordering games to take into account. There are pretty much always bugs and glitches on launch day which you wouldn’t be aware of before you purchased the game.
It’s inevitable that there will be teething problems like server instability or players finding exploits that the developers didn’t know about. This could mean that the game will go down for a bit whilst things are patched.
Whilst in a lot of cases, these bugs and glitches aren’t going to be anything which could break the game for you, there is always the possibility of you encountering something you didn’t expect which can affect the way you play and feel about the game. As a result, it can sometimes be better to not pre-order and just wait to see what people say about the game when it does finally launch.
Beat the backlog
The biggest thing that I am doing to combat games being $80 is the one which I am most excited about and that is finally tackling my backlog.
I think a lot of us are in the same position: life is busy. You have a full time job or go to school, you have a never ending stream of chores or life admin you have to do and somehow you also have to maintain a balance between family and social lives on top of al that. As a result, there isn’t really a lot of time to play games and when you do find a game which you know you want to play eventually, you find yourself buying it and adding it to an increasingly long pile of games that you will get around to at some point.
Credit: David Wehle
If you’re anything like me, you will have been accumulating games for a while and if you aren’t careful, you can quickly end up with over 400 games which you absolutely have to play at some point. When that will be though, you never know. But, given how expensive games are right now, in all honesty, now is very much the time to be playing those games.
Now that games are looking likely to stay at $80, there is a very strong possibility that you will be more discerning about which games you do decide to play and if you find that instead of buying four or five big games a year, you buy one or two, there’s a pretty big chance that there’s going to be more time for you to play games that you already own and want to play from your backlog.
I’ve already started doing this myself by playing and reviewing some games that I’ve had for a while that I’ve been meaning to check out for ages, including The First Tree and Cat Quest. As and when I play a game from my backlog that I want to share with you guys, I’ll be doing a game review and sharing it on my blog so if you want to take a look around some of those, for yourself, you can find it over here.
The other advantage of playing games from your backlog instead of buying new games is that, in the long run, it can save you a ton of money. Yes, there is a sunk cost here. You’ve bought the games which are on your backlog and they are just sitting there gathering dust whilst you keep looking at the shiny new games to play. But where games now are really expensive, you can now turn towards your backlog and find a game which you also want to try whilst you wait for the other game to go on sale. This way you save money on the big title that you want to play and you can make progress by playing games which you have already paid for.
Credit: Pounce Light
The other thing to factor in is buyer’s remorse. If your backlog has been there for many years and just keeps growing, you may find yourself looking despairingly at it and think about all the money you spent on games which you just aren’t playing. Imagine if you didn’t have a choice but to try something from that long list of games? There’s always going to be something that you do want to try and holding off on a new game means that you get to enjoy some of those titles which you absolutely want to try. What better time to start beating your backlog than in this circumstance where games are $80, right?
Summary
With it becoming increasingly apparent that game developers and publishers will charge more for games, it is incredibly important that you use your money on the games which matter the most to you and that you know are going to add value to you. If there is a game which you would like to play, but it doesn’t meet your expectations or you aren’t sure of, you don’t have to buy it. There are always plenty of other options you can pick from to enjoy gaming just as much as those who buy the latest and greatest releases.
Are you changing your game purchasing baits? How big is your backlog and what is one game you have on there which you are really looking forward to play? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see you in the next one.
