Waiting for the price to go down?

[ChrisNGibbs]

I just want raise this question. When a game is launched do you get it right away or do you wait for the price to go down?

[kupomogli]

Very rarely will I get it new. I usually wait until the cost goes down.

[Gameguy]

I wait for the price to go down. It's almost time for me to start buying Wii games, the systems and games are almost cheap enough. Still not yet though.

[The 1 2 P]

If I get a new game at release it's usually at Best Buy because I have so many reward certificates saved up that it's like I'm already getting the game on clearance. But generally speaking I wait for sales, clearances and this week for all the Black Friday deals.

[JSoup]

I generally wait until a game is cheap before I buy it and I prefer used at that. Exceptions for the odd Amazon release, as I've got tons of Amazon credit saved up and they generally give credit as a reward for pre-ordering things. It actually almost feels like abuse, but Amazon is all for you getting crap with the funds they give you. With LEGO Lord of the Rings, I cashed in some of my credits to get it and got a credit kick back. I was basically paid by Amazon to get the game for free on release day.

[duffmanth]

I rarely buy games for full price day one unless it's a from a series that I'm a huge fan of like Gran Turismo, Metal Gear, GTA. I'll usually wait til they're somewhere between $20-40. Most games aren't worth anywhere near $60 simply because they're either garbage, you can beat them in a short time, there's no replay value, or all of the above.

[CDiablo]

I generally dont get things I have interest until its around $10-$20, too many times have I been let down or bought a game and put it in the backlog just to watch it be 1/2 price by the time I play it.

[ChrisNGibbs]

The only games of this generation that I bought at full price are Soul Calibur 5 and Halo 4. That's only because I was waiting for them to come out. Other than that I wait for it to come down.

[crazyjackcsa]

Price point matters, as does the "tail" For example, Nintendo games take a long time to come down in price, so I'm more likely to buy it new. Sega games drop on the third week, so I'm more likely to wait.

If a game is value priced from the outset, I'm more likely to go new.

[Rickstilwell1]

I usually only buy at full price if it was a game I got really excited about before release and I have a bunch of extra money at the time. The last time I just had to get something new was when I bought New Super Mario Bros. 2 for 3DS.

[Lady Jaye]

Price point matters, as does the "tail" For example, Nintendo games take a long time to come down in price, so I'm more likely to buy it new. Sega games drop on the third week, so I'm more likely to wait.

If a game is value priced from the outset, I'm more likely to go new.

Same here, with some rare exceptions among non-Nintendo titles (like both Dragon Age games). I'm also more likely to buy at launch for games that might become harder to find or that will retain its value with time (like the Dragon Quest titles), or simply on handheld games that interest me.

But normally, I do wait for some price drop before getting most games. Even for Skyrim, I waited until the collector's edition dropped to $100 to pick it up.

[Mr Mort]

I usually wait until a game hits the $20-$30 price range before I pick it up. Primarily because of backlog and lack of free time. There's no point in paying $60 for a game if it's just going to sit for months before I get to it, and by the time I normally do get to them, they hit the above mentioned price point anyways.

If there's a game I'm really excited about and I know I will play right away, then I'll pony up and pay full price, but those are becoming more and more rare it seems.

[XYXZYZ]

I'll usually buy new if it's a game I've been waiting for. And that's a rare occurrence, so it's not too hard on the wallet. The last games I've bought new are KOF XIII, Super Street Fighter IV, and normal SF IV before that.

[substantial_snake]

Depends on the game but I usually just wait for one of the frequent buy 2 get 1 free sales or something similar that the major retailers go through every once in a while.

Kinda nice because along with a new game it reminds me of things I've heard about or had a vague interest in but never picked up and those usually become the "free" or X% off game purchased through the sale.

[treismac]

Damn... it's been ages since I bought a game right after it released. I think Okami on the PS2 was the last time I bought a game the day it was released or for full price for that matter. Years later, I snapped up the Wii version of Okami on Amazon for around $11 brand new.

[duffmanth]

I usually wait until a game hits the $20-$30 price range before I pick it up. Primarily because of backlog and lack of free time. There's no point in paying $60 for a game if it's just going to sit for months before I get to it, and by the time I normally do get to them, they hit the above mentioned price point anyways.

If there's a game I'm really excited about and I know I will play right away, then I'll pony up and pay full price, but those are becoming more and more rare it seems.

This is another reason I forgot to mention as to why I rarely buy games day one anymore, too many unfinished games.

[grolt]

Games usually drop so quickly in price that I force myself to wait no matter the anticipation for a game. The one exception are Final Fantasy games, which my brother and I have a tradition of getting on launch day and plowing through together. Otherwise I usually wait and often by used. I try to buy all SEGA games that are discounted new so at least in theory it goes back to the boys that started my addiction all those years ago.

[BlastProcessing402]

I rarely buy games at full price anymore. I think the only one I've paid full price for in the last 4 years was New Super Mario Bros Wii, and I could sort of justify that to myself because I'd bought a used Wii instead of a new one and the price difference on the console essentially made it a wash only I was getting a game I actually wanted instead of Wii Sports or whatever it was.

Sometimes I wait for a price drop, but also I rely on finding them on sale, using stuff like K-mart reward points (just got $16 bucks off Paper Mario 3DS that way), or once in a while buying used (but not from GameStop unless there's a buy 2 get 1 free deal going on, otherwise they just don't charge enough less to make it worth going used).

[ChrisNGibbs]

Heck, I just DOA5 for $30. Black Friday deal!

[sloan]

No full priced games here since my young and stupid days. Recently, I have been picking up a few PS3 games for $3 a piece, some still in cellophane, at Goodwill's so will probably have to look for a PS3 system sometime soon.

[Tanooki]

Thanks to the $60 pricing on console games I more often than not keep an eye out for sales, the non-gamestop used market, or I wait on price drops or clearance. I will get a few games, but it's those rare titles I know for a fact I'd not want to put down and damn well know I'd finish it. I've got about 20 PS3 games currently, maybe 5 of them I paid $60 on, the rest I waited and some were gifts I ended up keeping and others are gone.