Do we actually care about game prices?

[Lothar]

Well I have started a thread. I know a lot of you buy a lot of games. Does it actually matter to you on what price you spend on the games you buy or you just buy them on the price that they are?

Do you actually play all the games you buy? (excluding packs of games)

Do you actually play through the whole game that you buy if it is a legacy game (ie last gen games)?

I think this would be an intresting thread.

(last game I have baught was Terraria which I have pretty much played through twice)(previoius to that was settlers 7 which I have only played 2 levels.)

[Aegis]

depends on the game. I'll sometimes pay the bullshit region fucking prices on games i really want which are MP and therefore need to be owned at release or (generally) the playerbase dries up before you get in. But will mostly angle for lower prices. SP games I wait for the steam sales except in super rare occurances like DNF and Deus Ex.

I definitely don't play all my games through to completion. Some, like Divinity 2, are such a fucking let down that you just have to uninstall it. Other games like Assassin's Creed aren't worth completing because that means exploring every inch of their open world looking for flags and shit that have buggerall bearing on the actual game.

[Joshuayu101]

For pricing, people tend to actually care about the price when you see it cheaper somewhere else Eg; Steam region pricing

the rest is void for me cos i dont buy much games xP

[Milenko]

Price is definitely an issue for me.

If i see an item for a price that I think isn't justified, I simply won't pay it.

[morge]

most stuff I've started playing I've completed at least once. SP games I'm unlikely to buy at release unless it is a game I'm looking forward too and can get at a none completely region fucked price last game I did this with is dragon age 2. Will pre order multiplayer games but for me that is really only battlefield series and stuff from valve. Most games for me are a snap purchase when I'm board or games are on sale and anything over $50 doesn't fall into snap purchase range.

[Harbinger]

I generally Play everything through if I can, unless it's utter shit. This may happen over a period of a couple years though.

I also try to buy anything as cheap as I can, especially single player games. Multiplayer games I won't buy unless people are actually going to play them, or if they're ridiculous cheap.

[rec]

The price of a game is important to me, but not detrimental to a desired purchase. If I want a game, I'll go to any lengths possible to buy it at the cheapest available price, even if that means ordering it from the UK or Steam's USA store. And this is normally because it's up to 50% cheaper than a local retailer or getting region-gouged on Steam. Alas, if the cheapest price is indeed something outrageous like $90, I'll pay it (virtually never the case).

I won't wait for a game to drop in price though. When I want to play it is when I'll buy it, typically. Unless of course it's massively discounted and I bought it "just because". Those games sometime sit in my digital library for a rainy day. Some games I bought years ago in Steam sales I still haven't played.

Other times I'll re-purchase games I once owned on disc when they're on sale, just so I still have them. They deliver a bit of personal nostalgic value. I'm also happy to throw a few more bucks at the developers that have made such enjoyable games.

Oh, finally; I've completed just a fraction of the single player games I've started. Most don't hold my attention, and only now are they becoming engaging enough to keep me interested from start to finish. Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, Batman are a bunch from the past few years which I've played, loved, and finished.

[Bam Stroker]

Absolutely. Especially if an asking price for a game is a shameless gouge (eg. 30% or more dearer in Oz on release vs. US) then I won't go near it. Fuck those arseholes. In fact in those cases I relish not buying their game so matter how much I might have otherwise wanted it.

Examples:

• I haven't bought MW2 yet even though after playing MW1 I was interested in the single player campaign. But it has been $90 on Steam for nearly two fucking years. Now it's got to the point where even if they started flogging for for $20 I wouldn't buy it since they've been prickish enough to gouge us so long.
• I bought about 7 or 8 games during the recent Steam sale because they were discounted, including games I'd never have considered when they were full price. They charge a reasonable price = I'll give them a second look.
• I snapped up Deus Ex immediately today when I saw the news article. TBH $28 was well below my threshold. I'd probably have pre-ordered if the voucher made the price $50 or $60 even. But because it wasn't $90 when I it was $60 overseas I was far more inclined to part with cash.
• I have bought games a second time when they've been a fair price. I owned Fallout 3 since it came out on 360 but one night a few months ago I felt like playing it, only on the PC. I saw that the Fallout 3 GOTY with all of the DLC was $50 - exactly the same price as it was in the US so I bought it. Bethesda got me to buy their game TWICE because they had maintained price parity with other regions.

So yes, yes , yes and yes again. I care about the prices. If not what it actually does to one's hip pocket then certainly on the principle that I refuse to pay nearly double (in some cases) for a game over its overseas counterpart to brazen ripoff merchants.

[Harbinger]

Dues ex for example, is single player, so I'll wait three years until it's < $7.50 and then buy it, as a bonus, by that point I should have a graphics card that can play it without costing $800.

I win twice! Some games aren't even taking three years, I got bioshock 2 for $5 and it's only a year and a half old.


With the number of games available, I'm not missing anything by waiting for shit.


On the other hand I bought portal 2 on pre-order because it's valve and that's guaranteed good right?

Breaking another rule I have which is not to pre-order shit, especially shit that rec is excited about, guaranteed fail.

[grandinferno]

Breaking another rule I have which is not to pre-order shit, especially shit that rec is excited about, guaranteed fail.

Man I laughed...

[Ratty]

Price is definitely an issue for me.

If i see an item for a price that I think isn't justified, I simply won't pay it.

^ this.

[chad]

This year and last year If I look back the game's I've played the most have been

Games under $10
MineCraft (No steam history)
BFBC 2 (110.6 hrs on record)
Terraria (17.3 hrs on record)
Universe Sandbox (2 hrs on record)
Kane & Lynch 2: Dogs days (4hs)

The rest of the 210 games not much...

Last year
COD 1,2,3,4 (At least 30hrs)

Free
Kerbal Space Program

For new games I will give the game a good 1-2hrs, if I don't enjoy the game or don't find it that engaging then I will leave it. I don't look at price because I think its a poor measure of (fun) in a game and typically not a good preference when selecting games. It is surprising because some of the best fun I've had have come from games bellow the $5 mark. This mainly is because to the barrier to enter is so low that its worth trying. Where for example when BFBC2 came out, it was priced at $50, and I passed it thinking its just another COD, though the number of hours I got out of the game and laughs is well worth $100 for me. I will be buying BF 3 if it wasn't for the fact it only runs on Windows Vista/7.

[r00t|{it]

I buy games when they are uber cheap on steam even if I'm not still sure if I'll play them or not, $20 is pretty much my cut off for most things before some real thought has to go into purchasing. Sometimes the price isn't justified for the game alone. Sometimes I need to consider how many people I know will be playing it and if I want to miss out on that fun ^_^

[grandinferno]

I generally find I get much more game time out of the sub-$10 games for some reason. It's weird. Same goes on XBL.

[The Happy Devil]