Why are Gamers Still Paying Full Price?
Last year The Gamers Lounge took a look at the $60 price tag and asked why do modern gamers still pay full price for a game? In 2016, we are going to revisit this idea with a few more options and address this question once again.
Wait? People are still paying $60+ for games? If gamers don’t need the game day one for whatever reason, it is worth the wait for at least a few months. If someone has to have Just Cause 3 day one, take advantage of a deal like Best Buy’s Gamer’s Club Unlocked. This is something all gamers should have. $30 for two years of a 20% discount on new games for any system including PC. There are a few other benefits as well, but any new $60 game someone buys is now $48.
If gamers can wait, there a few sales that happen regularly at retailers. Steam has summer and holiday sales and knocks the price down on triple AAA games all the time. If gamers can wait a few months, the price should come down. Best Buy and Gamestop regularly have b2g1 sales. Buy 3 $60 games for $120 which comes out to $40 a game, a fantastic deal if gamers can wait. Black Friday is another great day, many AAA titles come down to $40 or less when they were $60 6 months ago.
Cheapassgamer and game trading sites such as Leaptrade are another way to stretch the gaming dollar. They are good deals on games on CAG and Leaptrade lets gamers trade in their old games for newer games. There are other trading sites such as 99Gamers, GameFlip and others which offer similar services to Leaptrade.
Waiting for the price drop is a great trend. There are some instances where this may not happen. Nintendo 1st party games take a long time to drop in price. If gamers want the new Mario, Zelda, and Kirby at a good price they will need to try to take a advantage of a B2G1 or try to buy used.
Think of it this way, someone spends $60 a month for a year. That is $720 for 12 games. Their gaming dollar could go further by waiting for sales. Say they bought every game they wanted for $40, 12 of these would be $480 which could net some significant savings. So people why are we still paying full price? Are we lazy? Do gamers not care about making the gaming dollar stretch a little more?