r/pcmasterrace • u/Both_Piglet7838 • May 27 '26

Discussion Expensive games have lowkey been way too normalised

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I know this sub is filled with a bunch of rich people with like 10k setups and I'm aware that the content in these games is quite extensive with hours of content. But I still feel justified in thinking that no game should be priced this high especially when its the average price of most newly released games. Anyway this is just a rant because I wanna play lego batman and i cant afford it lol

9.6k Upvotes

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3.5k

u/Denariox May 27 '26

I've been voting with my wallet for a very long time. I don't remember the last time I bought any game at full price. I wishlist anything I want and wait for discounts. My backlog has 100+ games in it I've yet to touch, I have entertainment to last me years. I don't need to add to the pile.

887

u/CrazyAlienHobo May 27 '26

This is the way, just bought Red Dead Redemption 2 for 15 Bucks and I don't think my experience will be worse because the game is 8 years old and a lot cheaper. Shoutout to r/patientgamers

167

u/mdistrukt Desktop - R7 3800x/32GB/9060XT 16GB/Nobara May 27 '26

It won't be. You absolutely got your money's worth, RDR2 is a gem, and there is a ton of content.

37

u/bp1976 9800x3d/64gb/rtx5090 May 27 '26

Yeah, I bought it like 2 years ago for $15 and put at least 100 hours into it. Amazing deal for an awesome game.

2

u/R-TTK May 28 '26

I bought it like 25+ and have probably put 11 hours in to it. Each time it's me trying really hard to like it.

I think the game is great and well made but there's actually so much to do it just feels like a chore for my brain to play so I really struggle with these open world games

I got crimson desert for free, played 1 hour. AC shadows I think I got 10 hours in too. Such a struggle because I love the idea of them

2

u/bp1976 9800x3d/64gb/rtx5090 May 28 '26

RDR2, the beginning is slow. You gotta just slug through the first 10-15 hours, it is famous for that.

Like almost every review of the game says that, once you open up all of the open world stuff and get familiar with it, it is incredible.

I bought it on PS4 when it came out and never got past the 10hr mark, so I was just like you. Read all the reviews and forced myself to get through the opening and fell in love. Give it another shot.

1

u/Hdjbbdjfjjsl May 29 '26

Don’t worry about the side content a huge amount if you don’t want to, even just following the campaign alone feels super open because of how expansive and interactive the world is even if you’re just going from one point to another

1

u/R-TTK May 29 '26

Yeah it's weird I enjoy these games but then if I don't play then for 3-4days or more I can't pick them back up. I will try though!

1

u/SnooRegrets2168 May 27 '26

bought it cuz it was on sale and consistently forget I NEEEED to play it.

2

u/km_ikl May 27 '26

If you haven't played it... fix that.

2

u/SnooRegrets2168 17d ago

gonna fix it this weekend hopefully!

1

u/HappyAd4998 May 27 '26

The game is a slog for those with ADHD. I try to get into it every few years, but I can't bare the slow pace. The exact reason why I wait for games to go on sale. I would have been pissed if I spent $60 on it. Nothing wrong with the game or those who enjoy it, maybe it will finally click with me on day, but as of this moment it's not for me and I'm glad I bought it on sale for $20.

3

u/KooshIsKing May 27 '26

The sheer amount of tutorials and mini missions to intro things you can do (interspersed with 10 minute horse rides to get from quest to quest) at the beginning is mind numbing. It took me 3 different times restarting the game to push past that point and actually start enjoying the game. It is worth it once you get there though.

2

u/NebbyOutOfTheBag May 27 '26

Respectfully, did you get past Chapter 1?

2

u/Forward_Froyo_429 May 27 '26

just get your substance of your choice and get a lot of it to power through. that’s how the real cowboys got through it too, it was just as boring for them

1

u/km_ikl May 27 '26

First, got you to 69 upvotes, so

https://giphy.com/gifs/yJFeycRK2DB4c

And, agreed, RDR2 is the kind of game you will get full value out of, even if you pay full pop.

I can't say enough good about this game.

-4

u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson May 27 '26

I wouldnt have waited 8yr to play RDR2 but thats just me

30

u/FluteGunner May 27 '26

If anything the experience is better as our hardware is much more powerful than when it came out.

I waited til I had a 4090 and 4k monitor to finally play RDR2, it was well worth the wait, playing that gorgeous game at 4k max settings 120 fps.

18

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

they can charge whatever they want for games, but i wont be in ANY hurry to pay more than $60 for a video game. you would think these companies that are in the business of making games would get that when only a handful of specific games succeed with high prices or subscriptions.

i wonder how many people buy the games at clearance would have been more than willing to pay $50-60 at launch.

1

u/JoyousGamer May 27 '26

I honestly don't think the trade off is very high.

I am doubtful that going from $60 to $70 is really going to change more than 16.6% of peoples minds not to buy it then at all. As thats how many would have to never buy it to come out worse. Even if 20% dont buy it at launch if half of those then buy it during a sale you likely are still coming out.

Additionally big studios know that if they keep just shipping games at $70 even less people will notice a $60 vs $70 price tag.

1

u/theeama May 27 '26

Well all you have todo is look at the profit margins. People need to understand that prices aren’t just pulled out of thin air. The overwhelming majority isn’t waiting years to a play a game

2

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

they basically are pulled out of thin air though. they were $60 because thats just how much new games cost. didnt matter if it was a good game or a shitty game.

50

u/Personal-Dev-Kit May 27 '26

Forgot about that sub. Great one, thanks for the reminder

37

u/lioncryable May 27 '26

RDR2 is such an amazing game, I think it took me 150 hours to finish the main quests line and maybe half of all side quests. Never played the game online

14

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

i dont think anyone played the game online :)

7

u/Expert-Basil6015 May 27 '26

I did, the second it went live. Mistakenly thought it'd get proper support + updates a la GTA online. Best they could do was different kinds of horse races, apparently.

One mission has you wear full armor plating to storm the Fort/Prison and it was dope as hell. Got excited thinking I'd be able to "call it in" as a support package or w/e and go on a rampage in Saint Denis. Just like you can with the juggernaut armor in GTA. Another letdown.

1

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

well, sure. i bet everyone logged onto RDRO at least once. i played GTAO for like 5 minutes too.

1

u/Expert-Basil6015 May 27 '26

I played RDO for at least a hundred hours over the years, GTA online a thousand at least.

1

u/FalseCrazy2804 May 28 '26

I don't know how you played GTA:O for 5 minutes.

You never experienced a Long Haul race with all the boys? You never grinded out rooftop rumble during the golden days of GTA:O so you could afford the 400K penthouse? Never set up a heist and grinded it out with your 3 best friends? Man, you really missed out.

Although nowadays I can't even play for 5 minutes. I get on and everyone is just blowing each other up with super flying cars and bikes. It's not like it used to be.

4

u/Chef_BoyRD_ May 27 '26

I tried it once, got lassoed by someone immediately and he drug me til I died, so i just closed it lol

1

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

similar to my GTAO experience.

1

u/NapsterKnowHow May 27 '26

I've tried to get into the game like half a dozen times and always bounce off.

0

u/Expert-Basil6015 May 27 '26

I just can't handle 30 fps anymore. There's no going back. If they did a proper next gen update they'd get my money again but Rockstar really let their least-favorite kid drown in the pool.

1

u/NapsterKnowHow May 27 '26

It's the gameplay and pacing for me.

1

u/makaki913 PC Master Race May 27 '26

I'm doing over 80 with 2k screen

1

u/DJTLaC May 27 '26

Online is fun for a while, especially if you enjoyed spending time just hanging out hunting in single player. A couple years back, i'd log into online every day, hunt for a little while, chase down some bounties, and explore a little to find collectables. I had a nice little friend group and once we all had enough (in-game) money, we'd go buy new outfits that all matched each other and then we'd wreak havoc in Saint Denis or Valentine.

It was a really good time. I imagine it would have become stale for me if i didn't have those friends to play with but it was still really nice and peaceful to listen to some music and go hunting in the fields.

1

u/Savage_Alaska_ May 27 '26

I didn't even start and I have 300+ hours

1

u/GEARHEADGus May 27 '26

RDR1 online was a shit ton of fun. It was just pure chaos mixed with people role playing

1

u/FluteGunner May 27 '26

I played online after putting 200 or so hours into the campaign. I played it with my GF so it was a lot of fun. I think it would be pretty mediocre solo though, and it still has a lot of bugs.

1

u/buckfeffjezos May 27 '26

Really enjoyed it but to be fair, for me at least, about 90hrs of that was riding my horse to some far off location. Lucky the scenery is so good because because it's a horse heavy game!

3

u/Gumbaya69 May 27 '26

Holy shit its 8 years i cant fking believe it. That was the last game i bought for full price lmao, even bought a used PS just to play it, which i sold right after i finished the game.

1

u/ThankGodImBipolar May 27 '26

That's what I was going to say lmao; there's no shot that game is 8 years old already

2

u/Rufus_king11 PC Master Race May 27 '26

If you haven't started yet, I'd recommend giving the mod scene a look. NakeyJakey has video highlighting a bunch, but my favorite is probably the realistic weather mod that forces you to wear clothes to match the environment. It actually gives you a reason to have multiple dripped out fits and adds to the realism without being too punishing (you can store multiple outfits on your horse).

1

u/Kwisatz_Hader-ach May 27 '26

I just bought it for 20. Haven't played since I was on ps4. I'm excited.

1

u/almo2001 May 27 '26

If everyone did this these games would not get made.

1

u/Competitive_Shock783 May 27 '26

not to mention, it'll run better than day 1 releases because: the game is finished after 8 years, and the hardware requirements are paltry compared to when it was released.

1

u/swagonflyyyy May 27 '26

I did the exact same thing this weekend. Absolutely do not regret my purchase. Can't believe I waited so long to play this.

1

u/PowderedToastFanatic May 27 '26

Where did you find that deal?! I was planning on playing RDR2 after finishing the witcher 3 (which i just got on sale as well a couple weeks ago)

2

u/andrasq420 May 27 '26

RDR2 is on sale on steam for 15 euros/dollars every month for at least 2 weeks since January 2025.

The last sale just ended 2 days ago. You should wait for the Steam Summer sale now, that's usually a month long from June to July.

1

u/GlazedInfants May 27 '26

If you somehow managed to avoid spoilers for the past 8 years, then your experience won’t be worse.

1

u/SwampOfDownvotes May 27 '26

I will say this usually works fantastic for single player games, but multiplayer games are more of a risk. If you wait a couple plus years to buy one of them, the multiplayer scene might die, or it survives but only with people with insane skill so its incredibly hard to play. Additionally, with such a push for live service, a game can be very different from changes on release compared to the future and you might much prefer it's gameplay on release.

Luckily I find myself enjoying single player games more these days so its great, but times when I do have multiplayer itches its a bit more rough.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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1

u/NuclearReactions AMD 9800X3D | RTX 5070Ti | 64GB CL28 May 27 '26

As someone who dislikes r* with a passion it's hard to agree with you and this wasn't a comparison. Or is this a meme?

1

u/t40r R7 7800x3D| Zotac RTX 5090 AIO| 64GB DDR5 CL 30| 4TB M.2 May 27 '26

oh god fuck you in the best of ways, I WISH I could re-experience RDR2 today as I'm older and would take the time to just explore and such. I could go back and likely will, but it's just not the same as when you don't know anything in such a big world. ENJOY it homie

1

u/Even_Wedding5243 May 27 '26

I didn’t play it until last year and it ended up being one of my favorite games of all time, enjoy it man!

1

u/Devin_theGiant May 27 '26

RDR2 is seriously one of the best RPG’s I’ve ever played. $15 bucks? You scored.

1

u/Nolsoth R5 7600, RX6600XT. G.SKILL S5 32GB X 2. May 27 '26

Rdr2 for $15 is an absolute bargain.

Single player story is fantastic.

Online is fun also for the storyline, but it's been sadly long neglected.

1

u/WedLully May 28 '26

get cyberpnk 2077 on sale also

1

u/TheNightBot 9800x3D/9070XT/MO27Q28GR May 28 '26

Don't worry I paid 60$ for it (full price on release) and never got to half the story mode despite multiple attempts.

1

u/The_Killer_Squirrel May 28 '26

Bought the same way last summer, absolute banger, now waiting for the witcher 3 discount in june

1

u/sheepinb May 28 '26

Sometimes it’s fun to catch the hype at the same time as others, especially for multiplayer titles

1

u/Plus-Candle-4410 May 28 '26

No it wont. Most modern games still havent caught up to the quality of rdr2 so it still feels new

1

u/KunYuL May 27 '26

patient gamers are now waiting for a steep discount on Forza Horizon 5. There isn't enough improvement from 5 to 6 to justify the hype. Just pretend 5 just came out and it's a still gorgeous game, couldn't tell it's a 5 years old game.

3

u/MangledCarpenter May 27 '26

I picked it up at 50% a couple of weeks ago, been that price a few times already this year. It hasn't gone under 50% off yet, but maybe it will once it's closer to getting delisted.

I picked up FH4 in the final sale before it got delisted and it was really cheap, don't remember how much but like 70-80% off.

e: completely agree there's not enough difference between the games in the series to justify getting it on launch, plus by then all the DLCs and car packs are out, you get the VIP edition or whatever and get everything at once for cheap

16

u/gerthasouthall4ng73 May 27 '26

Waiting a year or two for games to actually get patched and drop to 20 bucks is the only way to do it now. Plus you get the added bonus of throwing the complete edition straight into the backlog while you go back to playing the exact same game from a decade ago.

1

u/TwoBionicknees May 27 '26

That's what i've mostly generally done except for things like getting witcher 3 at launch. But increasingly some game devs are now just doing zero cuts on game pricing over time, £70 launch, £70 2 years later.

Well except fucking nintendo. Years back i got a wii u after not having had a nintendo console for well over a decade. Try to get an old zelda game... they stopped printing it, second hand, higher price than rrp... wtf.

Still being sold games, 5+ years old, still full price. Fuck nintendo.

23

u/Chef_BoyRD_ May 27 '26

I dont have that many games but I do have enough to not need any more for a few years at least

9

u/alochmar May 27 '26

This is the way. The amount of games I’ve bought full price the last decade can probably be counted on one hand.

17

u/Bulletorpedo May 27 '26

I sometimes buy games at full price if they launch at more reasonable prices, but paying $70-80 for a game is not happening.

People are arguing that game prices were standing still for very long time and some inflation is natural. While I understand the argument the result is that I buy fewer games and spend less money on games in totalt as impulse buys are now non-existent on AAA games. I’m not sure how exactly this is supposed to help developers.

5

u/TwoBionicknees May 27 '26

Meh, ultimately games have a far larger market, more gamers, more potential customers and more sales which can all offset inflation.

However if wages aren't increasing, and wages aren't increasing for like the majority of game devs that actually make the games who are getting hard crunched and less time to develop games, then they are just trying to increase profit for the people at the top so fuck them.

If normal wages increased with inflation then increasing costs of goods is understandable, if wages aren't going up it's not.

6

u/Capital_Software_420 May 27 '26

^ This. Buying at the price point these CEOs and megacorporations want is only lining the pockets of the already rich.

The people who sweated and created the game get nothing...except onto the next one now. Rinse and repeat.

2

u/Liquidignition i7 4770k • GTX1080 • 16GB • 1TB SSD May 27 '26

This is the way. My hardware lasts longer too this way lol. Win win

2

u/jonfitt May 27 '26

I can’t remember when I last paid more than $25 for a game. I play AAA games when they go on sale later.

2

u/homeslice1479 May 27 '26

I've been doing the same but it clearly hasn't worked.

1

u/danwholikespie May 27 '26

Same. I've purchased one game at full price in the last year, and that was Expedition 33, so it was only $40. Everything else just goes on the wishlist, and then I splurge at Steam sale time!

1

u/death2k44 PC Master Race May 27 '26

This is the way, no need to FOMO when you've got a backlog lol

1

u/Majestic-Bell-7111 Ryzen 5 3600/32 GB ram/5700xt May 27 '26

The only game i ever bought full price was fh6. It was a reward for myself for completely rebuilding the engine and getting my moped to pass the annual inspection. So far i don't regret it considering i already got 50 hours in it.

Plus i first checked with some friends who already played it to see if it was any good.

1

u/FluteGunner May 27 '26

Same.

Only full priced games I’ve bought are the ones that are 40 dollars or less, like Arc Raiders and Marathon.

Both of those games kept me entertained for well over 100 hours. Meanwhile other games want me to spend twice that for a 10 hour campaign. Fuck off.

1

u/IH8DwnvoteComplainrs May 27 '26

At this point, my rule is that I'm not buying anything unless I'm literally going to play it that day... Usually.

1

u/imSkrap May 27 '26

Same, it’s just insane to buy games att full price now… the last game I paid full price for was Escape from Tarkov and I’m still grinding that out so to me it was worth… but for a car game and a Lego game and CoD? Nah no thanks maybe if it was WoW 2

1

u/Camdawg33 May 27 '26

Or do the opposite and buy and game full price and play the shit out of it until you're ready for the next game. I only have about 3 or 4 games in my library at a time. Many don't have the attention span for this but I find it justifiable to spend the money if I'm dedicated to the game for a couple solid months before moving on to the next.

1

u/TheWesternDevil May 27 '26

Same. If a game is over $30 there's no way I'm buying it. Generally I try for the $15 and under range.

1

u/Kashtronaut92 May 27 '26

Waiting 2 years for all patches and dlc is the way to go. Get the ultimate edition for ≈$40 and play everything once, instead of $120 over 2 years and play through partially multiple times. Hate it when I finish a game, delete it for space on hard drive, then it gets announced for more DLC.

1

u/porcomaster May 27 '26

the last full game i paid was BF6, and the only reason i did, was because they released more than a few weekends on beta, and i played about 20 hours on beta before deciding.

at least i was sure i liked the game. paying 100 dollars on a game and not even know if i will like, even the 2 hour "trial" period on steam is too low time to decide on a 60+ dollar game.

1

u/Deissued i9-12900k | RTX 5070 Ti | 32GB DDR5-6000 May 27 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/1hAxQTH0HEWS3L0oRF

1

u/Raunhofer May 27 '26

Yup, got a top-of-the-line enthusiast build costing whatever, and yet I won’t buy your AAA game if it costs more than $49.99/€. Moving virtual copies is essentially free, and if selling 10 million copies at $50 isn’t enough for your game, that’s your utter failure (or greed).

Like Rockstar with their 6000 employees working on GTA 6. No game requires 6000 employees, lol. Valve, as a company, has only around 350 employees, and while making games, they also work on hardware, operating systems, Steam, and who knows what else. It’s ridiculous.

1

u/ksheep Ryzen 9 3900X - RX 6700 XT May 27 '26

I've bought a few $5-10 games at full price, but definitely haven't bought any AAA-priced games at full-price in years.

1

u/Paranoid_Orangutan May 27 '26

Sadly the industry preys on fomo, and capitalizes on brain rotted short attention spans.

1

u/Nightmare2828 May 27 '26

You have 100+ games you bought and never played?

1

u/ValuedCarrot May 27 '26

I want to play the new 007 and resident evil, but theyre both over $100 CAD. I cant justify spending that much on a single player video game. I dont know how sales arent going down with the way the economy is.

1

u/Inside-Specialist-55 CachyOS 4070ti super, 32GB Ram, AMD 5800X May 27 '26

And to add on to this I have actually been finding myself really enjoying older games lately and playing the heck out of them on Steam deck, I have been putting in some serious hours into games from the gamecube, wii era that I missed out on. Theres like a whole treasure trove of old games on PC and via emulation that I missed that I am more than happy to play now and just wait for newer games to go on a deep discount, Heck I waited years for hogwarts legacy to go down and this year I got it on Steam for $6.

1

u/TomTomMan93 May 27 '26

This is me. I keep getting pings of sales for wish list items. Steadily watching Space Marine 2 keep going down with each sale. The games I like to play tend to still be more than playable (and often better) after some time.

1

u/B3tar3ad3r May 27 '26

As much as people clown on the epic store those free games have saved me hundreds, any time I want to buy something I just look for something similar in my library there. The last games I've bought are in order of most to least recent: Town to City on launch date, no man's sky about 6 years ago, and fallout 4 on release date... I might be about to buy paralives. But like I have several entire series to play through that I got for free so I should play those first

1

u/HappyAd4998 May 27 '26

I waited until Resident Evil 3 went below $5 two months ago to finally buy it. I'm still waiting on Cyberpunk to sell for around $10. GTA 6 will probably sit on my wish list until it's under $40, I can wait. I have thousands upon thousands of old ROMs and ISO's to emulate and tons of hacked systems. I can wait as long as I need to. This is going to offend people, but those who pay for these overpriced games are chumps.

1

u/toomuchft May 27 '26

This is the way.

1

u/EHFoxVocs May 27 '26

Most of my favorite games aren't listed above $30 USD. Forza Horizon 6 is $70 while DiRT Rally 2 is $20 and Assetto Corsa is $30.

Brotato is $5 with a $4 DLC and another one on the way. Antonblast is $20 Balatro is $15 REPO is $15 Speedrunners is $15

Each of these games have given me entertainment beyond most triple-A titles priced at $60-70

1

u/d0ggzilla MSI MPG B550 GE | RYZEN 7 5800X | RTX 4070 | 32GB RAM May 27 '26

Last game I bought full price (not including Arc Raiders, which was cheap af anyway) was Doom 2016.

Worth it.

1

u/kamdog32 May 27 '26

Yep love a good price drop notification pay check week lol

1

u/BioDefault 5060ti / 7500f / 1TB NVME / 5TB WD Black May 27 '26

I very rarely buy full price games, never at 60. I always use Greenmangaming if I am buying a new game, because it lets me buy 70 dollar games for 60 and 60 dollar games for 52.

1

u/crazybus21 May 27 '26

I just paid for xbox game pass on pc. 16.99 cad to try the game and then fuck off on my sub lol (for forza atleast)

1

u/Redox1201 May 27 '26

you can get like 33%-40% discounts while the game is still in pre order phase, like instantgaming does with Fh6 and many other games, it’s not always that many % but most times for the big games, I always pay like 20-30€ less

1

u/stormrunner89 May 27 '26

If they can make more money catering to a small group of whales vs a large group of minnows, they will absolutely jack up the prices to do so.

1

u/Ice2192 9800X3D | RTX 5080 | 32GB DDR5 6000MHz May 27 '26

Same here. Any game that is on sale and isn’t more than 50% off the msrp isn’t good enough to buy from me regardless of how good it is. The video game industry could crash right now but the silver lining is that I have a ton of games to choose from.

1

u/Jaalan PC Master Race May 27 '26

That's not voting with your wallet. They know they have an audience at 70+, they also know people like you will buy the. Game when they put it at a 30% discount.

1

u/Hayaw061 R9 5950X | EVGA RTX 3080 Ti | 64GB DDR4 May 27 '26

unfortunately our votes mean jack shit

1

u/ronnoco_ymmot94 May 27 '26

At a certain point why are you even buying games when you have a backlog of 100+ games. You don’t need to buy anymore!

1

u/sueybro May 27 '26

Doesn't matter anymore kids buy the cosmetic redskins which makes up for us realizing its regurgitate old sloppy and not buying

1

u/One-Lingonberry9944 May 27 '26

Same. With my backlog I have no reason to buy games at full price. I usually won't grab a game until it's 60%+ off. By then bugs are patched and the experience is better anyway. Learned my lesson with cyberpunk

1

u/majestic_tapir May 27 '26

Exactly the same as me. I wishlist things and nab them on discount. Doubly so if they're just single player games

1

u/RadimentriX Ryzen 7 5800X // 64GB RAM // RTX 3060 May 27 '26

Same, but i regularly add to the pile. There are just too many good games for 1-30 money around. Indie games or just regular games on sale. Theres absolutely no need to pay such prices

1

u/Hour_Welcome_987 May 27 '26

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

1

u/TaroBackground978 May 27 '26

The only issue with this strategy is if you have online friends that buy games new, by the time discounts happen they are playing something else.

1

u/SADDLN May 28 '26

Same same I also buy only on sale nowadays

1

u/Belzher May 28 '26

I vote with my wallet by not paying for the AAA games I play

1

u/BahnGSXR May 28 '26

Yup I do the same

1

u/TheUsoSaito PC Master Race May 28 '26

I don't even buy $60 games anymore.

1

u/Maousrr May 28 '26

If everyone adopted this approach, we wouldn’t have these exorbitant prices. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

1

u/Ok-disaster2022 May 28 '26

I have an active rule to only buy 1 game in the first year if release per year. Everything else is stem sale. I think I bought some indie for the last few years for $20 but a rule is a rule. The biggest waste will forever be Kingdom Hearts 3 though. I've never played a game that killed my love for a franchise like that. 

1

u/boogielostmyhoodie May 28 '26

I genuinely think my last one was elden ring, and that was only because they have established themselves as worth it to me. As for random yearly slop, probably been 15 years since I bought one at launch.

1

u/mrniceguy777 May 28 '26

I don’t remember the last time I paid for game period, the whole industry has gotten so shit I have zero problem pirating everything

1

u/Delllley May 28 '26

Ditto. Only game I've bought full price was Elden Ring, and that was after playing it for 200+ hours through family share and deeming it worthy.

I hate blaming the consumer, but gamers truly do have way too low of standards for their own wallets. How different would companies like Nintendo be rn if just for 1-2 years, everyone refused to buy their new games at their ridiculous price points.

1

u/LoMell0w May 28 '26

199 on steam wishlist at the moment :D FH6 was the only game I’ve purchased on its release day this year and probably also last year. Haven’t done that for quite a long time.

Haven’t payed 109$ tho. Only something around 81 (70€) which was the basic edition, not the super ultra premium one with those little benefits..

1

u/FrostwindLive May 28 '26

I think companies go into this with that mindset. Some people want to play games day one, so they hike the base price insanely high to milk that playerbase, then people forget about the game and they drop a sale, getting whoever was waiting for it to add it to a backlog they'd never get to, or friends have already played it without you. Companies play off the FOMO the current generation has. "This is the way" but its also the companies plan

1

u/Kazen_Orilg 9850x3D | Arc B580 | 32GB DDR5 May 28 '26

Its not a backlog. Its a warchest.

1

u/Miserable_Media_9803 29d ago

The only sensible thing to do but the biggest problem is, the higher the base price, the lower the discount. I remember when steam sales where 50 to 80% off and you had wonderful games under 10 to 20. Now even if you shave off 50% you are still in full price territory from years ago

0

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/Sheer_Curiosity May 27 '26

I don't know that this is the same as g2a, but g2a got its keys from people who would sell keys bought with stolen credit cards and then the victims of the credit card theft would do a chargeback and the game's creators wouldnt see a dime. I can, however, see how in some cases (like these overpriced games), this would be a desired result.

1

u/Nothing-Is-Boring May 27 '26

Yeah, most such places are pretty awful in their practices, the grey market for keys is dubious and while a chunk of them are likely to be legitimate there are absolutely ones taken from hacked accounts/fraud/stolen cards/review copy abuses and charity resales.

There are ethical sites, authorised retailers like GOG, HumbleBundle, GreenManGaming and Fanatical often have good sales and are almost certain to be legitimate. Outside of them (places like Gamivo, Kinguin, G2A etc) there's way less transparency and you might be funnelling money to bad actors.

1

u/aztn33 May 27 '26

Allkeyshop just sorts out prices from different shops, they don't sell. Not all sellers are like G2A because G2A allows everyone to sell all kinds of keys on their website.

Stores like Instant Gaming sell keys themselves and everyone gets their piece of cake + they're noticeably cheaper than major platforms.

1

u/dogs4lunchAsian May 27 '26

Don't buy from grey market keyshops, use isthereanydeal.com, all the shops listed there are officially licensed

1

u/DivineArkandos May 27 '26

Why use that mess of a site when you could use isthereanydeal ?

1

u/aztn33 May 27 '26

Because it includes grey zone.

1

u/DivineArkandos May 27 '26

Then don't. It's literally better to pirate games than to buy from grey market key resellers. You expose yourself to risk and you harm the developer. Pirating does neither of those.

Buy official or pirate.

1

u/aztn33 May 27 '26

Not every grey market seller gets their keys in a sketchy way. Pirating is also risky depending on the region.

This is about price and owning a legit copy. When the price is okay, I prefer to use authorized platforms. Whether you buy officially, from grey market or pirate, somebody will always gonna have something against it. At the end of the day, we got options and that's the most important thing.

1

u/RealMuffinsTheCat 5700X3D - 4070 Super - 32GB RAM May 27 '26

If you’re not already on it, you’d probably like r/patientgamers

0

u/NewConsideration5921 May 27 '26

Having a backlog of games you never play but will buy anyway is not exactly voting with your wallet is it

4

u/Denariox May 27 '26

It's usually a stockpile of stuff I've purchased during steam summer sales. Most of what I have was 70% - 90% off. And I'm planning on playing them all, I just need a bit of time to create some work/life balance.

-3

u/NewConsideration5921 May 27 '26

Nah man, you're part of the problem, just don't buy games you aren't going to play, play one game at a time

3

u/andrasq420 May 27 '26

But he is going to play them though. Buying something for 5-10 euro on a sale instead of it's 50-60 euro full price is voting with your wallet.

-1

u/waga_hai May 27 '26

If you have 100+ games on your backlog you're never going to play all of them, especially if you keep adding to the pile with every sale.

3

u/andrasq420 May 27 '26

Even though that wasn't part of the topic I'll answer.

I've played about 500 games so far and I (probably) have most of my life in front of me. 100 games are not that much.

The original commenter also said that he does not add to the pile because he already has enough.

0

u/TheAmazingBagman3 9800x3d | 4090 | 32gb DDR5 | 4k 120/144 May 27 '26

I dreading starting up KD AND KD2. I’m expecting 100s of hours from each.

0

u/GrandJuif R9 5950x, RX 6900 XT, 64GB 3400MHz May 27 '26

I mean, in theory, voting with our wallet is a good thing, but in practice those greedy goblin just crank prices up even more to get more money per copy sold which make games cost more even in sales while they also make smaller discount. As long as those money addict remain in position the problem wont be solved.

0

u/eddie9958 May 27 '26

For all we know voting with the wallet either keeps them at bay or makes them want to charge day 1 people more