I use to go to Gamestop all the time to reserve my favorite games and then I soon realized that if I wait 2 or 3 months tops steam will have the game onsale. Now I almost never pay retail prices for games. I wait for sales which usually dosent take very long for Steam, Amazon or Green Man Gaming to have a game on sale that I like. What about you? Do you pay full retail price for games or do you wait for sales?

Greg

Used to buy used games.....

Right now I rarely buy games since I don't have the money. When they go on sale i'll usually try to snap them up when I can which is mostly on Steam. Still glad I waited and only paid like $15 for that newer AVP game. It definitely wasn't worth the $60 that it was originally priced at imho.

I generally either wait for the bundle if a game has multiple parts to it (expansions, DLC, and so forth) or I pick it up on sale when the sale hits at least 66% off.

I will only buy a game at release or for full price for one of two reasons:

1) I really think I'll enjoy it a lot and don't think it's worth putting off
2) I can get a good deal on it at release (sale, bundle, and so forth)

Depends on what it is. I try to buy as much as possible on release but I end up waiting for a price drop for plenty of titles as well.

Either, depending on the game.

Depends. Usually I buy games new, but if it is a game I'm not sure I'll like, I will buy it used.

I buy the games I want as soon as possible. Though the terrible games I wait to go on sale, because I love bad games but I am not paying $60 for them. I am currently waiting for Call of Juarez: The Cartel.

Aw man the Call of juarez games are my favorite bad games, I loved (and not even in an ironic way) the first two games, you should check them out if you haven't already.

Anyway, I only buy games on release date if I pretty much know I'm going to love it (this includes actually keeping up with all the news about it), this is also judged based on what company is developing it. For example, I kept up with all of the news for New Vegas, bought the CE on release date and loved it, worth every penny and more. I love every game Rockstar puts out so far so I'm gonna keep with all GTA V news (as soon as they put more out ...) and most likely buy the CE on release date.

Other games though I wait for the price to go down, I can't wait until The Darkness II goes down to $30 as well as Metro 2033. Can't wait to play them!

EDIT: Just checked on the price for Metro 2033, guess I'll be buying it in the next paycheck or two.

A little bit of both. If it's a game that I've been greatly looking forward to AND it's from a company with a proven track record to release quality games, I'll pre-order and snag on release day, or shortly thereafter. Otherwise, I'll wait until it gets a bit older, and either snag it on sale, or I'll find a super cheap used copy on E-bay for 1/10th of the normal price. I don't utilize steam since I have a 5GB Data cap AND I don't like not owning a physical copy of the game.

Technically none of us have paid full price for a game these days.

Same here. If I definitely want it and I'm a fan of the series I'll buy a game on release. Skyrim and Assassin's Creed Revelations are recent examples. Others I'll wait for reviews or ask friends what they think before deciding, and wait until it's half price. I don't really like spending ￡40 on one game, since that's two weeks food shopping for me. If I can get two or three games for ￡40, well that's different.

When I buy a game on release or pre-order it, I usually buy it from amazon.co.uk. For me it costs around 35-40 euros there, whereas full retail price from Steam or any store in the Netherlands is 50 euros. So I never really pay full retail price as it is in my own country.

I usually wait for sales though, there are very few games I pick up at launch.

I never buy used.

Depends on the game, sometimes I'll buy retail if the game is really worth it other then that I'll wait for the price to come down or I won't bother buying it at all.

I only purchase games on sale, whether it's a pre-order sale or something after the fact.

Sales usually. I think I've bought maybe 1 game per year at/near release time for the last 5 years or more.

This.

Games I'm really looking forward to, I buy right off. Because I'm, well, really looking forward to them.

Games that I'm somewhat interested in? Depends on whether I've got current games to play or not. (like, if I'm currently in the middle of something, no need/reason to get it right off.)


So far this year, I've gotten several games right at release - Final Fantasy 13-2, Kingdoms of Amalur, SSX, and Mass Effect 3. (Which, honestly, is alot of games for me. I don't generally buy that many games in a quarter. Last fall/winter, for example, the only "new"/current game I got was Skyrim.)

Oh, and I only had trade-in credit towards one of those.... I didn't see playing FF13-2 again anytime soon, and Gamestop had a trade-in special for it, toward SSX.


Games that I get on sale? Frequently are impulse buys that I get because they're on sale - like several really cheap things I got during the Steam winter sale.


edit: upcoming games that I'll probably grab right away - Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite

I let myself get hyped up to pre-order Skyrim because I thought for sure the NPCs would be super dynamic and the AI would be better than Oblivion's.

Never pre-order or retail price again.

I usually pre-order new games because i pick up the collectors editions if they have art books in them, otherwise i usually get older games on sales since we didnt have a games store here until a few years ago, so getting games you'd have to travel to a capital city.

I very rarely pay full retail. Starcraft 2, Skyrim, and Diablo III are the only games in the last few years.

It's rare I buy games right away, happened a handfull of times in the past few years. Mass Effect 3 is the last game I did that with, and it's something I regret

Might do it later this month though, with Pandora's Tower for the Wii, but I haven't decided yet.

Oh, and if the game require Steam I always wait for a Steam sale.

If I really want it I'll pre-order it or buy it at full price, but most of my games are either pre-owned or from sales. Full price is just too expensive to pay regularly.

I ALWAYS wait for sales price - main reason being I refuse to pay extra to be a Beta tester. By the time the game is on sale, most of the bugs should be gone, and the reviews of the game finalized - so I can see if it is even worth it to buy the game.

I started this policy after the "Fallout New Vegas:" bug fest, and it was reinforced by Dragon Age 2 - I paid only $25 for it, and I would have been really REALLY p!ssed if I had paid $60 for DA2

It depends. If it's something I really want, I'll buy it right at release. If I kinda want it but have enough games to play right now or it isn't getting the best reviews, I'll wait for the price to drop. There are exceptions too, like I bought Dead Island on release despite it not getting the greatest reviews, but I'd been waiting a long time for it and had finished most of my other games so I needed something to play.

If it's a game I absolutely can't wait for (rare) then I'll buy on release day. I usually wait for sales, though. I probably pay between $3 and $35 for most games.