The recent GOTY votes and nominations threads made one thing apparent; there are not a lot of people that play the latest games as they come out anymore. And I wondered, why? Why is that? Why is it that we, the elite members of the gaming world, do not stay up to date with the latest releases, having discussions and plays of the latest games together.
I have a few theories…
Theory 1: New games are too expensive
If you look at the latest games released this year, almost none of them released for less than R900 retail or digital. Most games are well over R1000 actually. And the reality is, that’s just too expensive! We just don’t have that kind of money to just drop on new games. Our buying power due to the weak Rand has dropped significantly in the recent years. And lets be honest, between Steam sales, Humble bundles, Xbox GWG, PSN games and a whole host of other options, why would we buy games at full retail.
Theory 2: Broken new game PTSD
How many times have you bought a game only to find out that it simply isn’t working at launch? Too many I would say. It’s almost like we gamers have developed PTSD of too many broken games at launch, and more and more people are just waiting for the game to become more stable. A couple of patches and updates later, the game works better and we decide to go back into it.
Theory 3: New games can be shit
Following on the previous theory, more and more people are waiting for reviews to come out before jumping into new games. And while this year has been one of the best for gaming, there sure has been a fair share of turds being dropped as new games. We just don’t trust certain studios (cough EA cough) anymore, so would much rather wait for reviews or even sales.
Theory 4: We have too many games already
Go look at your backlog of games. We all have a gargantuan backlog of games to get through. Games we bought because “one day we will play it”, only for it to sit in your library, silently judging you for buying more and more games. Looking at any backlog does take the motivation away from any gamer to buy new games.
So, what’s your reason for not buying new games? Can I redirect you to the r/patientgamers subreddit?
Cost - I cant afford R1000 for a title. F1 2017 is the only latest game I have ever bought, and I got it second hand.
Games emphasis is on multi player - I like single player. I game to get away from people and chill. Not have a kid scream obscenities in my ear.
The market is flooded - with the focus on multiplayer most games in the same genre feel the same and for me it’s pointless buying the latest. I miss massive games like Diablo 2 LOD or exciting fresh stuff like Half Life 1.
And waiting for a patch or patches to fix issues with the game (bugs, performance/optimization issues, etc.).
For me it is the giant backlog I already have, coupled with the high cost of new games + the limited time I have for gaming these days.
By the time I finished my current game(s), the “new” game isn’t new anymore and the price has dropped to reasonable levels and then I play it.
With so many games why get more at full price. Its an unending circle.
Added to that I don’t think many games actually add anything new to the pot. So its even less of a motivation to get a new game hot off the compiler. For what extra 10% prettier graphics?
Hmmm, actually very true. I’ve never been motivated to buy a game due to its graphics, with one exception…remasters. Some remastered games actually do add a new shine to old beloved games, making them a bit more playable and even have bug fixes. But then again, I wouldn’t classify remasters as new games.
Very interesting, although I am actually twitching and starting to slowly foam at the mouth at the fact that the years are not ordered from earliest to latest…
Lol, don’t worry. I think the message and story of the data is still clear.
It’s interesting how we during the mygame have only done one game from 2016, Rise of the Tomb Raider I presume, and that was due to it being part of the Humble Bundle. It fits in nicely with the theories I have in my OP.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is actually the 2015 title, I was surprised by that. Grim Dawn is the 2016 title, the official release, even though it was available before that.
Personally I got tired of industry greed, day one DLC, season passes, insidious content blocking, microtransactions in R1000 games, loot boxes and the fact that half of the things don’t even work properly on release. There are games I want, but I won’t buy them out of principle, and get them during a sale for a quarter of the price.
For me it is a combination of reason 1 and 4. I have plenty games in my backlog and the list of games seems to grow faster than I can play them.
Secondly, new game prices are way out of my budget, why pay R800-R1000 now when you know that there will be a special coming along soon. The only new releases that I bought at full price this year was PUBG @ R319. Last year my full price purchases were Factorio @ R220 and Overwatch @ $40. If games were released at a lower price point I would be more likely to get them at release (especially MP games).
The thing is, I’ve bought games (at a discount) only to not have played it yet when it goes on sale for an even deeper discount. I normally find myself sticking to bundles these days.
I also think age and relationships play a role , more responsibilities and less time to play games because of it, it also feels like there have an influx of more and more decent indie titles which makes it more difficult to play everything.
Those are some good reasons @DieGrootHammer and for me it’s a bit of all of them but mostly that I have too many games. I do buy a couple of new games a year. This year I bought Nioh, Forza 7 and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Eish actually I bought Paranormal Activity too. And Outlast 2. Prey I bought newish when it came on special.
That’s more than I expected. Nioh and Outlast 2 I bought because both released at exceptionally low prices. It’s a nice way to support developers who release games at low prices. Nioh costs less in third world countries. That’s awesome. Outlast 2 cost way less when it released on the XBox One than it did on PC and PS4. I don’t know why but for a game that I’ve been following for a long while it was a nice surprise.
Andromeda I made the mistake to pre-order. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson now.
Paranormal Activity was a treat for my new Oculus Rift. And Forza 7 is a treat for my new XBox One X and also got it on special.
It’s a combination of all of them for me, mainly 1 and 4. My steam collection has grown rather large and I haven’t touched most of the titles and even fewer are actually completed. The savings from buying games on sale go nicely towards my PC CUD
