5 ms·

After a long-ish hiatus I picked up a Wii U two years ago for Mario Kart 8 and BOTW. And then last year grabbed a PS4 for Horizon, God of War, Spider-Man, RDR2,

After a long-ish hiatus I picked up a Wii U two years ago for Mario Kart 8 and BOTW. And then last year grabbed a PS4 for Horizon, God of War, Spider-Man, RDR2, Gravity Rush, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, Journey, and others. Basically, there are a lot of high quality single player adventures to be had out there, and if you're patient enough to wait 1-2 years after release, you can a) focus on just the good stuff, avoiding duds, and b) snag complete/goty editions for very inexpensive, which will have all the DLC included. See the the price trajectory for Horizon Zero Dawn, for example: https://psprices.com/region-us/game/1838981/horizon-zero-dawn-complete-edition https://psprices.com/region-us/game/1838981/horizon-zero-daw... (And yes, I'm a grown-up with three kids; this is gaming done an hour or two at a time a few evenings a week— gone are the days of pre-ordering a new release and then pouring an entire weekend into it when it comes out.)

everdrive 8y ago
This is exactly right. Per-capita, gaming is terrible these days. But, most of the games that come out can be ignored. Articles like this one aren't necessarily wrong, but they forget that a user can simply ignore most of the releases out there and play the 1% that are worth their time. It seems to be a necessary choice these days as media continues to be pumped out at historic levels. Ignore most of it, even if it's pretty good.
PakG1 8y ago
I wait more than 1-2 years after release, simply because my backlog is too long. Same for books. Not so much for movies because there are a bunch I prefer to see in theatres. As you note, this strategy is definitely cheaper on the wallet as well. https://xkcd.com/606/ https://xkcd.com/606/
- mikepurvis 8y ago
  A side benefit of paying less is that I don't feel the same pressure to get my money's worth out of everything. Or, I suppose, I can get my money's worth out of a $10-20 purchase in only a few hours and not feel that I need to complete something I'm just not enjoying.
giancarlostoro 8y ago
There's a community devoted to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers I usually wait for most games to go on a Steam sale, unless it's Bethesda or a game that just looks exciting.
- mikepurvis 8y ago
  Yeah, some people there are really patient. You have to find the right balance. For me, I'm patient in the sense that I didn't get my PS4 until late in the generation, and probably won't get the PS5 on launch, but I also have some interest in industry trends and the spectacle of the latest-ish graphics. I also have limited time, so I'm not going to spend a ton of it digging through the game catalogues from last-gen systems (especially if the cream of the crop is available remastered for the current generation). One interesting note particular to Nintendo is that other than the very limited "Nintendo Selects", their first party games basically never go on special. This means that if you want a deal on an older game, you have to buy second-hand physical, because the digital game is still $60. (Don't believe me? Twilight Princess HD, a 2016 remaster of a 2006 game, still retails for full price: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd-wii-u https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw...) Anyway, the consequence of this is that in general you just want to buy physical regardless for a Nintendo system because the retained-value means you'll have the option to trade it in for much longer than you would any other game. This is in contrast to the PlayStation store, where there are weekly Steam-like sales with loads of great games always available at the click of a button for sub-$20. So much so that there are entire websites and subreddits that track these things and trade recommendations around, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4Deals/comments/axn3f7/ubisoft_publisher_sale_na_psn/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4Deals/comments/axn3f7/ubisoft_pu...
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    > One interesting note particular to Nintendo is that other than the very limited "Nintendo Selects", their first party games basically never go on special. This means that if you want a deal on an older game, you have to buy second-hand physical, because the digital game is still $60. (Don't believe me? Twilight Princess HD, a 2016 remaster of a 2006 game, still retails for full price: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw... https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw...) Actually, this is not particular to Nintendo if you extend it a little bit. Disney does the same thing with their classic animated movies. It's a statement from the company about the quality of their brand.
JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
The games you've listed are (with the exception of RDR2) ones which are able to be loss leaders. With Nintendo and Sony owning them, they're guaranteed exclusives for life and will therefore be key in shifting consoles. As horrible as companies like Activision are these days, they don't have the same options in this regard.
- Thaxll 8y ago
  Yes you're right, those are first party games and then are here to sell hardware.
helen___keller 8y ago
I remembered enjoying Kingdom Hearts as a kid so I recently bought a mega Kingdom Hearts bundle for ps4, which includes 2 separate bundles (I.5 and II.5 ReMix and 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue) as well as the brand new Kingdom Hearts III, all for $100. I have so much content to work my way through at my own pace, I probably won't even make it to Kingdom Hearts III this year, much less need to buy any other RPGs.

everdrive 8y ago

This is exactly right. Per-capita, gaming is terrible these days. But, most of the games that come out can be ignored. Articles like this one aren't necessarily wrong, but they forget that a user can simply ignore most of the releases out there and play the 1% that are worth their time. It seems to be a necessary choice these days as media continues to be pumped out at historic levels. Ignore most of it, even if it's pretty good.

PakG1 8y ago

I wait more than 1-2 years after release, simply because my backlog is too long. Same for books. Not so much for movies because there are a bunch I prefer to see in theatres. As you note, this strategy is definitely cheaper on the wallet as well. https://xkcd.com/606/ https://xkcd.com/606/

mikepurvis 8y ago
A side benefit of paying less is that I don't feel the same pressure to get my money's worth out of everything. Or, I suppose, I can get my money's worth out of a $10-20 purchase in only a few hours and not feel that I need to complete something I'm just not enjoying.

giancarlostoro 8y ago

There's a community devoted to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers I usually wait for most games to go on a Steam sale, unless it's Bethesda or a game that just looks exciting.

mikepurvis 8y ago
Yeah, some people there are really patient. You have to find the right balance. For me, I'm patient in the sense that I didn't get my PS4 until late in the generation, and probably won't get the PS5 on launch, but I also have some interest in industry trends and the spectacle of the latest-ish graphics. I also have limited time, so I'm not going to spend a ton of it digging through the game catalogues from last-gen systems (especially if the cream of the crop is available remastered for the current generation). One interesting note particular to Nintendo is that other than the very limited "Nintendo Selects", their first party games basically never go on special. This means that if you want a deal on an older game, you have to buy second-hand physical, because the digital game is still $60. (Don't believe me? Twilight Princess HD, a 2016 remaster of a 2006 game, still retails for full price: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd-wii-u https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw...) Anyway, the consequence of this is that in general you just want to buy physical regardless for a Nintendo system because the retained-value means you'll have the option to trade it in for much longer than you would any other game. This is in contrast to the PlayStation store, where there are weekly Steam-like sales with loads of great games always available at the click of a button for sub-$20. So much so that there are entire websites and subreddits that track these things and trade recommendations around, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4Deals/comments/axn3f7/ubisoft_publisher_sale_na_psn/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4Deals/comments/axn3f7/ubisoft_pu...
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > One interesting note particular to Nintendo is that other than the very limited "Nintendo Selects", their first party games basically never go on special. This means that if you want a deal on an older game, you have to buy second-hand physical, because the digital game is still $60. (Don't believe me? Twilight Princess HD, a 2016 remaster of a 2006 game, still retails for full price: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw... https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-legend-of-zelda-tw...) Actually, this is not particular to Nintendo if you extend it a little bit. Disney does the same thing with their classic animated movies. It's a statement from the company about the quality of their brand.

JansjoFromIkea 8y ago

The games you've listed are (with the exception of RDR2) ones which are able to be loss leaders. With Nintendo and Sony owning them, they're guaranteed exclusives for life and will therefore be key in shifting consoles. As horrible as companies like Activision are these days, they don't have the same options in this regard.

Thaxll 8y ago
Yes you're right, those are first party games and then are here to sell hardware.

helen___keller 8y ago

I remembered enjoying Kingdom Hearts as a kid so I recently bought a mega Kingdom Hearts bundle for ps4, which includes 2 separate bundles (I.5 and II.5 ReMix and 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue) as well as the brand new Kingdom Hearts III, all for $100. I have so much content to work my way through at my own pace, I probably won't even make it to Kingdom Hearts III this year, much less need to buy any other RPGs.