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Do you buy games Day 1 or do you wait a couple months/years after release?

What time do you buy games?

  • Day 1

    Votes: 44 31.7%

  • Months/years After release

    Votes: 91 65.5%

  • I don't 'buy' games

    Votes: 4 2.9%
  • Total voters
    139
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I make way too many threads here...
Anyways, i'm the type of guy who's always out of the loop. I'm never exactly current with all the trends. Only consoles I had for the entirety of 8th gen was an Xbox 360 and a Wii u, while everyone else was using PS4s. I'm not exactly the most current, and i'm still yet to beat a lot of games. So it's safe to say that i buy games whenever. I don't buy day 1, i usually wait until there's time and money for me to do so, and then i strike. My steam library is filled with a bunch of old games at this point, and i honestly don't mind. The most recent game in my gog library is from 2015, lol. I just don't always have the cash to get games day one and 60-70 dollars is a bit too much for me. If it's something i'm extremely hyped for, i may wait a couple of weeks, but never Day 1.
 
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dreamcastluvr

dreamcastluvr

Member
Months/ years after release, once it's down to 20 buck range. Especially with most modern games being "toned down" for "modern sensitivities," GaS, and the trend of unfinished releases, there is no way in hell I'd ever pay full price on day 1.
 
Midn1ght

Midn1ght

Member
Last game I bought day one was No Man’s Sky.

Lesson learned.

I’m also on PC where waiting for ports, fixes and deals is the best course of action. This way you get most games at a decent price after they received patches and play best.
 
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A

ACESHIGH

Banned
Waiting is the only reasonable option. At least 6 months until bugs are ironed out. I don't bother with day one AAA games unless they are on game pass these days.
 
Efren is G.O.A.T.

Efren is G.O.A.T.

Member
It really depends. If it's a game that I'm really looking forward to I'll buy it Day 1 unless there are massive bugs at launch but that next tier can wait a few months.

For exemple, I will buy Resident Evil 4 remake day one but I haven't bought Dying Light 2 yet.
 
brian0057

brian0057

Banned
Even if Jesus Christ himself were developing the games, I would still buy them at a later date.
It also helps that I don't play multiplayer games.
 
Jaybe

Jaybe

Member
If I’m ever buying day 1, it’s at a retailer by me that has a store wide discount. I’ll play it, sell it for what I paid for, then pick it up later either digital or physical for 10 to 20 bucks if I want to play it again.

But I’m likely not buying anything now but Switch games while my game pass is committed to late next year.
 
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C

CaptainSlayAHo

Banned
Used to be day one, but between game pass and now ps+, off the top of my head the only game I've outright bought the last few years is cyberpunk (absolutely worth it)

Don't see that changing for a while
 
Laptop1991

Laptop1991

Member
After release now, i wait to see if the game works well and lives up to the hype, and justifies the price, i've been burn't a few times in the past, on PC that is.
 
reforen

reforen

Member
Depends on the game, the latest day one games I bought were:
Cyberpunk 2077
Judgement
Lost Judgement
Elden Ring
Shredders Revenge

I need to be hyped for a game to buy it day one, if not I can wait
 
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Paltheos

Paltheos

Member
For most games I wait for sales. If I really love the developer or said release is actually high profile (i.e. not just some w/e AAA game or the flavor of the month), I'll buy day 1.
 
BadBurger

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Day one, because I ball hard son.

Also I'm an idiot who never learns his lesson and because of that now has a backlog that would make even the Sisyphus say "dude just give up, you're never getting through all that".
 
LectureMaster

LectureMaster

Member
I rarely buy games at launch nowadays unless it's the game developers that I genuinely want to support (like From software, Vanillaware, CDPR before 2077 lol).

I have a good chunk of backlog that I use spreadsheet to manage, meaning at any point I am not running out of games I want to play. Plus nowadays more often than not you are going to have an inferior experience playing on day one, e.g. unpolishedness, glitches, perform issues etc.

To be fair this does cause issue that you might accidentally get spoiler but my experience was not too bad at all.
 
Gamer79

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Depends on the game. Certain games like God of War are day one purchases while games like Far Cry are good for the bargin bin wait.
 
LectureMaster

LectureMaster

Member
Danjin44 said:
I buy the games I’m excited about day one, like I recently did with Xenoblade 3, I don’t see any reason why I should wait.
Click to expand...
Was not going to day one XB3, but I finished XB2 just one day before the 3rd one release, you know there is no freaking way I could refrain myself from keep playing the series..
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
64bitmodels said:
I make way too many threads here...
Anyways, i'm the type of guy who's always out of the loop. I'm never exactly current with all the trends. Only consoles I had for the entirety of 8th gen was an Xbox 360 and a Wii u, while everyone else was using PS4s. I'm not exactly the most current, and i'm still yet to beat a lot of games. So it's safe to say that i buy games whenever. I don't buy day 1, i usually wait until there's time and money for me to do so, and then i strike. My steam library is filled with a bunch of old games at this point, and i honestly don't mind. The most recent game in my gog library is from 2015, lol. I just don't always have the cash to get games day one and 60-70 dollars is a bit too much for me. If it's something i'm extremely hyped for, i may wait a couple of weeks, but never Day 1.
Click to expand...
You use too many commas as well. Fucking hell that was a mission to read through. Not helped by your failure to capitalize "i".
 
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skit_data

skit_data

Member
It totally depends on the game in question, some are day one buys and some I go years and years until I buy it on a cheap sale for like €15.

Edit: What I will say is that I’ve bought more games day one this gen than ever before. Demon’s Souls, Elden Ring, GT7 and Returnal were all day one for me, but last gen I waited a year or two before buying even big games like GoW 2018 and Spider-Man. I think Bloodborne was the only day one game I bought last gen.
 
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Bartski

Bartski

Gold Member
if I don't buy a game day one means I don't really care and might as well wait for it to come to a subscription one day.
 
John Marston

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Day one. Got no girlfriend, no friends, no pets,.
All my paychecks are 100% me me me.
A good problem to have 😁
 
G

Graciaus

Member
If I really want it and I'm not playing something else at the moment I'll buy it day one. Won't pay over $48 which can be the deal breaker.

Not following that I ended up with 1,500 games and I have only played 1/3 of them.
 
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hemo memo

hemo memo

Gold Member
I don’t buy Day 1 games anymore. It is just not worth it. I have 2 relatives that share 1 PSN account and they buy games on release but that’s paying half day 1. Now with games sold at 70$ and backlog getting bigger, it is just logical to just wait for the inevitable price drop of the game you want while finishing your backlog. Wait enough and the game will drop on the subscription service. I was amazed how the entire Yakuza series was sold at a great discount and finish them all just to be dropped on PSN+. Oh well. Lesson learned I guess.
 
Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
A mixture between day one / week one etc.

If it’s something I want to play then not waiting months. If something has slipped under the radar then maybe I’ll get it a couple of months later.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
hemo memo said:
I don’t buy Day 1 games anymore. It is just not worth it. I have 2 relatives that share 1 PSN account and they buy games on release but that’s paying half day 1. Now with games sold at 70$ and backlog getting bigger, it is just logical to just wait for the inevitable price drop of the game you want while finishing your backlog. Wait enough and the game will drop on the subscription service. I was amazed how the entire Yakuza series was sold at a great discount and finish them all just to be dropped on PSN+. Oh well. Lesson learned I guess.
Click to expand...
I’ve only just started this journey on PS, after prepaying for PS+ Premium at $5/month til 2024. Ragnarök will be a worthy test to see if I can actually do this waiting game. I expect it to come to PS+ Premium in late 2023.

Been avoiding day 1 purchases on Xbox since 2020, easier there since I still get 1st party games day 1.
Preordered Stalker 2 Ultimate Edition though but that’s a heart thing so I’m not sure it counts.

On PC I occasionally buy games day 1, like Elden Ring.
 
Bernardougf

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Never more.. games for me now start with realease date + six to twelve months ... all the games are getting grafics and bugs updates
... players became beta testers
 
Kupfer

Kupfer

Member
It depends on the game.
The last game I bought on day one was Cyberpunk 2077, because I had been eager to play it since 2013. So far, I haven't felt the need to buy any other game on day one that has come out in the last two years.

PsPlus games don't count for me since these are games for rent actually.

Edit:
Oh I forgot about Stray. I ordered my two copies from iam8bit, but since the physical release is Q422 and digital release already happened it's not exactly day one I guess.
 
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Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Depends on the game. I buy Souls games, competitve shooters and MMOs I wanna play day one. Single player games I typically wait for a sale.
 
Gandih42

Gandih42

Member
I'd buy stuff I'm confident in, like Elden Ring, day-close-to-one if I had the time to play it. Generally don't though, so I might as well wait until I have the time. Would really have liked to pick up Triangle Strategy and Xenoblade 3 on release, but I haven't played Xenoblade 2 yet and still haven't gotten through Elden Ring over the last 2 months, so... In general I'm not too fussed about the price if it's a game I like, I care more about the game being worth my time.

I might buy a game in advance of playing it if I see a good deal though (like Demon's Souls for PS5 at roughly a 70% off).
 
L

Lasha

Member
Generally day 1 because I only really buy games that I want to play. My older purchases are usually because I had never heard of the game when it launched or a friend asked me to play.
 
shaddam

shaddam

Member
Usually there is only 1 game per year which interest me enough for day 1. Usually they are heavily story oriented, so I simply cant wait months for a sale.
 
Quantum253

Quantum253

Member
Cornbread78 said:
Day 1 then don't play them.

Yes, I'm THAT guy...


Fucking Destiny junkie syndrome....
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing when I seen the title. I Have a horrible habit of purchasing games on launch day and they sit in the plastic for years. That's why only in the last few months I played Spiderman, Assassins Creed Origins and now GoW (2018).
I stopped buying games becuase the backlog is too long and I still have dozens of first release games in the plastic. I probably never will get to AC: Odyssey or Valhalla and others. Lesson learned, not buying games until what I want to play is completed. Might help getting discounted prices for recent games too
 
Bernd Lauert

Bernd Lauert

Banned
Very few games are day one (like Elden Ring)
Some games are on sale
Some games are on deep sale
Most games are on wait for Gamepass
 
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