It pays to get physical
Downloading games today is far more convenient than buying them on disc, but if you play on consoles, it often costs significantly less to buy a physical copy – especially a few weeks or months after a game’s release.
Use a price comparison website like Best-Game-Price.co.uk, which lists lots of different retailers, and you’ll often be able to save £10 or more, even on new games at full price. This may interest you : Tigers OF Robbie Grossman’s record-breaking MLB game series ends. Ebay regularly has random promotions for discount codes that can be applied to physical games.
Plus, you have something to put on your shelf that you can later resell or lend to a friend.
Look out for digital sales
However, when the PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop or Xbox Store have digital sales, the discounts can be big. This may interest you : Kimberly-Clark’s business-first approach to digital transformation.
All digital storefronts have sales most of the time. PlayStation tends to pick a theme or genre, Xbox will discount an entire franchise or range of publishers at once, and Nintendo will randomly have seasonal discounts.
However, the undisputed king of video game sales is the Steam sale for PC gamers, which takes place twice a year – in summer and winter.
For the uninitiated, Steam is a very popular online platform for video games. The discounts are huge, there are great games for a few quid, and there’s usually a “metagame” attached to make it more fun: last time she hid fake games with names like Help Get the King to the WC among the rights, along with artwork and you get a small reward for finding them.
Digital sales are also great for extending the life of games you already own: you can buy Gold Editions, Season Passes, or Game of the Year Editions at a huge discount for several months in a row and stock up on all the extra content that’s been released since.
Embrace the bundle
At digital storefronts, you can often buy the entire game series and its sequel to save money. But if you really want value, check out Humble Bundle’s limited-time bundles. They include a curated selection of five to over 100 games at a pay-what-you-want price, with a significant portion of the money raised going to charity.
Almost half a million people bought his 123-game Stand With Ukraine pack earlier this year, raising more than £17. On the same subject : MLBPA’s Tony Clark is concerned that MLB is entering the ‘dangerous world’ of sports gambling partnerships.5 million for related causes.
Head for the sales
Buying consoles for less is significantly more difficult than buying games for less, especially at the moment, as chip shortages and other supply chain issues affect how many can actually be made. It’s still pretty hard to get hold of a PlayStation 5, for example, even at suggested retail price. But the usual seasonal electronics sales, especially New Year’s and Black Friday sales, always include gaming consoles.
Retailers such as Currys, Game and John Lewis are the best to go to, but also keep an eye out for online specialists such as ShopTo, Base and Game Collection, who will often send out stock alerts to keep customers in the loop.
Trade-in tactics
In the 2000s, game stores made millions from trade-ins – much to the dismay of the developers who made those games, who saw none of the revenue from used games.
Due to the shift towards digital downloads, replacements are less prevalent, but chains such as Game and CeX are still going strong. You can trade physical copies of games, Blu-rays or other electronics for the price of a new game or console.
It may go without saying, but always choose store credit over cash.
Gift cards
You know those £10, £20 and £50 gift cards for Epic, Steam, Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation stores that you often see in supermarkets? You can buy them online and get a bit more value for your money – ShopTo is selling a £35 PlayStation Store credit for £31, for example. Discounts can be even more attractive on higher value gift cards.
Beware dodgy resale sites
Stay away from “game key resellers” who offer dubious discounts on digital computer game codes.
These sites are often questionably legal and, if something goes wrong with your game code, you’ll lose your money. It’s best to stick to buying digital games from official PC and console storefronts.
Subscriptions that pay off
PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold subscriptions let you play games online with your friends – but they also come with a few free games every month if you remember to take advantage of them.
The PlayStation Plus selection is usually particularly good. If you don’t care about actually owning the games, Xbox and PlayStation now offer access to huge collections of games for a £10 subscription every month, so you can play several hundred titles as much as you like, as long as you’re signed up.
In particular, Xbox Game Pass is an absurdly good deal, as it includes all new Microsoft Studios games as soon as they’re released. As with Netflix, the selection changes over time, so be aware that a game you love may randomly disappear from the library.
Have patience
You know how it is – everyone’s talking about, say, the Elden Ring game, and you’ve got a severe case of Fomo (fear of missing out). It’s a new game after all and costs £60. But if you wait even just a few months, you’ll save money. Wait longer and you’ll save even more.
Gamers tend to be neophiles, and there was a time when a game that was five or ten years old just wasn’t worth playing.
Luckily that’s not the case now and you can enjoy the great games you’ve missed out on in the past for less than £10. For
If you really want to get more bang for your buck, all you have to do is play the older games. They are still good!
