How little do you spend on gaming?

[Duiker]

Over the years I have gotten very jaded about the modern gaming industry. During the Sweet Baby controversy I heard someone mentioning the vague idea of boycotting the industry for two years, and although I don't plan to completely stop buying game, I have noticed that naturally I've spent much less on gaming. I've frequently replayed older games I loved, or played the games I bought but never played. I've pirated some games, and bought a few niche titles I enjoyed. Looking back, I've probably only spent around $200 this year on gaming. My gaming computer hardware is out of date, and I don't have interest in owning next gen consoles.

Since my frustrations are probably shared by many here, have you lessened your spending? Did you actively stop buy games? When was the last gaming thing that you felt was worth spending money on?

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I pirate virtually everything and bought a computer for about $500 this year to replace my decade old one.

So averaged out, in the ballpark of $50 a year? I also need a reasonable computer for music production and work, so from that perspective it's even less. I spend a negligible amount of money on gaming.

 

[OneMillionRPM]

I can't even remember the last time I paid for anything substantial, probably Factorio a few years back? Aside from that I don't think I buy more than a $5-10 indie game once or twice a year.

It's funny because the main reason I built this PC 6 years ago was to play modern games, after getting tired of hearing all the buzz about them and feeling like I'm missing out due to having poor hardware. But after building it, I just couldn't find any games that caught my interest. So now I use it mainly for emulating all those 6th-gen games I couldn't afford back then.

 

[The Backwards Man]

I spend maybe like $50-$100 a year tops and only because of steam sales. I've almost completely given up on gaymen because everything new just sucks shit out of a camels asshole.

 

[Trigger Me Timbers]

I don’t pirate but I ent bought a game in years. I have lots wishllisted but never buy even when on a good discount.

Recently my GPU got stuck in a death BSOD cycle. The GPU is like 8 years old and instead of replacing it I got some 3$ thermal grease and fixed it.

If I couldn’t have fixed it, I was just gonna rely on my integrated graphics instead of buying a new GPU.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Since my frustrations are probably shared by many here, have you lessened your spending? Did you actively stop buy games? When was the last gaming thing that you felt was worth spending money on?

I haven't done the maths, but I imagine I broke even. I was always one of those guys who would wait a month or two and get AAA games at a fraction of the price, with rare exceptions. The same thing still happens now, but it's mostly indies instead of AAA.

 

[Tsukasa Kadoya]

I either get my games for free or when they are on sale. The most I've paid for a game this year was $15 for the command and conquer bundle on Steam. Might pick up the Doom 1+2 game as well.

 

[Kiwi Yuga]

The last purchase I made having to do with video games was a set of DLC for Vermintide 2, purchased 3 years ago. I used to spend a lot more on video games, but at this point I haven't actually played any games since January. I don't count the mobile game I open up while taking my morning shit, and perhaps 10 minutes before bed to complete the daily tasks. Never spent a dime on it.

I just enjoy spending my time in other ways now. Video games don't have the same appeal that they used to, and most of the boys I used to play multiplayer games with have similarly moved on, or play things that appeal even less than the games I used to enjoy.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

So little modern games i play these days.
I'm more into older games right now, like playing Daggerfall (Unity version) like hell.

 

[wholetthegodsout]

Trying to only buy if its on sale and I really want it. I have a backlog of games that if I just focused on I could probably have 100s of hours of enjoyment without spending another dime. You really just have to tell your brain that the FOMO is an illusion and you arent missing much by playing a game in 12- 18 months for half the price. In fact the experience will probably be better and if you are like me you will enjoy it more knowing you got it for a 50% plus discount.

As far as a boycott of the industry I do think if you refrained from buying games for 2 years at the end of those 2 years there would be a massive number of great cheap games to play and you would probably never catch up to new current year stuff. So I say go for it!

 

[JimiHendrix]

this is just a complete and utter guess, but maybe 300$ a year? just going on the assumption that I buy 3-4 new releases a year.

 

[XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG]

Within the past 15 years, I can count the years I have spent anything on games on one hand
Of these years, not a single one crossed the $50 mark

 

[Truly Rural]

I bought ONE game in my lifetime. I think it was on a sale for $15-ish.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Years ago I bought a ton of games pre-owned in "buy two get one free" sales and ended up with a huge backlog that I've been slowly but surely getting through. I put games on my Christmas list for my siblings and wife because it's easy but that's usually only where I get new stuff from. The only thing I bought this year was the Battlefront Remaster for the PS5. Last thing before that was Hogwarts Legacy when it came out. Everything else has been old stuff I'm making my way through or replaying for fun or achievements/trophies.

There's really nothing on the horizon that I HAVE to play, which is a shame. I miss that old anticipation for a new title coming soon.

 

[Idiotron]

Last game I bought was The Evil Within back in 2014 and even with that one, I was very hesitant.

The thing that made me stop buying games was a 3 hit combo of Dead Space 3, Final Fantasy 13-2 and Watch Dogs.
Dead Space 3 for incentivising spending real money on in-game upgrades.
Final Fantasy 13-2 for hiding the real ending of the game behind a paid DLC.
Watch Dogs for forcing me to go online in order to finish a single player game.

After those 3 games, I knew where the gaming industry was going and I was proven 100% right.

 

[Premium Gonzo]

Pirate most stuff to demo it, if i really like it i'll buy it on a deep discount. The last thing i bought was Dragon Quest sideline games and Enshrouded to play with my partner. So if i'm lucky maybe $200 a year for coop games (two copies) otherwise we steam share or just pirate them.

Most modern games are fucking shit, i've been playing classics and backlogs of things i missed.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Not much, most games I like are pretty old, e.g. SimCity 4 came out in 2003. The price for a lot of them is so nominal I figure it's mostly just GOG's fixed cost allocation.

Kenshi is the only new game I've played in a long time, I paid for it because it's well worth it. Probably the most recent one before that was Imperator: Rome and it was a damn crime what Paradox did to that game. It is easily the best Paradox game of all so far with the mods that complete or expand content that never got implemented.

 

[WelfareNiggerQueen]

In recent memory the last games I payed for were Kingdom Come and Tarkov.
Everything else just looks like shit and the AAA shills don't inspire confidence in a game being good since it's mostly the devs being the most vocal attack dogs against critics. Nigga, I don't care that the polished turd is your magnum opus, it's still shit.

2000-2010 would be the time frame I spent the most money on video games. Even the movie based games were fun. Still got Shrek 2 and Shrek Superslam lying around somewhere.

 

[Burning Bridge]

Depends. I am a proponent of "voting with your wallet" so the last full price game I bought was Age of Empires 4 because holy fuck, please for the love of god make more RTS games that aren't "tactical". I don't even like Age of Empires. Generally I buy everything on sale, I hate spending more than 20$ for a game. It's also easier to not buy garbage when you're not interested in the garbage that comes out.

 

[TheLostMarxBrotherFucko]

ince my frustrations are probably shared by many here, have you lessened your spending? Did you actively stop buy games? When was the last gaming thing that you felt was worth spending money on?

I would say less then 15$ every 2 to 3 months and hardly ever new games. I just bought Borderlands 1 GOTY edition just so every once in a while, I want to play co-op. the only newer games I am looking at are Warhammer 40K: Boltgun and Darkest Dungeon 2. Nothing AAA and no interest in much in the immediately future. New consoles are garbage and all the new games are either shitty remakes or woke garbage or weeaboo shit. Maybe will get into PC gaming into the future but not money for that right now.