When is the last time you paid full price for a game? And...

[ZedClampet]

how often would you say that you pay full price?

I don't get enough credit for being cheap (queue Brian). For me, most games I buy at least had a 20 percent launch discount and were regularly under $25 anyway--both of these things are common among small team indie games. I think the last game I paid full price for (and didn't refund, so Wukong doesn't count) was Alan Wake 2, so it's very rare, probably 1 percent or less (yes, I buy an obscene number of games).

I'm going to go look through my Steam purchases, but off the top of my head, it's been almost a year since I paid full price.

 

[BeardyHat]

Technically Mechwarrior: Clans about a week ago, but I didn't use my money and it was for my oldest who is very into Mechwarrior. Actually, I'm considering returning it, as I'm still within the window and it only has a story mode, rather than Instant Action, which is what they prefer from Mechwarrior 5: Mercs. I don't really have much interest in playing it on my own.

But before that, maybe you could consider Cyberpunk last year? When Phantom Liberty came out, they bundled it with 2077 for $60 and I did end-up buying that. Oh and I guess Fallen Aces earlier this year for like $15 or something.

I pay full price maybe a few times a year, generally waiting for 50% or more off.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Not often, last time was Baldurs Gate 3. I would have probably bought Alan Wake 2 but it came as a freebie with my graphics card last autumn.

I did go through my purchase history at one point and I think its only 4 or 5 full price games in the 12 years this Steam account has been around.

Sometimes Ill buy lower priced games for full price, 20 or 30 isnt so bad, but paying out 60 or 70 for a game seems a bit much when its possible to wait 6 months and get a third off or even more. Have to be really excited for it, usually meaning a sequel and its rare.

 

[DXCHASE]

I generally dont buy at full price because mostly all my games i pre-order, which is where id spend day-1 release full retail price are usually discounted through sites like greenman or humble bundle.

But not all games come up on those sites, case in point- Diablo 4. Blizzard is a greedy bunch and, outside of the new evolution of games by them popping up on gamepass simply because microsoft bought them out, their games rarely come up discounted anywhere.

So for me, it was Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred expansion, im assuming expansions count since they generally are almost the price of a full retail game.

 

[neogunhero]

The last game I bought full price was Starfield. I love Bethesda games, but as we all know, it was a bit of a disappointment. First game I ever bought for $70 also. At least I played for a good 60~ hours, so at least I got my moneys worth. It wasn’t completely terrible, but not that much fun either.

Last one before that was Elden Ring. I paid $60 at launch, and to date I only have 20 hours on it. Something just doesn’t click for me in that game and I can’t fully get into it. It’s a great game and I’ve seen how awesome it can be, but for me actually playing it, I just didn’t find it much fun. Sad for me because I’ve played the first three Dark Souls games and loved them.

So the past two games I bought at full price have been disappointments to me. Maybe that says I shouldn’t buy games when they’re brand new.

 

[Pifanjr]

It seems the only game I've bought full price on Steam was a pre-order for Borderlands 2 in 2012.

I did also buy the Rise of the Tomb Kings DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2 full price. I had been playing the game via family sharing from my friend's account, but when they gave me the game for my birthday I lost access to all the DLC, so I couldn't continue my Tomb Kings campaign without buying the DLC.

My wife on the other hand has paid full price for Diablo IV and WoW expansions, but she has a group of friends she plays those games with so it makes sense to get them as soon as possible.

 

[ZedClampet]

I wasn't personally counting expansions. If we do that, then I've bought quite a few, but the expansions I buy are fairly cheap compared to some games. The most expensive Total War expansion was $25 and players revolted over it.

The thing with expansions is that I'm already playing the game, which is the only time the expansion would be useful to me. If I wait until the expansion goes on sale, I'll probably be over the game by then.

****

The fact that so many PC gamers wait for sales used to be a sticking point for publishers, but these days they get the best of both worlds. Good games sell well at launch, and then all the rest of us team up to buy them for years when they go on sale--the long tail of PC gaming.

 

[Brian Boru]

Ah, my cue to join the queue

Elden Ring … I just didn’t find it much fun

Have you tried any of the tons of mods? They can transform a game sometimes.

My last full price was 6/6/20 for Command and Conquer Remastered Collection. That was day after release, after day one player reviews confirmed it was what it had promised to be. 2 full games and 3 major expansions for $20—that's my idea of full price!

Prior to that, it was $60 for Far Cry 3 Deluxe on Dec 9th 2012, 5 days after NA release.

 

[neogunhero]

Have you tried any of the tons of mods? They can transform a game sometimes.

No I haven’t, though I’ve seen a bunch that I’m interested in. Honestly, a mod to make the game a bit easier may be beneficial to me. These past few years of my life have been getting increasingly busy so I can’t tolerate excessively hard games very much anymore. I know that’s the whole point of them, but I would much rather experience the game playing with a easy mode mod than to never experience it because I don’t have the time/patience/skill to git gud.

 

[Zimbaly]

I pay full price very rarely. My ass be broke yo.
So I take full advantage of sales, but I haven't bought anything in a while now.
I was looking forward to the new Star Wars, but just skipped on it.
I just feel all gamed out really nowadays. I've been getting back into art.
Did two 6 plus hour walks in Hamilton a week ago and one in Toronto over 8 hours.
Got some killer photos.
Only thing I play nowadays is ARAM.
Meh.

 

[Alm]

I just bought COD to play with family. I paid full price because the website I normally use was only going to save me £1. Usually I go to cdkeys and save at least £12. I think I buy full price probably about 2x a year.

 

[Zloth]

I almost never pay full price. It looks like I did for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire five years ago (and didn't even like the game much), though there could be some smaller game bought as part of a batch in a Steam sale between now and 2019.

 

[Colif]

I don't know. I don't take any notice of the prices as most of the time I just buy cheap games, and if there is a discount, its a coincidence. Its not like I buy that many games per year... besides upgrading Last Epoch to a higher lvl purchase, only bought 3 games this year.

The last game I probably paid full price for was Diablo 4 last year.
On Steam it was probably Titan Quest last year but then it came with 4 expansion packs and only cost $30

Most I spent on one game on Steam was Pre Order of Civ 6. That was a waste of money. Only as I hardly played it.

 

[Rolfil]

Most new games I buy have like a 10-15% discount on launch. The last two of these would be The Planet Crafter- Humble DLC and Star Trucker.

The most recent game I bought that didn't have a discount was Diablo 4. I will eventually buy the DLC but right now I have a decent back log of other games I want to play.