I consider myself quite the cheapass. I was always more of a saver then a spender, and really never would spend on myself unless I really needed something or came across very good deals, most via CAG. That being said, I was never the type to buy games on release day for full retail price unless I was a huge fan of the series or absolutely wanted the game terribly. Even if I had extra cash, I usually saved it so down the road I can pick games up for cheaper prices. Plus, the trend used to be wait a month or so and a new game would show up for $40 soon enough. Wait a couple more months and you would start finding it for $20-30. Wait even a couple more months after that and you'd probably be able to find it for $10-20, let alone any used deals on the game for cheap. Point is, the idea of paying $60 for a game just felt like a waste of money knowing how I could get the game cheaper later.

That used to be the trend though. Now I'm noticing a new trend in game pricing, and I'm curious to see if any other CAGs have picked up on this. It seems the new trend is that it's actually CHEAPER to buy games at release, rather then buying them on sale, or down the road. Maybe I've just ran into a string of coincidental occurrences, but several of the games I've purchased lately have all been quite cheaper at release then they are now. How so you wonder?

First off, it seems to have become the standard to offer some sort of gift card or credit with preorders or release day buys of games, and this is boh online retailers and B&M stores. Many of these are upwards of $20-25 dollars, which already knocks the price of your $60 game down to $40 some bucks. This personally already is a huge savings, but I've found retailers even sweetening preorders and release day buys even more. This is done with a variety of preorder or first print bonuses that are getting more and more attractive. Not only that, sometimes these bonuses can fetch huge profits sold later on ebay when they are not offered anymore. Let's not forget that many stores offer some form of reward points, and while minimal, these points will add up, eventually netting you some extra cash or spending money.

Lastly, while a very rare occurrence, there has been a string of games I've been interested in that actually had sold out after release. Now new copies of these games are going for double the game's original price. My recent examples are Super Mario All Stars Wii, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Trinity Universe, among some other. Sure these are more niche titles, (well except the Nintendo one) but it just adds to the fact that maybe buying at release is the better move rather then waiting for a deal. Like i said though, that's a rare happening, but still, it happens. It happened to me quite a bit this year.

What does this mean for me? Well, I find myself shelling out the $60 and buying a lot more games at release then I used too. I always used to question some of my friends who would continuously buy so many full price games at release. "Just wait and the price will drop!" I preached, but they shrugged their shoulders and continued to buy anyway. Now I find myself almost buying as many new games as them. Sure I have more income now, but still, I am still a cheapass at heart. It just feels like the deal now is to buy games at release rather than wait.

Anyone else experience this trend I'm seeing? I would maybe buy 2-3 full price games at release a year, but now I'm buying more and more full price games due to the huge preorder gift certificates and bonuses, as well as dealing with games going up in price. Don't get me wrong, there are still some games that are worth waiting for, but more and more games I feel are ACTUALLY holding their value and the preorder bonuses at release make it the cheapest deal for a long time. Just for a quick example, look at the call of duty series. The game holds it's $60 msrp for a long time, but the $20-25 promotional credit always makes buying it at release the best deal for the game till way down the road. Other games follow a similar suit.

Anyway, I won't ramble on anymore. What are your game buying habits? Do you buy at release or wait? Do you think that games are possibly becoming better to buy at release compared to waiting, or maybe I just ran into a string of uncommon occurrences. Let me know and as always, thanks for reading.