http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/11/when-to-wait-why-buying-games-at-launch-is-a-fools-errand.ars I really can't disagree with anything this article has to say. Games drop in price very quickly, especially on Steam. They're often quite buggy at launch. And if you wait you can usually pick up a GOTY version that includes all of the DLC and patches, which is typically what I do with Bethesda games. Also, you're not really shafting devs by buying stuff on sale.
Most of what they're talking about in the article applies more to PC games than console games. You can buy a console game at launch for $60 and usually be able to sell it on EBay a month later for around $40, which means you played the game on release and were only out a net $20 for doing so. Also, the success ratio isn't really just the relationship between price and sales. It's price, sales, and profit. Lower prices can spur more sales, but they lower profit as well. They have to try and find a sweet spot between those three factors, and usually that means launching it for a higher price and lowering it later to maximize the profit.
I buy plenty of games at launch and have spent around an average of $40 per game. I have taken advantage of the online deals that give $10 to $20. Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, Battlefield 3, Gears 3, Team ICO Collection, ect. for $10 to $20 less than the original price. I also bought Arkham City and Deus Ex: HR for major discounts at launch from Steam. Arkham City was only $39 because I already owned a copy of Arkham Aslyum on Steam. The only recent game that I paid near $60 for was Dark Souls, which was well worth it. However, I am glad I didn't buy RAGE at launch. I kept thinking of how I was burned badly by paying full price for Crysis 2. I'm glad I waited on that one. I'll probably still pick it up eventually when it's on a really good Steam sale.
I've bought Skyrim for £38.99 from launch. Worth every penny because it's going to be the best game ever.
It figures I comment about waiting on RAGE and it's suddenly 33% off. Hmm, I'm kinda tempted now. I know it's evidently not the next great id masterpiece some of us were hoping for, but I'm still interested to see what they put together. I may read some reviews and see how I feel about it later this evening.
I've gotten pretty good at gaming for free, or for change. 1. Amazon almost always does a ~ $40 promo of $60 game. 2. Play/beat game within first 2-4 weeks. 3. Resell to Amazon for ~ $40
True. That is one way to go about it, and I've done that myself before. But then you don't get to keep the game.
I'll say that some multiplayer games are better to get at launch for two reason. 1. It takes a while for the hacks to be developed 2. Griefers don't usually play launch games
Well, Arkham City is the third straight game in a row that I've bought that has no Crossfire support. AMD is really on a roll with this crap. In fairness, I read that SLI is also crap at the moment. I think it's probably DX11 related. It ran like a slideshow with those enabled. AA settings were also wonky. Fortunately for me, a single 6950 is plenty for 1080p. It looks exceptional even limited to a single card and with the AA and DX11 turned down, but why the hell did I buy these cards if I can't use them? I bought two cards because I do want to use that power. Hopefully updates fix the problems I'm having.