Stop Paying Full Price for Video Games - Lifehacker

Before you rush to tell me I wrong, I’ll start with a caveat: If you are the kind of gamer who simply must play the hot new game when it’s at its newest and hottest, then by all means, do so.

So why not just play one of them while you wait for the hot new game to go on sale?

Bonus: If you aren’t clamoring for the latest games, you’ll also feel more content waiting to buy that PS5 or Xbox Series X without tearing your hair out—and by the time you finally score one, you’ll have a large library of older, cheaper games to choose from.

By the time you pick up a game on sale, the biggest bugs are likely to have been patched—or are too big to fix, which means you’ll be able to steer clear if need be.

Other times, DLC will cost you a few bucks—but again, often waiting means you’ll be able to buy a “deluxe” version of the same, including all the DLC, at a lower price than you’d have paid for the base game at launch.

(I am ancient in gaming years, which means I remember when the only way to get a Nintendo game for less than retail was to hope it eventually earned “Player’s Choice” status.) Now, though, the magic of the internet means you probably don’t have to do much at all to find every game on your wishlist on a generous sale—other than develop some healthy patience.

Sites like DekuDeals (for Switch games), CheapAss Gamer, and many others allow you to create a wishlist of all the games you are interested in and sign up to receive alerts when they drop in price.

And that’s not even mentioning subscription services like PlayStation+ and Xbox Game Pass, which net you access to dozens of top-shelf titles every month for a monthly fee cheaper than the cost of a single game on sale.

But every one I don’t buy until it’s on sale frees up $10 or $20 or more in my gaming budget that I can put toward older (cheaper) games that will be just as satisfying