Making your Gaming Dollar go Further

October 29th, 2008

With the autumn game release floodgates all but fully opened it can often be a daunting task (believe me, I am in the same boat) to afford and play all of the triple A releases that are populating store shelves from now until Christmas. Following a few simple guidelines and strategies however can make a difference and allow the most gaming for your dollar.

1. Plan out your purchasing schedule:

When it comes to the absurd number of releases it can be an easy thing to go into a game store and drop easily over a hundred dollars on just a couple of new games. The problem with impulse buying is that often times games will remain un-opened, and thus becomes a poor investment of your gaming dollar for that particular place in time. By looking at a schedule of releases it becomes easier to budget both your time and money making it all that much easier to play the titles you have been looking forward to.

2. Shopping online is your friend:

While Brick and Mortar outlets provide the instant gratification that is such a huge part of our lives, shopping online can usually help ease the financial burden that the holiday game crunch provides. Amazon has recently been running pre-order incentives, which gives you ten dollars back on future purchases which are currently available for big games such as Call of Duty:WaW, Gears of War 2, and Resistance 2. While most sites are getting better at having games received on release date, shopping online can still leave the potential to be game-less for a few days.

3. Use the Buddy System:

With the crazy amount of games coming out it pays to have friends. While I am not condoning the open abuse of a friendship purely with the goal of not having to pay for games, it never hurts to discuss your future purchases with your friends. One of my good friends and I are always bouncing new releases back and forth and is truly a win-win situation for both of us. Often with the limited time I have in my busy schedule for games I hardly notice the time waiting for my friend to beat a game, as I am busy with one of my own.

4. eBay it!

By cruising on eBay at odd times of the day great deals are pretty abundant. Usually even as close as two weeks after a major games release it is easy to find at least a twenty dollar cut in price making the purchase that much easier. Just remember to check a users feedback before purchasing and you will really start to see a noticeable amount of savings on your gaming related purchases.

5. WAIT!!!!!!!

As I stated before, it is often easy to go on a buying frenzy only to find that two months later you haven’t even opened a majority of your games. By waiting on certain purchases you can save both money and buyers remorse by getting them later when you are really in need of a new game which will often be at a lower price then when it was first released. Last year I was swamped by the shear amount of titles and I decided I’d leave Assassins Creed for later in the year, which actually worked to my advantage as it had dropped in price by the time I got around to purchasing it.

Remember: There are only so many hours in the week, and especially for college students like myself, only so many dollars in the wallet.

-Eric Wall