It can sometimes be difficult to access quality games nowadays, and one good reason for this is cost. Video games, for example, have risen in price from $49.99, 20 years ago, to $69.99 today. The reasons for this are numerous, from higher development costs, to inflation. Yet, there are many clever steps you can take to ensure gaming at good value. For example, slots players can utilize market comparison sites such as OddsChecker in order to shop around and get the best deals when choosing a platform. Elsewhere, developing a good understanding of sales and clearance periods enables gamers to know what time of year is best to pick up a deal on a title. Below we’re taking a look at three key ways enterprising gamers can save the unnecessary expenses that often come with playing gaming titles and platforms in 2022.
Free-2-Play
Many impressive modern titles now utilize the type of Free-2-Play season pass model first made popular by battle royale games like PUBG and Fortnite. Of recent note is Halo Infinite’s Multiplayer mode, which can be accessed free of charge, even if you don’t own the full game. The monetization model that underlies this pivot is mutually beneficial for game developers recouping costs, and players looking to scale their investment in a chosen game. With Halo joining the likes of Call of Duty: Warzone, and Square-Enix’s mobile hit Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, gamers have never been able to access so much Triple A content for free.
Bargain Bin
Many popular titles undergo frequent refresh cycles with new entries coming out annually, or every couple of years. By studying the aggregate scores collated on platforms such as Metacritic, you can pinpoint which games of recent years are critically acclaimed and well regarded. Why spend top price for a new game that is untested, when you can potentially purchase a second-hand game in the series with a proven track-record and broad critical acclaim. Other games, such as Rockstar’s Read Dead Redemption 2 are the product of nearly a decade’s worth of development, and as such retain their value and quality even several years after release. In spite of this, such titles will still be available for lower cost than titles that have just gone on release.
Development Cycle
Tracking post-release updates and patches to popular games can also be a sage financial tactic. Take Cyberpunk 2077 for example, it was one of the largest games ever developed, and was expected to receive broad critical acclaim upon its initial release. However, as a result of the studio rushing to release it before it was ready, the final product was bug-ridden, missing features and poorly optimized. This, in turn, led to its retail price being slashed over time. Following this the developers released a major patch a year later that fixed many of these issues, meaning savvy consumers can now pick up the game as it was intended for a fraction of the price.
Cloud Gaming
Platforms such as Google Stadia, Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce NOW are among the best kept secrets in the modern gaming industry. This is because these services offer something genuinely novel and innovative: cloud gaming. Simply put, this means that you connect to a remote gaming rig that streams gameplay footage to your device or TV in real time. This enables you to play top level console games from a handheld device. Streaming games is still in its early stages, and aside from Stadia, latency issues are still being ironed out across the sector. But the promise is that one day we will be subscribing to platforms such as these that offer us “Netflix-for-gaming”, eschewing the need for expensive dedicated gaming hardware.
