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How is your "gaming budget"

dhlt25

Member
no real budget, but I'm a cheapass so I only get game on sale. I'm usually a few years late to a generation too so it's pretty cheap for me
 
Lucky I can afford whatever I want, gaming is a cheap hobby

Same here. I try to also only buy games at release("full price") if I know for a fact I will immediately play it. I'll only pull the trigger on backlog games if they are 20 or less.

Keeps me disciplined and I still buy whatever I really want.
 

killroy87

Member
+1 for "it's not a money problem, it's a time problem"

I can afford most any games I want, but I don't play nearly as much of them as I'd like. Bought Nier at launch, it's still sitting sealed. All my time is going towards Zelda right now. And like, I'm not "excited" that Mass Effect is supposed to be disappointing, but I'm not gonna complain to have one less 50+ hour epic I want to play.
 

Ridaxan

Member
I have no "real budget" for gaming these days as I'm in a position where I'm fortunate enough to be able to buy new games on release if I wanted to.

I do however find myself in the position where I buy a lot less games these days.

I need a "time budget" for gaming a whole lot more than a monetary one.
 

R00bot

Member
In the last two years I've spent $80 on games. (that's only one game, I live in Australia and we get ripped off)
 
My gaming budget reduced largely. If I had to give it a percentage, I would say maybe 95% down from what I was doing before. I can't even say that I had a budget at that time. I spent money whenever however whatever, so I didn't care if the game was good or bad. my investment was typically low cost and increasing the library of what I missed (which at that time was so cheap) so I got away with buying so much. But then I put myself in such a deep hole that I eventually had to stop. I was buying games as such a fast paces that my actual free time was significantly lower than what I amassed myself with over the years. Now I only buy what I can handle. Finding it cheap isn't even a concern to me like it was before because now by the time I even get to it, it will already be at the price I want to buy it at....so now it's much more manage and feasible to my lifestyle which is always a whirlwind
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
I buy whatever I want but only if its on sale.

Got Nier Automata and Horizon 30% off at launch.

Bought a Switch and Zelda by trading my old games at EB (they had a double trade promo a while back so in many cases I was getting as much as I paid)
 

Jolkien

Member
My budget is unlimited. If there's a console or game I want, I buy it. I'm lucky enough to have enough disposable income and free time to do so.
 

Jimrpg

Member
Completely blown apart this year by all the good games and I've also been vita physical games collecting.

I've purchased about 40 physical vita games in the last three months and probably time to stop. Without doing that I think my spending has been pretty reasonable if a little high, I don't usually buy that many day 1 games.

Not counting vita, I got

DQVIII
Yakuza 0
Nioh
Zelda BOTW
DOAX3
DOA5:LR

That's about $300 and my usual yearly budget is $500. The vita games and the second vita have already been about $700 on top of that.
 
I used to only buy 2 $60 games a year before 2014. But nowadays it gets pretty crazy I could buy 2 in a month. I bought the PS4 back in December, and so far I've played 20 games on it and most of them are digital. And I'm planning to build a new PC in April. Welp. Gaming is my main source of happiness (other than my wife) so I hope I can keep generating stable income for the rest of my life to keep playing more games without having to worry about budget.
 
My budget isn't dictated by finances, but by time.

I can't budget time to buy a Nintendo switch, because I still have tons of Wii U and 3DS games to play.
 

[NaK]

Member
I usually only buy one or two full priced game per month, and perhaps a handful smaller titles on PSN sale.
I dont really have a budget, my expendable income covers it pretty well.
 

SheHateMe

Member
80 days into the new year and I've WRECKED my budget. Between the PS4 Pro, Sony 4K TV, Nioh, Nier, Yakuza 0, Horizon, Kingdom Hearts series, Tales of Beseria, and Mass Effect: Andromeda, I've blown my budget out already.

After Persona 5, Tekken 7, and Sonic Mania, I don't think I'm going to get much else until the holidays.

*forgets about Destiny 2* *curses self* *adds to the already sprawling budget*
 
My gaming budget was going to be low key this year but the itch to build a new PC started. So what was going to be a few games a month turned into a huge money pit.
 

TriAceJP

Member
I don't have any constraints on what I buy, as I don't go crazy with my purchases. Buying the Switch with a few games didn't really do any financial harm to me, so take that as you will.

I also use discount services (Best Buy gamer club for consoles and various PC deal sites for PC games) to make the dent even less.
 
M

Macapala

Unconfirmed Member
I spend anywhere between $700-$1000 (software and hardware) per year. I think that's pretty decent considering its over an entire year.

Am I reading this wrong or are you making $12k-$20k a year and spending a fourth of it on games?

Yeah, what's up with this?
 

Rizific

Member
No real budget, I can afford to buy whatever I want and when I want. It just depends on what is coming out and when. Time is the real currency when it comes to games in my life right now :/
 

redcrayon

Member
I buy a game when I've finished the previous one, only get through 6-8 games a year, have fairly niche tastes and never buy AAA games at launch. I don't really put a huge amount of thought into it but, aside from buying a new console/portable every few years, I probably spend ~£250 a year on gaming. Which is about the same as I spend on going out for dinner once a month or so. Realistically I could buy many more games than that but time is the harsher budget for me.
 

Paertan

Member
Way higher than I have "gaming time". No need to think about what I buy really. No idea how much I have spent on gaming.
 

Applecot

Member
about 6% of all earnings goes to entertainment and gaming is budgeted out of that (about half). I play a good number of board games too which is where the rest goes and some holidays, etc.

I find digital games, especially sales are the biggest dollar creep since you'll pick something up and play it for like 2 minutes.
To that end I've started placing a bigger focus on which game do I want to play right now and what's the cheapest price at that moment. Fortunately I don't go for many AAA games since they just generally don't pique my interest
 

sector4

Member
AU$230 for month, it's an arbitrary number I came to three years ago (roughly 2 full priced games and one downloadable per month) I've been sticking to that since and it's more than enough for me.
 

Amused

Member
Too high when taking into account the time I spend playing games. I should play a few more games and buy a lot less.
 

FZZ

Banned
only buy Nintendo games full price

wait for pricedrops on everything else

never exceed 1k in a year

average around 300 I'd say with this year and 2014 being the most, spent around 500-600
 

KaYotiX

Banned
No budget, I just buy what I want. Nice having a job that lets me do it along with a wife who allows it lol

I do have GCU and Prime so I never pay full price regardless.
 

MilkyJoe

Member
Budget is unlimited, but I've only bought 3 games full price this gen. Time and backlog mean I can wait. The only day one's I can think of this year will be RDR2, Star Wars and State of Decay 2.

Actually scrub that, it's Scorpio year, so I'll probably buy all of those release showcase games, whatever they are.
 

spons

Gold Member
I rarely buy full price, Witcher 3 was a good exception. I do plan on purchasing Scorpio as an Xbox One fan. If it's 30 or under I get a game whenever I feel like, I still need Skyrim remastered, probably getting it today for 28 euros.

It's not that I cannot buy games full price, I just don't think most of the games are worth it.
 

Melchiah

Member
Like how much do you usually put to the side for gaming purchases or is it just a case by case basis depending on how much money you have at the time?

Kinda curious.

I buy most games I'm interested in on the release date, unless I don't have time for them, like it's with RE7 and MEA. I also tend to buy 65-70€ special editions for soundtracks, art booklets, and steelbook cases. On average, I buy ten games a year, including indies.

The money is not an issue these days, when I'm spending less for partying and buying other stuff, like movies and music. It's been years since I bought either of those the last time.
 
When I see a game I want I buy it. It's a split however between new and used. I'd say only one in five is new near release date and the rest I'll either wait on a sale or buy used. I'd guess maybe on average over a year about £50 a month is spent on gaming (PS4)

For example, in 2017 so far ive paid full price for Horizon and Nioh so far, yet because of pro boost I've also picked up cod ghosts, assassins creed unity and just cause 3 on the cheap.
 

Triteon

Member
Case by case. Generally im more time poor than cash poor and the lack of time to play slows down my purchasing.

That being said, i do sometimes put money toward hardware in advance. For example when the switch was announced i put 100 down then a month before launch i put another 100 down to lessen the cost at release.
 

Persona7

Banned
Roughly $60 a month. Sometimes more depending. If several titles are out in the same month I will choose one and get the others eventually on sale.
 
Never ever buy games at full price, but I'll happily sink money into computer upgrades.

If I really want a new PC game I'll get it through CDkeys or if it's bundled with a PC part I'll usually buy it from someone who doesn't want it. If I really want a new console game I have friends/former coworkers who work in an electronics store who give me their employee discounts. Otherwise I'll wait for sales. Unfortunately used game prices here are a fucking joke, so I don't buy used games that often.

I did, however, get a PS4 pro as soon as it came out (don't have a 4K TV, don't care, I'm still very happy with it!), built a beast of a gaming PC last year and just upgraded the CPU two days ago. Did I need to? Nope. But I had the money and felt like it ^^

Some months I spend 100€ on games, most months 0. Just depends on whether I've got spare cash and there are games out that I want.

E: I realize this post may seem a little flippant, but I do realize that I'm super privileged to have a well-paying job and disposable income.
 

Mortemis

Banned
Not really a budget. This month alone I spent more than I did all of last year (switch + Zelda) which I wasn't even sure if I'd keep it.

While I don't make much, I don't really spend enough to make me worry about a budget, tho it's good planning.
 

Melchiah

Member
When I see a game I want I buy it. It's a split however between new and used. I'd say only one in five is new near release date and the rest I'll either wait on a sale or buy used. I'd guess maybe on average over a year about £50 a month is spent on gaming (PS4)

For example, in 2017 so far ive paid full price for Horizon and Nioh so far, yet because of pro boost I've also picked up cod ghosts, assassins creed unity and just cause 3 on the cheap.

Personally, I haven't bought games used since 1998. I just hated having to wait to be able to play them, and hunting for used copies of popular titles. I pay full price for the convenience, and nowadays I also value games more than I did back then. I don't have much of a backlog either, so there's no point for me to wait for sales.
 

ffvorax

Member
I actually buy what I want and when I want... also often I stop from buying a lot of games in sales remembering myself I won't have time to play so I can wait them to be discounted again and even more...

I buy limited edition in very rare occasions like 1 at year, and usually for games I like what these limited have inside... never bought a limited that cost more than 80€ anyway.

I usually pre-order (so pay full price) let's say 2-3 games in 1 year, all other games are bought at half price at least.

The price of games is very different, some are AAA games, some are games already sold at "budget" price on release...

So doing a quick count I will say that I usually spend like 500-700€ every year on games.

I buy games actually for: PS4-PSV-3DS.
 
I manage my finances pretty heavily but I do not have one.

I spend so little on games these days that I never have to fear about pissing away too much money on them.
 
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