Games are expensive. And as you get older, you get more money to buy games. Inversely, you have less time to play said games. Therefore, life is cruel. But one thing I have noticed about gamers is that we are morons when it comes to money. It seems that we just can’t wait to part with our hard earned cash.
Scan any message boards and you will see people clamoring for various games to be remade on next-gen systems. Then they will complain when nothing original is made but that’s a post for another day. Square Enix just released FF VII on the PSN in Japan last month and everyone’s reaction was, “WTF???? Where is the PS3 remake??? I want to pay 60 bucks for this game, not 5!!!!”
And the clamor continues, which is kind of sad, because if you stop and think about it, Square Enix releasing it on the PSN is pretty much the death knell for any hope of a PS3 remake. Business-wise, it makes no sense for them to give you the old version for so cheap and still expect demand to be high for a high end remake. Granted, demand is still very high, but let’s be honest, Square Enix doesn’t exactly have their fingers on the pulse of our desires, otherwise we would have Chrono Trigger sequels, FF VII remakes and good Mana games. So don’t hold your breath.
One more thing about the PSN release of FF VII: people on message boards have said that even though they still have the game and it works just fine, they are going to buy it on the PSN anyway. Now, it is only 5 bucks, but really? You already own it and you just have to have it in another format? If anyone is looking to just throw 5 dollars out the window, please email me. I can put it to better use, trust me.
While listening to a popular podcast from a popular game website, I was astounded at what I heard. One of the people, who shall remain nameless, was talking about how he bought a Nintendo 64 when it first came out. Then after playing Mario 64 and a few others, he had sold it by March of that year. So he had it from December to March, then sold it and got a Playstation. A year later, when Zelda came out, he bought another one.
Now, maybe it’s just me, but this seems really stupid and shortsighted to me. By 1997, we knew Zelda was coming out. I can also promise you he took a loss on it. But gamers seem intent on the right now, not on the future. I bought a PS3 with the knowledge that the games coming out in the future would be the ones I wanted to play. I can’t imagine buying a N64, getting controllers and all that stuff, then selling it and doing it again. Maybe I am just nitpicking, but I would kind of expect more from people who write about games for a living.
Do you guys see any of this stuff going on? What purchase did you once make or a friend make that you look back on and say, “WTF?”
You definitely make some good points here. Gamers are pretty willing to part with money, and I think DLC is the perfect representation with that.
Also, there’s a recent example in the new Metroid Prime trilogy that’s being released on the Wii later this year. It is literally the three MP games just re-packaged for an additional 60 bucks. Now, this might be a good buy for people that haven’t played the games, but why would anyone in their right mind re-purchase them when they can just play them all on the Wii anyway?
Damn, I was totally going to pick up that Metroidilogy. Prime is still one of my top ten games. I never played two or three, so it seems like a pretty good package to me.
I’ve dumped a lot of needless money on games. Special editions (Halo Wars), three Game Cubes, and I recently bought InFamous. I don’t even own a PS3, I just know a guy who does. I hear it’s shockingly good.
Steam is a good way to counteract the rampant spending – sort of. While digital distribution is great because of the occasional great deals, those deals also make me more likely to spend my money. It’s a hard knock life.
World in Conflict I tried the demo it was good so I bought the game for my self it was $50.00. My WTF moment was when I finished installing it on my computer and it would not work or was glitchey as hell, and because I had opened it I could not return it. It works fin on my computer now something was wrong with my graphics cards drivers but it took me three months to find the right drives to make it work, so I had a $50.00 game I couldn’t play return, or sell to any of my friends. My other WTF moment is when I got a used copy of the thing to play on 360 game sucks but I think I only payed $2.00 still that $2.00 I could have got some other stuff with.
Good point, Eddy.
But it does Wii controls to the first two games and no Wii game is 60 bucks,lol. It’s probably 40 or so, but if you have the old games, I see no point.
It’s Nintendo’s chance to get the franchise to more people, I think.
But plenty of people will buy it again
Mine would have to be my DS. I hardly use it now…kinda a waste.
BUt I see things like games prices as being relatively constant. I think we payed $200 for our N64 and games were $50, so they havent gone up too much.
Lol I’m very conservative to buying games. This year all i bought was TF2, L4D and Age of Conan. The first two I’m still playing, Age of Conan took too much time since its an MMO, had to play for at least 4 hours in a row to find a group and do a dungeon and I dont have time for that since I go to a demanding school.
I forgot to list my biggest WTF spending moment. Probably when I bought a used Sega Saturn (after they had died out) just to play Panzer Dragoon. I returned the whole system like a week later. I did something very similar with a Dreamcast years after they were gone, and only played it for an hour or two, after hunting all over Houston for a used one. I’m kind of a spaz.
The only similar mistake I’ve made similar to this article was that I bought a refurbished XBox to play Halo 2, when my bad pc could not play it. Also, I can’t stand the idea of remakes, it’s always the original that’s best. (Though I think I might exclude Black Mesa) Funny, I thought this would be more about buying peripherals and merchandise, so I was laughing when I looked at the title of the article, then at my plush HL2 Hunter, Vortigaunt, and headcrab.
Hmn, closest I’ve done is bought Red Faction 2 twice, keep it for a couple of months and then sell it. I bought it again last year and I haven’t sold it this time. I haven’t played it recently though. Man I love Geo-Mod and that game is great. So worth the £7.99, £3.99 and £3.49 I’ve spent on it. I really don’t get the whole having the original and getting it on, say, PSN or whatever. Unless, like my friend, your PS2 can’t play any PS1 games and you need to but Syphon Filter 3 again.
I’m a very frugal person, and I hate throwing money away on games I won’t play. (Luckily, any games that I bought and haven’t played much I’ve sold back for a profit of $1-$10.)
Currently, I’m debating about getting a PS3. It looks like there some kickass games out (particularly inFAMOUS) that warrant a buy of the PS3, but my main concern is: do I really want to spend $300-$400 on a new console as well as games and extra accessories even though I have a 360 that I play thoroughly? For now, I’m waiting for a time when my parents have jobs, we have more money, and more games come out for the PS3 that I like enough to buy. So I’ll probably never actually get a PS3. Maybe a PS4…
As for other people, I tend not to mule over the stupidity of others. Unless I want to feel better about myself. All I can really say is that some people are flippin’ idiots.
[quote comment=”6832″] All I can really say is that some people are flippin’ idiots.[/quote]
Like me, who failed to realize that my “shockingly good” pun was used as a title for an article here last week. FAIL. I apologize to the internets.
Sold CoD4 to get FEAR 2. Sold FEAR 2 (STUPID STUPID STUUUUPID) to get (Stupid) CoD:WaW (STUUUUUUU-), then sold CoD: WaW to get CoD4.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU-
Now I want FEAR 2 back as well…
God, I’m a mess. Luckily all purchases were generated by selling games, so, there was very little monetary loss.