How much do you spend on games annually?

[Krakn3Dfx]

I realized last night that I have a lot of games, like 37 disc based titles for my PS3 and another 20 odd PSN games, all accrued over a 2 and a half year period since I bought the PS3. I also have around 25 XBox 360 games that I bought since launch. I didn't pay full price for very of them, and out of the 37 PS3 games, about 25 of those were $20 or less, so I figure on the PS3 alone in 2 and a half years, I've spent somewhere in the area of $800 just one the disc based games, not accounting for gift cards that I used and things like that, but what the game actually cost when I bought it.

That doesn't seem awful I guess, but then I also have something on the order of like 105 games on my Steam account. A lot of those were bought during Steam sales as well, and I've had my Steam account a lot longer than my PS3. Plus, when you look at the actual Steam game list, they list everything in there, including SDKs and other stuff that really isn't games, so it's probably more like 80-90 games on Steam total. I figure I've got about $500-$600 spent on Steam over the years, and that doesn't include my 2 kids' accounts on there as well. Thinking about those just makes it even scarier to me.

The XBox 360, I haven't spent a lot of money on I don't think, I'm not a FPS or fans of console sports games, and for the first few years, a lot of what MS had coming out was those 2 genres. By the time they really started pushing other genres, I had kind of embraced the PS3 as my main system, although I did buy Fable 2, Kameo, EDF, and a few other games. I figure on the 360, I've probably forked over around $400-$500 on games since I got it.

I haven't even factored in the Wii. I've usually paid full price for all their good 1st party stuff like Zelda, Mario, and Metroid, but also a bunch of $10-$20 games for the kids since it came out. There's probably a good $300-$400 spent on Wii games since I got it at launch.

So I'm guessing in the last 4 years, I've spent around $2300-$2500 on games total, which, best case scenario, is like just around $600/year on games, not including hardware or upgrades.

Just wondering if I'm either a gaming shopaholic, thrifty, or just kind of in the middle.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

I spend way more than 600 a year. I'm an impulse buyer like that. I usually don't trade my games in so I chose no but when I bought my Slim, the wife wouldn't give me any money so I traded in a couple gaes for uncharted and Valkyria Chronicles. That isn't the norm though.

I own

45 - Xbox360 games
3 - PS3 games (week old console)
1 - Wii game (dust collector)

 

[viivo]

I have around 30 Xbox 360 games, but none are newer than 7 months. I can't remember the last time I bought a $59.99 game. I get them when they're on sale, or my local Applause video store puts one in their $14.96 used game section (have got world at war, gtaiv and skate 2 there.)

 

[Yreka]

I don't generally keep games around.. I have a modest collection for each system, but I tend to "hit it and forget it". Because of this, rental service like gamefly is perfect for me. I get to play all the new games I want, and get a decent discount on purchases if I decide to keep them.

 

[sanzen07]

I only keep games that I really liked. If I didn't like them very much usually I'll trade them in or in the case of a PC game I'll put it on eBay.

 

[Aikouka]

I used to buy a lot of games, but I don't anymore. I don't know exactly how many games I have, but I believe it's over 30 XBOX 360 games and only a few PS3 games (as well as other consoles).

 

[erwos]

$400-$600 seemed about right to me. It's pretty unusual for me to buy new games at full retail, but I'm usually keeping my eye out for decent deals at $20-$30 or so. Combine that with an MMO sub (whatever I happen to be interested in) and XBL Gold subscription, it's probably running $500 or so. Note that I'm NOT counting hardware - if a new console comes out and I spend a few hundred bucks on it, that's going to raise the costs considerably.

It really all depends on your income, though... if you're making $60k a year after taxes and only have non-discretionary costs of $20k-$30k (eg, housing, food, utilities, comms), $600 is pocket change. For a student, though, it could be quite a lot.

IMHO, as a hobby, gaming's not really that bad on the pocket book. I've gotten into "real" shooting, and your ammo, equipment, and ancillary costs add up REAL fast. Ditto for cars, home theater, or whatever else.

 

[BassBomb]

Depends whether I include my WoW subscriptions or not.. I have normally played WoW 4-6 months out of the year so that would be 60-90$

Not including WoW I usually buy ~4 games per year totalling about $200 (this is shared between PS3 and PC games**)

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

It is hard to say. I don't buy many new games (maybe ten per year), but I always buy them on sale.

And OP, you do realize that someone buying only ten new games (not even one a month) at $60 a piece already puts them into your highest poll option? There's not a whole lot of wiggle room.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
And OP, you do realize that someone buying only ten new games (not even one a month) at $60 a piece already puts them into your highest poll option? There's not a whole lot of wiggle room.

Not to mention the "do you trade/sell or keep?" poll. I'm not selling my RPGs, but generic action game #10? Yeah, that could go on eBay. Maybe "do you ever" would be better for that one.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
And OP, you do realize that someone buying only ten new games (not even one a month) at $60 a piece already puts them into your highest poll option? There's not a whole lot of wiggle room.

Not to mention the "do you trade/sell or keep?" poll. I'm not selling my RPGs, but generic action game #10? Yeah, that could go on eBay. Maybe "do you ever" would be better for that one.

Or an option "Sometimes I sell/trade my games, but not often" would be better. I almost never sell/trade my games, but on rare occasions I will.

 

[Spoooon]

I think I spend between 200 and 300 a year. I rarely buy games when they first come out, I try to wait until games hit the clearance shelf or the $20 mark.

I have every game I've purchased for the following systems: GBA, DS, Gamecube, Wii, 360, and PC. Most of my NES and SNES games fell victim to a garage sale while I was away at college. :|

 

[Sadaiyappan]

I usually buy one game a month. But then I trade it in. I never keep games, instead I move on to the next experience. So about $400 a year on games.

 

[mugs]

I buy a lot of used games... I don't buy nearly as many games now as I did when I first got my consoles. I've accumulated about 50 Xbox 360 games, 5 PS3 games and 15 Wii games.

Most of the Wii games were bought within the first 6 months after launch, so I probably paid full price for all of them. Ouch.

I think two of my PS3 games were used, the others were new. I got GT5 Prologue for $25 though, and one or more of the others was from a B2G1 deal at Toys R Us.

A lot of the 360 games were purchased during B2G1 used sales at Gamestop. I got my 360 after it had been out a while, so there were plenty of cheap used games available. I remember a couple of times I got 6-9 games for ~$100, so that's not bad. Now I buy maybe 3-5 new releases a year for the 360 - games that I've been looking forward to, like CoD:MW2. I try to get good deals on them when I can.

So uh... yeah I spend a lot on games, but I think I've slowed down quite a bit in the last year. That's probably partially because I've been renovating my house and haven't had as much time to play. Also partially because the people I used to play with most haven't had time to play as much anymore. I hardly ever play multiplayer games unless I'm with someone I know, so my multiplayer gaming has been reduced to not much more than a few hours of Halo after midnight every Friday night with one of my buddies.


Edit: I don't trade in games or sell them.

The amount a lot of us spend on games is why I don't think the hullabaloo over console prices is a big deal. A $50 price difference isn't that big a deal in the long run. Bigger factors for me would be available games, controller preference, online capabilities, what my friends have, etc. I think controller preference is a much bigger factor for me than for most people... but if I don't like the controller, I won't enjoy the games as much.

 

[R Nilla]

I don't even want to think about it. I keep all of my games. If I wanted to get money back I wouldn't buy them in the first place, I'd rent (or wait for clearance prices which I try to do anyway). That, and I'm a bit of a pack rat...

 

[Onita]

$400-$600 I'd guess. Never traded a game in my life. I don't buy most of my games new, though.

 

[dfnkt]

I had to vote for the lowest option. Seeing as how i'm dirt poor right now..

I would love to buy the newer games when they come out and I would. Right now I have a 360 and own probably 8 games (i trade when i'm done unless it has good multiplayer). I have COD:WAW but don't have any of the map packs, also have Fallout3 but can't afford any of the DLC right now.

If I hadn't gotten a 12 month XBL card for Christmas last year I wouldn't even have live right now.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

400-600 spent combined on both consoles, including paid dlc and paid downloaded games. i always trade/sell my games for new ones, so i can fund my self during these times of hard economic down turn.

 

[Baked]

Less than $200. I keep them. Maybe 1 or 2 disc base games on PS3, and 2-3 PSN games. Last PC game I bought was WoW and its expansions.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I've spent about $400 on games... in the last month. To be fair, $100 of that is for games I haven't even gotten yet(2 copies of Aion) and those will keep me busy likely for at least a month(dropping my gaming budget down enormously).

I have 30 games for the 360(almost exclusively the kids' games), 35 for the PS3, I think 15-20 for the Wii(almost exclusively for the kids lately- haven't counted them recently) and hundreds for the PC(at least, not even sure how many if I dug out all the boxes in the basement filled). Normally I have at least 2 MMO subs active, although that is down to zero atm(one of the reasons I've spent so much in the last month- need something to keep me busy).

That varies enormously though, if I am into playing a MMO fairly heavily that can drop down to maybe $50 a month(just a single sub fee and maybe a couple used games for the kids). It is very easily over $600 a year though.

I also keep pretty much all of my games. The only time I trade any in is if I think they are shockingly worse then what I expected. I think that covers maybe 5 games total since the launch of the PS2 across all platforms. This year I'll probably spend ~$2.5K between myself, the wife and the kids on gaming total, although that includes controller replacements/games/sub costs and DLC content(oh yeah, have to buy myself another DS, mine broke and DQ9 is gettnig close).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My gaming purchases for all platforms have gone way down. For 2009, here is what I remember buying for my gaming platforms:

PC: ArmA2, LoTRO (neither was full price and LoTRO was only $9.99)
PSP: None this year; the last new title I bought was in 2008 and was either GoW or Madden 08
Xbox: NHL 09 (on sale), Madden 10 (full price)

I am primarily a sports gamer now and I made a decision last year to not buy a new version of a sports game every year -- the exception being Madden, of course. So I will skip NHL this year and probably will skip NBA, even though the last one I owned was NBA 2K8.

As far as the second part of the poll, I have eBayed several of my older games because I generally can make more $$ that way than I could trading them in at Gamestop.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Hmmm, this year:

2 copies of DoW2 at $24 each = $48
4000 MS points for $28, used it to get Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and BF1943
Got CoD4 360 for $15 but it sucked so I ebay'd it for $45. After shipping and ebay fees about $38 (guesstimate)

So total expenses this year so far were $38.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: PieIsAwesome
Hmmm, this year:

2 copies of DoW2 at $24 each = $48
4000 MS points for $28, used it to get Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and BF1943
Got CoD4 360 for $15 but it sucked so I ebay'd it for $45. After shipping and ebay fees about $38 (guesstimate)

So total expenses this year so far were $38.

Fail. So hard.

 

[Raduque]

How many of you who answered "I keep them" for console games are the same people bitching about not being able to re-sell digital-download PC games?

 

[msi1337]

I probably spend over $1000 yearly on gaming type hobbies..this may include PC games, console games, and magic the gathering cards. however, during this process I resell many of these items and end up making much more than $1000 on ebay or AT FS/FT