General Gaming Have 2019's giveways and subscriptions changed your purchase habits?

[crispy4000]

Epic's giveaways this year have been absolutely bonkers.  5+ dozen curated free games to keep forever, including recent releases like Ape Out and Yooka Laylee and The Impossible Lair.  Some of them have been a little late to the party if you subbed to other services, but it also hasn't taken much patience to be rewarded this much for waiting.

I'm also a big fan of Humble Monthly's recent changes.  In spite of the price increase (for new customers), taking the mystery game additions out was the right move.  It puts the pressure on them to make sure it lives up to the asking price.  I imagine I'll be spending $12 once every few months, when the selection is good.

And of course there's Games Pass.  Admittedly not for me, because my backlog of owned games is too substantial for me to shell out $10-15 month for an additional temp library.  But I may consider taking advantage of one of the promos for Ori 2, or some other Microsoft game I know wouldn't leave the service (if I were to resub).

These days, I almost never buy indie games on their own unless they hit <$5.  Even bundles sometimes have me second guessing if the games I'm after will show up in giveaways.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing for the industry as a whole.  It's training people like me not to support the little guys, which is a bit of a shame.  Then again, we're not seeing indies discount their prices as much outside of bundles either.  Owlboy (among others) still hasn't dropped below $10, and it's been over 3 years.  That's quickly becoming the new norm.

 

If the industry wasn't changing so much, I wonder if deeper prices cuts would be a bit more normalized.  It seems like the glut of online services/subscriptions/giveaways are what devs are running to, instead of competitive discounts.

[skillzdadirecta]

Yes. I've definitely bought far less games dayone this year because I'me either waiting for price drops or to see if the game will hit game pass or games with gold.

[XxEvil AshxX]

I'm usually too poor to buy games when they come out anyway, and have to wait for a significant price drop or sale before I can purchase something. By that time there's a good chance they're on Game Pass. So I guess yeah, it kinda does affect my spending habits, but it's not like I would be buying much anyway.

 

I'm probably a bad example, since GP was pretty much designed for broke bastards like me.

 

That said, if I'm anticipating a game enough, I'll save up for it and get it day one. A good example was Resident Evil 2. I skipped a few lunches for that one.

[Keyser_Soze]

Not really. Generally what I play won't or hasn't been given away. Game pass is fine but generally I'm playing those games because Epic has them on lockdown and game pass circumvents that.

[SimpleG]

Nope , I buy games when I want to. Game Pass hasnt really offered me anything thats must play and I avoid Epic like the Black Death.

[Dodger]

Yes, I spend way less money on games now that I have GP, and I don't even pay for that. I do the MS Rewards shit for a couple minutes every day to "pay" for that. Honestly, next gen probably most of my games spending will be on PS5 first party games since MS first party games will all be on GP for "free". Third party titles I'll either hold out until they are on GP or on a massive sale, or the rare game that actually compels me to buy it day 1. I'm definitely getting CyperPunk day 1, and thinking about Doom Eternal since the last one was so damn good. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Not really.  I've always searched for deals on games, and continue to do so.

 

GamePass doesn't really fit with my gaming habits.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Not at all. I just buy what I want and outside Switch, not much has appealed to me this year.

 

[TheRealSmallville]

I typically don't buy very many games each year, but 2019 has to be a new low for me. Since Gamepass launched, I only bought 1 game for myself (Madden, don't judge me ) and I maybe purchased 2 prior to that. My backlog has been gigantic for a few years, so even a lot of the older stuff on Gamepass was new to me. Especially since I didn't have to pay individually for them. 

 

Currently going through The Outer Worlds and having a blast with it. Might hit up Gears 5 next, haven't played Gears since #2. A sub like gamepass feels custom made for me. 

[cusideabelincoln]

It has a little bit, but the biggest slowdown to my current buying habits is the fact I've bought so many previous games from sales and have yet to play them, let alone download or install them.  Now I only plan to buy something that I want to immediately play.

[EternallDarkness]

only thing that is really going to effect my purchase habits going forward is the fact that my Best Buy gamers club has expired, lol. 

[Brian]

Definitely. I am at a point where I won’t buy Indie games since these games hit these services so quickly. I bought Untitled Goose Game for the Switch. I played it for an hour and have yet to go back to it. Now it’s on Game Pass. 
 

At this point, I will buy Sony and Nintendo games Day 1 if interested since these games will not appear on any service. The rest will be case by case decision. 

[Nokt]

So far XGP has only stopped me from buying Gears and majority of the game giveaways are games that I've already bought or never had any intention of buying in the first place.

[DarkStar189]

I have 2 games this gen that I got for free that I've put A LOT of time into. So much time (in my limited game time), that I keep neglecting other games in my backlog or even recent purchases. Rocket League and Apex Legends. I turn my ps4 on and think alright I'm really going to dig into this singleplayer game tonight..... oh there's Rocket League........click. Oh maybe just a round or two of Apex...........*2 hours later*. 

 

[DPCyric]

Humble Bundle changed my purchasing habits long ago (and I haven't even bothered with the monthly or choice stuff) but free games with Prime has been a huge bonus over the past year! I've been anti EGS (though free Celeste would have been nice) even skipping it when I wanted Enter the Gungeon (thankfully games with Prime just came through for me hopefully get Celeste next month!).

[crispy4000]

I hate Epic’s overall strategy as much as anyone else, but they’ve paid for these free games as their advertising budget.  That’s something I’m completely in support of.  Their Winter Sale was also the first time I felt their deals reflected a genuine cost savings over other storefronts.

 

... I’m still not buying anything from them anytime soon.  Especially nothing they moneyhat.  But I’ve got no moral qualms with the free stuff.  

 

The way I see it, any PC gamer who does should take a hard look in the mirror and ask if they’ve ever pirated a game before.

[Moa]

Thus far my habits haven't changed other than that I collect my weekly fortnite subsidized free games from Epic and now have about 50 games to not play. I haven't jumped on board gamepass yet and continue to buy MS games as they appeal to me, and I don't regret the decision. The only MS game I've bought recently has been Forza Horizon 4, which I play sporadically and would be unhappy to have to pay a subscription for but also unhappy to not be able to jump on whenever I please. 

 

To wade into the Epic debate, I don't love client exclusive games, but I also think the EGS is a net positive simply because they're willing to put the money forward to bring formerly console exclusive games to the PC. I don't mind having to use a non-steam client to boot up Afterparty or Goose Game if it means that I can also play Tetris Effect, a game that certainly would not be on PC right now if not for Epic. 

[gamer.tv]

PS+ is more of a nice addition and does give me some options regarding games, but generally due to the age of the games I buy a fair few in between. It would be nice if you could share games across accounts where only one person has PS+, as at the moment, I've had an account for about a year and so have all releases, then on my Partner's account (my old one) she has games back to 2016, which I can't access.