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Discussion How out of your way will you go to get a deal on a video game?

Derachi

Derachi

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So with the recent reveal that Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a full $60 USD/$80 CAD game, it’s got me thinking about game prices.

For the record, the dollar amounts in the rest of this post will be in Canadian.

I have both a Canadian and Japanese eShop account, so I decided to go check how much Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is on the Japanese eShop, with the currently weak yen and all that. Turns out, DKCRHD on the Japanese eShop is only 6500 yen, or about $55, and there’s no added taxes on the Japanese eShop. Thats $25 less than the $80 Canadian eShop price, which is actually about $90 after taxes where I live. So my options are $55, or $90. It’s the same piece of software for both regions, as it contains all languages.

“But what about vouchers?”

Great question! On the Canadian eShop, a pair of vouchers costs $132.99 plus tax, which comes out to about $150. So that would lower the price of each game to $75 each. Better than $90, for sure, but still doesn’t come close to $55.

But… what about Japanese Vouchers?

On the Japanese eShop, a pair of “Catalog Tickets” (which is what they call vouchers) costs 9980 yen, which comes out to $85 as of this writing. Again, no tax, so it’s straight up just $85 for two video games (meaning $42.50 per game) that would cost $90 each on the Canadian eShop.

Now, the Japanese eShop doesn’t take Canadian credit cards so there’s a bit of effort you gotta put into getting access to these deals. You gotta go get Japanese eShop gift cards from Amazon (which will only sell eShop codes to you if you have a Japanese shipping address, which I actually do legally have for reasons I won’t explain). And to get vouchers you need an NSO subscription, a month of which is 306 extra yen.

But still, you end up paying about $43 Canadian each for two full-price First Party Nintendo games with a little bit of effort. To me personally, that is an incredible amount of savings that I cannot pass up.

What do you think? Is this too much effort to save that money for you? Or is this something you do as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
 
I usually just wait to see if a deal comes out. I wishlist stuff or watch Twitter accounts that post deals. At best I search on eBay for used deals. Other than that I just wait. Switch games are hard to get good deals for, but sometimes you get lucky ("lucky" being like $15-20 off).

For DKCR, having already bought both the Wii and 3DS version, I think I'd have a hard time justifying spending more than $30 on it.
 
The most I usually go out of the way to get a discount is making an account on some website or store. I don't go through the hassle of buying games from other regions because it's kind of a pain in the butt and I also feel iffy about exploiting foreign prices and exchanges rates that are meant to help people in those markets afford games. But I say that as someone who is privileged to have a good enough income for afford hobbies like gaming.

I may also try to save money in other ways not directly to buying the game itself. Like if I know I'm buying two games in a month, maybe I'll cut back on eating out, don't buy that snack at the convenience store, stuff like that.
 
HockeyBird said:
The most I usually go out of the way to get a discount is making an account on some website or store. I don't go through the hassle of buying games from other regions because it's kind of a pain in the butt and I also feel iffy about exploiting foreign prices and exchanges rates that are meant to help people in those markets afford games. But I say that as someone who is privileged to have a good enough income for afford hobbies like gaming.

I may also try to save money in other ways not directly to buying the game itself. Like if I know I'm buying two games in a month, maybe I'll cut back on eating out, don't buy that snack at the convenience store, stuff like that.
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I totally get not wanting to exploit other region’s pricing, and yeah, having multiple accounts is a hassle. I’ll say, I had a Japanese eShop account anyway because I was buying Japan-only games with it. I’m not going to make accounts where the games are cheapest to exploit that pricing, I just already had a Japanese account and noticed the games are much cheaper through it.
 
I'll say that DekuDeals has done a miraculous job of curbing most of my impulse purchases, especially if I only hear about a game after it's released and there's a pattern of sales that I either just missed or is imminent. This is almost always third parties and indies, but a deal is a deal whether digital or physical

Most Nintendo games I'll buy full price at launch because whether I wait a month or a year, it'll almost invariably stay full price. The games that do get the occasional 60% off sale once or twice a year, are the games I've long since bought or never had interest in the first place.
 
It honestly depends for me. In the case of Nintendo's 60-70 dollar US titles? I'll opt for their Vouchers to get a good deal nowadays (Used mine for TOTK, and XC2 btw). Other times, I'll opt not getting physical, and go directly to digital if it means I'll save a few bucks. Though they also embark on Summer game deals, or winter game deals, etc to the point where using the voucher isn't always a cost effective solution. There were some titles I was going to buy with my last voucher, but many of them were 41 dollars. Still technically a deal even with the voucher, but I'd rather maximize my voucher, so decided on a full price title. Though if said game does occasionally go on sale, am I really saving in this case?

Though I should point out I wanted to use my last voucher for PM: TTYD, but for some DUMB reason, you cannot use your voucher to Pre-order a game that comes out AFTER your voucher date is expired. Even though you're pre-purchasing the game prior to launch and subsequently before your voucher expires, Nintendo doesn't allow that. Again, FUCKING DUMB!!!! So I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2 because I didn't want to skip it to play XC3, and I already had XCDE.

But on the flips side, there are games on my Steam wishlist that are on sale for under 5 dollars, and I still don't take up on it because, "I don't need more games right now." The game will go on sale again at some point, and I still may not buy it.

Given how my time for gaming is more limited nowadays, and I'm more cautious on my purchases, I don't typically go to great lengths to get a deal if it means jumping through a half dozen hoops to save something like 10 bucks. Video games for me are a treat to play, so it should feel as a reward to play. I guess I use that as a means for saying, "I'm not here for the best deal. I just want a great experience."
 
It doesn’t take any effort here tbh- UK online retailers slash prices on physical copies hard.

SMT Vengeance only came out a couple of weeks back and is already about 20% off the RRP/eshop digital price if you shop around.
Princess Peach is similar, £50 on the eshop and £40 already from retailers.
To pick one that’s 3 months old, Unicorn Overlord is still £55 on the eshop but ~£30 from retailers already.

As such, I’ve never really looked around at discounts on digital retailers.‘How far I will go out of my way to get a good deal’ is usually just to type ‘buy x game’ on a web browser and all the online retailers come up for comparison.
 
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I check two different physical retailers and use third-party trackers for the digital stores. Only actively use accounts from my region despite Swiss prices being often a bit iffy. On the eShop, I've only used vouchers once because it's usually cheaper to buy keys from other places.

What you do would probably be too much effort for me but I still respect it.
 
My general principle is that I don't purchase games if I don't intend to play them the same day, so I never really wait around for sales; I think the money saved by not impulse purchasing games I'm not all that interested in more than makes up for not using many sales.

I'll look around on occasion if I'm buying a game that isn't brand new, but generally speaking here in the US games are just MSRP no matter what nowadays. Deal searching has often just felt like a waste of time, so I don't bother much. I am losing money by buying physical over vouchers, but that's more of a personal choice and for consistency (physical was cheaper for me at the start of the generation thanks to Best Buy, and it'd feel weird to me if my physical collection just stopped around 2020/2021).
 
Jersh said:
My general principle is that I don't purchase games if I don't intend to play them the same day, so I never really wait around for sales; I think the money saved by not impulse purchasing games I'm not all that interested in more than makes up for not using many sales.

I'll look around on occasion if I'm buying a game that isn't brand new, but generally speaking here in the US games are just MSRP no matter what nowadays. Deal searching has often just felt like a waste of time, so I don't bother much. I am losing money by buying physical over vouchers, but that's more of a personal choice and for consistency (physical was cheaper for me at the start of the generation thanks to Best Buy, and it'd feel weird to me if my physical collection just stopped around 2020/2021).
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Absolutely. I’m much the same and think ‘if I’m buying something for it to sit in shrink wrap, it’ll most likely be cheaper when I am interested or have the time to play it.’. Better to curate a list of stuff I’m enthusiastic about than a pile of unplayed, unopened games.

I think I bought more games that I wouldn’t play immediately back when print runs were so tiny on old portables.
 
PixelKnight said:
Absolutely. I’m much the same and think ‘if I’m buying something for it to sit in shrink wrap, it’ll most likely be cheaper when I am interested or have the time to play it.’. Better to curate a list of stuff I’m enthusiastic about than a pile of unplayed, unopened games.

I think I bought more games that I wouldn’t play immediately back when print runs were so tiny on old portables.
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Well, for me as a buyer of primarily first party Nintendo games in the US, none of it really gets cheaper lol. I just buy fewer games this way. There's exceptions here and there, but by and large it's just avoiding the trap of buying games because they're good deals instead of legitimately wanting to play them.
 
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Most I've done is buy 2 cheap used games to then go to Gamestop and give them those two + 9,99€ for God of War on launch day. I paid about 40€ instead of 60€ I think.

I thought about the Japanese eshop thing but I haven't bothered yet and maybe will only do it for a regional exclusive one day, maybe Dragon Quest X if I never get the physical.
 
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UK based here so very similar response to PixelKnight.

Physical you can regularly get for £10 off on release day when compared to RRP. Zelda EoW I have preordered for £39.85 for example.

That’s why the consideration of digital has near enough disappeared from my purchasing process, ever since Nintendo stopped UK retailers from selling digital codes in 2020/2021.

Back to the original question though, I will always shop around for the best price within reason online, as there are next to no physical game retailers near me, and those that are, are always at RRP so not much point.
 
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This thread is pretty crazy. None of it ever occurred to me since we tend to have pretty competitive pricing for big games with most stores trying to undercut each other. As the fella my girlfriend exclusively calls Deep Voice Nintendo Man says, here you just check if Curry's is doing an offer code then if not head to TheGameCollection or ShopTo and hit order. I've pre-ordered something like 15 games in the last year and don't think I've paid RRP once.
 
Yes

If I can save some mula, I'll do so. I mostly buy physical so vouchers and region switching isn't something I'm normally thinking about, though. Waiting for deals or buying a used game is the furthest I usually go.
 
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I decide on a dollar amount I’m comfortable paying then wait for the game to go on sale, usually on Amazon. My backlog is so egregious I no longer feel compelled to buy a game before it’s whatever arbitrary price I want to pay.

The farthest out of the way I’ve gone recently is I downloaded the Staples app to use a $30 off coupon. I barely had to go out of my way. 🤷‍♀️
 
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My greatest weakness is that I can use mental gymnastics in order to justify any video game purchase.

Seriously, I've done some crazy things.
 
Depends on the game. Any modern title? Wait for a sale.

Any retro physical title? Usually will wait for a good ebay price

A decent Guitar Controller/DDR controller? I once flew across the country to get one and probably would sacrifice my soul for another.
 
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I have two ways of going for deals:

- Smaller games (in terms of storage size) and games that I don't feel the desire to have for the physical collection, I'll add them to my eShop wishlist and wait to see if they ever hit 40%, 60%, sometimes even as much as 80% off. A lot of my digital purchases have been down to the games being on hella sale on the eShop (that's part of why yall hear me talking about my backlog so much) and that's been a pretty good system both for saving money and as a decision-helper when I can't pick what games I wanna try from my list.

- Games I do want in physical, either due to wanting them for the collection or them being rather big in the gigs, I just set alerts for them on eBay and set a price limit for them (usually around $35usd or so). eBay lets me know when someone is selling a copy with a low starting bid or low asking price, and sometimes I'll win an auction or just happen to find someone selling it cheap. I got Bayonetta 3, Live A Live, and Sonic Frontiers all around the same time for around $30 each (Frontiers and Bayo3 were only a couple months old at the time), and recently I snagged Star Ocean SSR and Baten Kaitos 1&2 for around $33 each.

It takes patience and I gotta keep an eye on the searches (but the alerts help), but I'm still able to get some really good deals on physical games that way.

Only games I buy full-price anymore are the ones I'm so excited for that I wanna play day one, so the Xenoblades, Zeldas, the Mario platformers, Metroids, that sort of stuff. So I'm really only ever buying a new full-price game only a couple times a year.

That might be pretty far out of my way compared to others but yeah 😅
 
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Honestly, not that out of my way. I'm not gonna mess around with region switching or anything like that. I'll buy codes off non-super sketchy sites like Humble or Fanatical sometimes, and I'll use eshop vouchers where applicable. I get some people get a sort of rush out of actively seeking out deals, but for me it's largely either I get a game at launch or I wishlist it on Steam/Dekudeals and wait for a 50-75% discount

I guess the most I go out of my way for a "deal" is once a year I've gotta shake down various friends/family so they'll kick in their share of the NSO family membership. Always a bit of an awkward headache but everyone of us wants to keep playing Mario Party, so it's worth it in the end
 
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ammonite said:


This thread is pretty crazy. None of it ever occurred to me since we tend to have pretty competitive pricing for big games with most stores trying to undercut each other. As the fella my girlfriend exclusively calls Deep Voice Nintendo Man says, here you just check if Curry's is doing an offer code then if not head to TheGameCollection or ShopTo and hit order. I've pre-ordered something like 15 games in the last year and don't think I've paid RRP once.
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Yeah the video is pretty much my experience. Currys were back on my radar when they were selling ToTK delivered for about £20 under RRP.
 
I dont region swap - moral reasons, regional pricings are there for a reason and if it's abused it'll affect those from those regions. I dont know how far it's gone on the E-shop but it's very much a problem for some regions on Steam.

I like to find deals for physical games though, not sure to what extent - If I want to play it day 1, I'll buy it from the cheapest retailer.. that's basically it :p
 
Don't buy games day 1. Don't reward Nintendo for their BS pricing policy.

I haven't paid €60 for a game in a very long while. Heck, I've bought TotK for €55 on launch day and even then regretted it. Because I still haven't played it and the game has been available for €45 a few times afterwards.

Some deals I've gotten for games (all physical):
Bayonetta 3 - €15
Fire Emblem Engage - €25
Bravely Default II - €18
Splatoon 3 - €40
Fire Emblem Three Houses - €40
Xenoblade Definitive Edition - €30
Xenoblade 3 - €40
Astral Chain (one of the more expensive ones) - €50

All of these I've gotten relative close to launch, and many of them I could have gotten even cheaper if I just waited. I'm fine paying full price for a game like Unicorn Overlord to support Vanillaware, but I'm not going to reward Nintendo for their messed up pricing on games.

This is made easy, because retailers are competing with each other with pricing. Plus some games just don't sell well and they need to clear stock like with Bayonetta 3 I bought near launch and even Bayonetta Origin was around €20 a few months after launch. Outside of NA it's the retailers that decide the pricing of games based on suggested pricing.

It's us consumers that set the value of games, not Nintendo. We should use our "powers" more often to bring down these prices by just not buying them at a high price. You'll see that Nintendo won't ask these outrageous prices so often.
 
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Sorry to bump the thread, but for my fellow Brits, Currys are doing 15% off eshop credit, which combined with the current deal on the game vouchers is (probably) the best chance to get digital first party games.
 
I don't really go too out of my way. Never brought from another region.

With Nintendo games I barely bother. Sometimes I'll wait for that 20% off in the holidays but usually if I want the game it's a day 1 purchase not gonna fuss over it. Now for PC and Xbox? I've only paid $70 for a game twice. I don't ever buy PC games at full price cause there is a sale every quarter. Xbox I just wait for deals or gamepass lol.

If I truly wanted to go out of my way I'd just learn Japanese lmfao. I can get games cheaper AND play games that aren't released stateside or with an english translation ala the Power Pros series.
 
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I try to optimize enjoyment rather than money spent. I dont value ”hours of entertainment” rather than the experience, be it short or long.

I try to only buy things (games) on sales if I think I would have bought it at the regular price too. There are way to many ways to get games for cheap anyway. I really believe it inflates my overall interest in stuff if anything is too easily available (this applies to most entertainment but not music).
 
I'm something of a game omnivore — I spent a long time wanting to make games and having very few influences, so I think that part of me cooked fairly well.

Now that I'm in my "exploration" era, I want to try lots of different things and see what's out there.

Some of it influences me — i.e. Grögol Bonanza's combat is influenced heavily by 140, a sort of unconventional minimalist rhythm game, but applied to some more familiar paradigms — but most of it is just to see what everyone's up to and have a good time!

Because of this... I do prioritize sales. My approach is to be cautious and not overthink it. The smallest titles, like under $20 CAD, I'll tend to scoop up without too much hesitation.

Medium games are much harder to weigh. The infinite space between $20 and $60 is full of things that I'll usually leave in a wishlist for years until I can snag at an opportune time. I'm still an omnivore, but I have to be a patient one. It's somewhat against my nature, but I know my ass is broke.

Big titles are like almost always "wait" unless I'm extremely hyped or plan ahead. I think I paid half-price for Dark Souls, Skyrim, DOOM, etc.

But, of course, Nintendo is a loophole.

Nintendo titles are a bloodbath price-wise, but... consistent! I'm almost guaranteed to enjoy them. I'm very into vouchers now.

You may have also noticed that I enter a lot more Fami giveaways when eshop cash or expensive games are involved... and shockingly, I've actually won a few times!

I consider that as a kind of "deal" — engaging with a community that has given me so much for the chance at a discount or a new game. Thrilling and often fun!

I don't fuck with other region pricing for a number of reasons.

1. Those prices should be for those regions, even if I feel absolutely dunked on as someone living in Canada.

2. I have a Switch Lite. One unified account means all my games can pop over to my secondary. Otherwise, I'm a tad fucked.

3. The Future™ — I've snagged a great many games and I intend to take a long long time moving through them. Not to have a hoarder mentality after not playing games for a decade, but... I do.

I am really hoping these all can move over to the Switch Succ. I recognize that this might be overly optimistic. Either way, I love the Switch, and I will play it for as long as I can.
 
The most I'll do in terms of getting a deal is to occasionally buy eShop or PSN credit when it goes on sale.

I usually wait for a game to go on sale if I'm trying to get a deal, be it digital or physical. DekuDeals is pretty great for this.

Sometimes I will go pick up a physical game, but I usually get it shipped if possible.
 
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Before this year, where the currency exchange really helped us and forced fuckin Latamel to lower prices, I would save money for summer vacations and plan a trip to the US to buy a lot of games since it was cheaper than the retail prices we had in stores. One time I bought like 20 and had to split it between me and a cousin in his luggage (since you can only bring 10 games as personal luggage without having to fill a customs declaration).

Also back in the day I traveled to Mexicali with an aunt and went to Calexico to get a GBA at decent price (as in not the mexican inflated 30% price)
 
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I used to do a lot more, but tbh these days I'm digital and it's quite simple for me.

  • Day one and I am eager to support the dev? Preorder.
  • From a third party? Probably waiting a month or two for a sale. Add to wishlist.
  • First party Nintendo? Voucher.
  • Otherwise? Wishlist and check during major sales (Steam and eShop)

Between GamePass, my Service games (currently Palia and Swtor), etc.... I have my hands full with titles and am not really hunting down deals. I've never been a fan of taking advantage of pricing in other regions (digital), but don't shame those that do it.
 
Why not just get them secondhand? I've learnt (the hard way) that even if I get games day-one, I am unlikely to get around to playing them immediately. The only exception to this rule has been TOTK and Pokemon games.

Go to whatever secondhand sales website you have locally and just keep track what's over there. While you are waiting for someone to let their games go for a decent price, there's always that other 28+ backlog games to play through.
 
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