How often are you checking for video game sales?

Lately, with inflation/potential tariffs/my already huge backlog/other priorities in my life, I find myself less and less willing to pay for games at full price. While I know (1) I won't get to enjoy games at release alongside their communities and (2) I won't be supporting indie developers as much, I can't afford this hobby if I had to buy everything at its highest or even a 15-25% off price point.

That being said, that doesn't mean I don't want to stop playing video games. So I wanted to ask- how often are you checking for video game sales? Are you scouring Steam/PlayStation Store/Nintendo eShop/Deku Deals frequently? Do you just wait for larger events like Black Friday? Are you turning your nose at my penny-pinching and only buy deluxe editions at their fullest price? Or would you rather wait X years after a non-Nintendo game releases to get the best discount possible?

Lately, with inflation/potential tariffs/my already huge backlog/other priorities in my life, I find myself less and less willing to pay for games at full price. While I know (1) I won't get to enjoy games at release alongside their communities and (2) I won't be supporting indie developers as much, I can't afford this hobby if I had to buy everything at its highest or even a 15-25% off price point.

That being said, that doesn't mean I don't want to stop playing video games. So I wanted to ask- how often are you checking for video game sales? Are you scouring Steam/PlayStation Store/Nintendo eShop/Deku Deals frequently? Do you just wait for larger events like Black Friday? Are you turning your nose at my penny-pinching and only buy deluxe editions at their fullest price? Or would you rather wait X years after a non-Nintendo game releases to get the best discount possible?

With IsThereAnyDeal for PC games and Deku Deals for console games, it's not longer required to look up sales all the time. These sites will track it for you and have a history database. You can just create an account and ask to get alerts for sales of games you have chosen.

Yep, I'm with Tiamat on this.

I grew up in a family of bargain hunters. My dad taught me to be patient and wait for good deals when I was very young. The amount of time I paid full price for a videogame, I could probably count on two hands. When I still had consoles, I bought used, and as a PC gamer, games are seemingly always on sale now.

But I don't actively look for sales. Don't think I ever have. There were always automatic systems in place.
And especially nowadays with IsThereAnyDeal, I just let it keep track of my Steam wishlist and tell it to notify me when a game is at a historical low price at any store. No manual labor required at all. lol

- Matt

I'd say every other week or something, but I wasn't aware of IsThereAnyDeal (thanks, Tiamat :)

As for Nintendo eShop, I use the wishlist and Nintendo politely sends me an e-mail when some games from my list are on sale.

I would usually just wait for Black Friday but recently have been checking sales for PC games regularly... though I shouldn't as my backlog is huge. I usually won't buy something unless it's something I really want or if it's really cheap. I couldn't pass up Skyrim: Special Edition for 5 euros for example. It's been well over a decade since I bought a new full price game. I have enough stuff to play that I can wait to play newer games.

I purchase the majority of my games on sale, I usually check a few times per week. I'll even sometimes check price history on SteamDB to see if a sale is imminent if I'm itching to get a particular game. For pricier titles like first party Nintendo games which hardly ever go on sale for much, I'll often use Ebay to grab a used copy which are usually 20%-50% cheaper, though Ebay is a little iffy sometimes. That DekuDeals site seems pretty dope though, I'll probably keep an eye on it.

The only games I buy at full price are new releases that I'm excited about, which isn't too often. But with $70 price tags becoming more common I'm not sure I'll be able to keep doing that.

I check sales pretty often all though honestly, I try to avoid buying too many games on sale now because it means buying a bunch of games I won't play right away. A lot of people don't like buying games at full price but with that at least that gives me more incentive to play them right away. Sales have become a temptation to me since COVID began. I might sound weird but I feel like if I play a game right away after buying it, I usually get more fufilment out of doing it. A good 20-30% of games I buy on sales might not even get played until years later.

Some games I got on a sale years ago I wondered why on earth I even bothered to get them. Sometimes, I need a nudge to buy games I bought from years ago. I have got so many games on sales over the years that I would like to go a while without buying any games.

I use IsThereAnyDeal for games I already know I want to buy so I'm notified when they hit my price point. I also use CheapAssGamer on Twitter and r/GameDeals to make sure I'm aware of any deals going on (mainly so I know when a new bundle is released on Fanatical or Humble Bundle). Outside of that, I'm not scouring around for sales.

I use the Steam/GOG wishlist for games that I want and I get email notifications for wishlist sales. Some people might not like getting a ton of notifications but personally I don't have that many wishlisted games so I appreciate the messages when I get them.