5 reasons to stop buying games at launch

If you've been playing long enough, you might remember standing in line for hours at a store to buy a highly anticipated video game you reserved. Today, buying a game at launch – or, even worse, pre-ordering it – may actually be the worst time to do so.

Digital games are endless

Pre-ordering a game made sense in an era when no one knew how many copies would sell and there was a real chance you just couldn't find a copy of a game until it was released. other copies can be pressed, shipped and placed on shelves.

When it comes to digital games, that's not a problem. You can rest assured that even if the physical copies of a game are sold out, you can still pick up a digital copy. Even with physical games, the allocations are quite large these days, thanks to the growth of the gaming market.

It's best to wait until a game is in the hands of reviewers and less patient gamers to make sure the title is truly worth your money.

Prices are falling rapidly

It's typical for game prices to drop quickly after launch day. This can happen a few weeks or a few months after the launch of the title. When sales start to slow at the introductory price, price drops further boost sales.

Indeed, players who buy games at launch pay for the privilege of playing them as soon as possible. Once those players have all bought their copy, it's time for a new set of customers who want to play at a lower price.

FOMO is not a good reason to buy

The gaming industry has become adept at creating hype among gamers on social media and in the press. The moment a game launches, players want to buy it, play it, and then immediately become part of the discussion around it. FOMO, the fear of missing out, can be a real problem when it comes to making rational decisions with your money.

Objectively, FOMO isn't a good reason to shell out money for a game rather than delay your gratification, but of course, if you really enjoy being a part of that talk, you can just ignore this point.

Games are difficult at launch

The nature of game development usually means that when a game has a tough launch date, it's in the hands of the gamer whether it's finished or not. Although most games are playable at launch, there are usually plenty of bugs and quality of life issues. If you wait a few weeks (or even longer), the following patches will polish the game.

Worse still, if you pre-order the game, you decide to buy it before seeing the reviews. Is the game good? Even if the game is good, is it stable? Or will it need a lot of bug fixes before it will run smoothly on your hardware?

When you think about it, buying at launch means getting the worst version of the game for the highest price. Whereas waiting for it to be fixed means getting the best version of the game at a lower price. What do you think is a better deal?

Deep sales often come

Digital sales with deep price drops on old and new games are now commonplace. Console storefronts such as Sony's PSN have at least one sale per month. During key times of the year, massive sales are now expected. This means that the best strategy is to list the games you want to buy and then check your wishlist when there are big sales. In most cases, you'll likely get your game at a deep discount within a year of launch.

Don't forget the physical games either. Add physical games to your wishlist on sites like Amazon and set up a wishlist alert, so you get notified when things go on sale.

When should you buy at launch?

Those are five reasons why it doesn't make sense to buy games at launch, but that doesn't mean it's never a good idea to pick up a game as soon as it's available.

Multiplayer games in particular are usually best early in their life before players leave for something shiny and new. If you enter at the beginning, everyone still learns to play together too. If you're late to the party, you'll face a big skill gap.

Limited-edition games that come with goodies you really want are meant to motivate people to buy the game at launch. However, if you really want that Master Chief helmet or limited edition gaming character statue, you'll have to be quick. This is one of the cases where limited supply is actually a factor.

Finally, if really, really want to play a new game ASAP, so don't let us (or anyone) tell you otherwise. If you're going to play it immediately (and not just pile it onto your backlog), you don't need excuses to do so.