Current state of gaming industry: Does it affect your purchase behaviour?

[Regular Sega Fan]

So quick question about where do you guys and gals buy your games.

Currently there is a sale on Playstation Store. Lots of solid deals. Playstation is my "big" console of choice even though most of my gaming session are on Switch. I'm a console gamer first and foremost but also have a mid tier gaming laptop. Anyway, while looking for deals on the Playstation store often, I think "what if I buy this game on pc instead?"
That thought keeps coming and it's totally new for me. A year ago I'll just buy the game to play on my PS5. Now Steam is winning (digital) "shelf-share" quickly, I think mostly because latest movements of Sony but mainly Microsoft (going third party, lack of vision, massive layoff and so on)

Similar situation with Gamepass some months ago. I often thought "why no buy this on Steam intead?, what if I want to play this game in two month from now? What if I play one game all year?"

Have this situation something in common?
Do you guys feel your purchase behaviour is changing (as change your platform of choice)?

(Nintendo seems to me like untouched by this tho)

 

[Derbel McDillet]

Bulk of my third party games (and Forza Horizon) are on my Xbox Series S since since it's been my current gen machine for 2 years.
Exclusives and larger games are on my PS5 which I've had for 2 months now.
Nintendo exclusives and majority of indies are on my Switch.
Things I can only play on PC for now are on my Steam Deck.

So no, can't say anything has changed.

 

[WizdogC]

For big multiplat games I'm interested in I go with my PS5, that's my "base" console this gen. My series X is strictly my Gamepass machine and nothing more. I have my Switch but that's my Nintendo first party machine. And then my gaming laptop with steam is for either Gamepass in terms of flexibility of where I can play or PC exclusive titles.

Obviously if there's a ridiculous sale on any of them I'll jump on what's cheapest.

 

[fracas]

PC is the only platform that guarantees my library will always be accessible on one machine in perpetuity, so it's by far my favorite. I can't imagine buying a significant number of digital games anywhere else honestly.

It's great that the PS5 and Series X are backward compatible but who knows if next gen will be. Or the one after that. I can still easily play all the steam games I bought in college, plus a free "remaster" to boot with higher framerates and resolution.

I don't really buy digital at all on console outside of extreme sales for games I can't easily find physically.

 

[Scottoest]

I've played almost entirely on my PC for the 18 months, aside from a few exclusives on my PS5. Microsoft bringing all of their games to PC certainly contributed, as I'd rather play on my powerful PC than make concessions on my Xbox.

Game Pass has also certainly affected my purchasing behaviour, as I've played several GP games in the last several months that I would've paid for otherwise.

I don't overanalyze things. If a game comes out I want to play, I play it. If I can get it for "free" via a subscription I have, I do that. If I'm buying it, I'm probably buying it on Steam. If my computer at the time can run it better than my consoles, chances are I'm playing it there aside from certain types of games that are just better on one medium or the other - ie. RTS games on a PC.

If Sony go day-and-date with PC in the future, I'll probably subject it to the same decision making process above.

 

[Ant_17]

No cause i say "i bet i will find this cheap on the used market"

 

[BetterGraphics]

I sold my Series X because of Microsoft's bullshit and the obvious pathway ahead to a far larger multiplatform strategy. I don't think they release anything of quality that I need day one, and if they do, I'll stream it or sub on PC for a month if I'm desperate. Long term I see myself buying their games on either Steam or PS5.

 

[MuricaBob]

I completely stopped buying games on xbox. Built a PC and I'm mostly buying there. I still have a gamepass and PS Plus sub though so get some decent console games through those.

 

[CarpetSalesman]

I never buy anything on my PlayStation - I borrow or rent things. I buy physical games on Switch, pretty much exclusively Nintendo's own games. I pretty much buy everything on Xbox.

 

[OGlol]

depends on the game? most likely i'm a double dipper though

 

[kamineko]

If I could afford a decent gaming PC, I'd make that my main thing. And since I need a lightweight laptop for travel, i'd have to pay for a gaming rig on top of that... I'm probably going to be PS5 only for a while for bigger games. I have a switch for exclusives only.

I do buy steam games that have lower requirements, but that's it. Steam only for me, not interested in gamepass for PC or anything like that.

 

[ghibli99]

Where I'm playing games the most at any given moment tends to dictate which way I lean when looking to buy something. Price matters too.

As a most recent example, even though I can play Animal Well on PS+, I decided to buy it on Steam so that I can play it on my Steam Deck OLED.

 

[Rickyrozay2o9]

Until Sony says their first party games like TLOU, GOW or whatever else are making it to PC day one nope, nothing will change for me.

 

[Freezasaurus]

Nah. It really depends how I want to play. If I have no platform choice or the Switch version suffers from abysmal performance, then I'll play on PS5. Otherwise Switch is my go-to console. I like to have something playing on the TV while I game and sometimes I feel like I'm chained to the television if I'm not playing that particular way.

 

[Incubuster]

I'd say so. I've transitioned to primary PC gaming this gen primarily because how console manufacturers are operating. Dropping both GP and PS+ subs when they lapse this year. I still buy PlayStation exclusives from time to time but that's less common now with how slow their output has become. I'm thinking the Series X is going to be my last Xbox I ever get, which makes me sad at the current state of Xbox since I grew up loving Xbox games.

 

[hersheyfan]

While nothing much has changed for me in terms of physical/digital platforms of choice (physical games are overwhelmingly on PlayStation and Nintendo, and digital games are overwhelmingly on Steam and Xbox), Microsoft's recent percieved missteps with regards to their games portfolio has pushed the split of digital games I buy firmly in favor of Steam.

It was a 60/40 split (Steam/Xbox) as recently as last year, but now its more like 90/10.

 

[GasProblem]

No, still mostly PS5 and Switch.

Was thinking about a gaming PC, but it's just such a big barrier to get into PC gaming. It's expensive. I'd also need to buy a monitor, mouse and keyboard. More electricity usage. I don't really have room for a gaming PC in my living room, and don't want to put it in a seperate room. And a PC I had in the past gave me so many problems with BSOD and freezing it now lies in a junkyard.

 

[The Riot Inside]

I've started buying more games physically for some reason. Not sure if it's because I've been thinking more and more about the pre-digital generations and nostalgia is affecting or what.

 

[Renteka-Bond]

I sold my Series X because of Microsoft's bullshit and the obvious pathway ahead to a far larger multiplatform strategy. I don't think they release anything of quality that I need day one, and if they do, I'll stream it or sub on PC for a month if I'm desperate. Long term I see myself buying their games on either Steam or PS5.

Click to shrink...

I completely stopped buying games on xbox. Built a PC and I'm mostly buying there. I still have a gamepass and PS Plus sub though so get some decent console games through those.

Click to shrink...

Me, except I already had the PC beforehand.

I'd been getting rid of my consoles over the course of April (Switch first, then PS5 a week later), but I kept my XSX cause I wanted to support their supposed push to get more Japanese games on the platform. After they closed Tango, though, I decided they could kick rocks, basically; XSX was my favorite system of the 3, but between my PC and Steam Deck, I have no purpose for it unless I force the issue, which I decided wasn't worth my time anymore.

I have been trying to buy more indies as they release recently, though, to support that, at least.

 

[Kopite]

No I play almost nothing outside of PC Game Pass. This year that's mostly been Yakuza 0, P3Reload, Jedi Fallen Order, Fallout 76, OG Fallout, Halo Infinite. I don't really need anything else tbh, I'm eyeing up Control next and already have it installed.

I had a PS4 and thought I'd eventually get a PS5 but I think that's a waste now. Happy enough with Sony's PC port strategy (and hope they at least shorten the period if they don't eventually do day and date). Rockstar/GTAVI is the only shitty one here.

 

[Mupod]

Kind of vague about what 'state' you're talking about...? I will say I have all but abandoned consoles and the Switch successor is going to need to be very compelling for me to care. But I expect some typical nintendo monkey paw bullshit. This isn't new or related to current events though.

Considering Hi Fi Rush was one of my favorite games ever I'll definitely be avoiding anything Microsoft for the time being, but I mean if they bring back Quake or something I'll probably still be there. For id software's last game.

 

[duckroll]

No, the state of the gaming industry has no impact on how I buy games. My life circumstances are the sole impact on my purchasing behaviour. I simply do not have time to finish the games I already have and have other priorities. So sometimes I buy something when it's on sale to play later, sometimes I don't buy at all. Sometimes I buy something at launch because I'm excited and find I have no time to actually play it to completion. There's no real pattern to it. I can afford all the games I want, I can't afford the time. I basically finish big games about a year or two after they are released these days. If I'm lucky I catch up to it when the season pass content completes. My backlog goes larger and large with no end in sight. If the gaming industry collapsed completely tomorrow, I would probably still be set for life with enough games to slowly enjoy.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Primarily driven by who, of the console makers, do I think is the least likely to screw me over with digital purchases.

So primarily multiplat on Xbox cause they're the ones I've distrusted the least about carrying over purchases of the console manufacturers. If MS stops making consoles, great, I'll buy two more SXs on the cheap as a back-up and move on.

PS5 for exclusives, and not even necessarily Sony's. At this stage, I'm happy to not get a PS6 at launch, considering how little I use the PS5 for PS5 games; I still have quite a few PS4 games to play. I have bought a few 3rd party games on PS5, to play with friends.

I don't buy digital on Switch, gtfo, lol I'm 90% sure they'll transfer over digital purchases to Switch 2, but just in case. Obviously I buy NCL games for it mostly.

And I can't be bothered with PC.

So no, nothing about the firestorm in the gaming industry has affected me, been the same for me since the PS360 gen.

 

[get2sammyb]

I think people are really overreacting a lot to the negative headlines lately, and I'm not entirely sure I understand why Microsoft's issues are being given the SonyToo(TM) treatment.

PlayStation does have some issues to overcome in terms of its costs and profit margins, but its situation is no where near comparable to what's going on with Xbox, and I'm a little surprised the two things are being connected so strongly by both fans and media.

 

[T0kenAussie]

Current state of the global economy has more of an impact on purchasing than the current state of the industry tbh

I'm really just shopping steam sales and playing gamepass games

4 kids mean I have little to no disposable guilt free income anymore

 

[JCal]

For the time being I'm done with Xbox. That's about the only change in my purchasing habits. I've owned every Xbox that's released except for the Series. I actually bought a Series X during the holidays, didn't open it, and returned it this year when the 1st wave of Xbox rumors started to hit. Shocking first half of the year with more bombshells to come, I'm sure.

 

[Xando]

Yeah i ain't buying games on console anymore because i realized no one knows how long they'll still be available and all it takes is some executive having a stupid idea.

 

[Grunty]

Gaming purchases are more-or-less the same as they've ever been. I still buy mostly physical games, only exclusive games on Switch and PlayStation, and everything else on Xbox (where I spend the majority of my gaming time).

I do subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate so I would say that has had an effect on some games I would have possibly purchased otherwise, like Lies of P for example and Hell Blade 2 coming up.

 

[Mechaplum]

Nah I still buy physical on my PS5 since the second hand market here is pretty okay. Depends on the genre though.

 

[Riven]

I am starting to migrate my third party purchases from Xbox to Switch. I was using Xbox as my third party eco-system for three generations, but since MS recently bungled the Xbox, I feel like it has no direction at this point.

I am going to try and just go Switch 2 only next generation. I am at the point in my life where I have little free time to play video games. My backlog keeps growing and I feel like owning two consoles is a waste when I can barely complete games.

 

[Jogi]

I buy wherever it is cheapest usually except for two caveats. 1) Multiplayer games are always pc because I refuse to pay for online on either console. 2) if the control scheme makes more sense on pc, like rts or fps. Everything else is wherever I can get it cheapest.

 

[WardFail]

I came into 2020 super excited about the Xbox Series X. After realizing that the Smart Delivery discs were basically worthless for what I wanted I bought a 3090 and a mega cheap 3 year sub to GPU and haven't really touched the console since. I bought a PS5 for exclusives and the physical game collection and a Switch that gets turned on when Nintendo throws out a 1st party game.

Xbox has been just an app on the desktop for about 3 years at this point. As long as Sony and Nintendo keep giving me a reason to turn on their box I will, otherwise I have a backlog to get through elsewhere.

 

[Henrar]

I don't play much on PC (and I hate Steam), so I don't really care.

 

[Cronogear]

Generally I buy games on PS5, though sometimes I feel like I should try to get a PC gaming setup going in my living room, as I absolutely hate playing games at my desk. I've tried Steam Link and Moonlight for streaming games from my PC, both of them had deal breaking issues that I couldn't seem to fix (latency for Steam Link, audio crackling for Moonlight). So the only way to play PC on my TV would be to physically move the desktop from my desk to my living room TV every single time, which I really don't want to do.

So PS5 it is then. At least it has exclusives that I want to play too. I had briefly considered buying an Xbox Series S before for similar reasons (having Microsoft games accessible on my TV), but that certainly isn't happening now.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

If I want to play something and I have the money for it, I buy it. No point in overthinking things or letting negative headlines dominate my thoughts.

 

[Android Sophia]

Around the time the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S came out, I realized I didn't need the next generation of consoles. The devices were kind of same-y, and largely did the same thing my gaming PC could already do. There weren't really too many exclusives I wanted either. So I gradually shifted to just Switch/PC gaming with some mobile on the side. Primarily buy stuff on Steam when it's on sale or when something I want is out, PC GamePass from time to time, the occasional Nintendo title on Switch, etc.

Sharing my Steam Library with my girlfriend means we largely don't have to buy two copies of the same game unless we wanna play multiplayer together either, and we each have a Nintendo Switch. I guess you could say the current state of the gaming industry has impacted my purchases. Primarily because I just no longer see the need to own multiple large boxes that play the exact same games, really. But the recent headlines haven't really impacted it - just practical decisions on what to own.

Barring a Wii U level of failure, I will probably by the successor system to the Switch simply because Nintendo brings something unique to the table right now.

 

[M. Wallace]

Nope. I buy what I want to play day one.

 

[Regular Sega Fan]

If I want to play something and I have the money for it, I buy it. No point in overthinking things or letting negative headlines dominate my thoughts.

Click to shrink...

I mean, the point of my question is where do you buy and if it different now given the context

 

[coffeecat]

Xbox is my main console, mostly due to Game Pass and availability around the start of the generation, so that's where I buy and play most games. Some of the recent events around Xbox do make me wonder if I invested in the "wrong" platform, but realistically I have few to no complaints about the hardware or software side of things, and honestly I still get a ton of value out of Game Pass and frequent sales. I don't see much reason to change my habits there.

Switch and PS5 I play a decent amount, solely for exclusives. Despite being a dedicated PC player in a past life, I barely touch it now. A lot of that is lifestyle and cost related - I don't want to play on the same system I work on all day, and high end gaming PCs aren't getting any cheaper. While Steam has been a better steward of game preservation, I am not blind to the fact that all it takes to change things is Gabe deciding he's done and a new CEO stepping in… long term I'm not sure the de facto monopoly is good for gaming.

 

[KillLaCam]

Basically ignore every western AAA game until after launch. No way to know what state they'll be in. Especially if they're multiplayer games.

 

[maximumzero]

Even though I have a decent PC nine times out of ten if a game is available on the Nintendo Switch physically I'm getting it there.

I like to be able to resell my games when I'm done playing them, whereas buying them digitally means I'm just stuck with them in perpetuity.

 

[Stringfellow]

Nope. I've been eagerly waiting for this to happen. Consolidation of everything to PC. The platform where games are originally developed on PC-based hardware SDK, has now returned to the platform it should be flourishing on, not begging for game releases. The prodigal son returns.

I have a PS5 and XSX. The lack of further dialing-in settings to eke out every single drop of performance and visual details frustrates me on console. I'm not averse to tinkering. I thought as I get older, the simplicity of consoles would appeal to me. It didn't. This 5-decade-old tinkering heart remain steadfast. The moment I realized that, I stopped buying anything on consoles. I bought nothing on XSX, other than the Halo Infinite copy that came with its Collector Edition package, meanwhile the last game I bought on PS5 was Horizon Forbidden West, which upon checking on play time on PS5, not even crossed 1 hour. I ended up finishing HFW on my PC 2 years later, last week to be exact.

So, I welcome this consolidation.

 

[twister926]

I've been doing that for a long time as a PC gamer. I haven't even considered buying PS5, as PS exclusives tend to be ported to PC. I use Game Pass to try games that are on my 'maybe' list instead of waiting for a sale.

If the future is cross-platform games day one, zero exclusives, I would be happy.

 

[Sword Familiar]

I definitely gravitate towards PC more these days. Don't even care about PSN sales. I want to play the games either on my Steam Deck or my PC. I also have a Switch which I buy the occasional game for, but rarely care about digital sales either. I never saw myself as a PC gamer, but here we are.

Otherwise the pattern hasn't really changed. If there is a new game I really want to play immediately I'll buy it at launch, but these are few and far in between. Usually maybe 1-3 a year. I also collect old stuff, so a lot of my budget goes towards that, though lately I'm saving up some money for the Steam summer sale.

 

[Hello Snake]

I have been a console exclusive gamer since 2014, but lately I've been gravitating toward PC. I'm even planning not to renew PS+ when it runs out next year.

 

[abellwillring]

I have Game Pass and PS + Extra so a game potentially coming to those services definitely comes into thought when I make buying decisions. I bought an OLED Steam Deck but really haven't used it much.. it did prompt me to buy more Steam games for a minute, but since I still can't play GP on there natively it hasn't changed my purchasing widely. If it allows for that more easily, I'll definitely use it more often and may buy more Steam games where possible.

Subscription stuff will always be my primary source now though as I no longer care about owning the games physically tbh.

 

[Issen]

The only purchases I trust long term are my PC purchases. Steam is going to continue to be there no matter what, and even if a given storefront were to shut down, there are other ways to preserve PC games.

That means that unless a port is shit, I buy everything on PC (and preferably Steam) by default.

 

[Foolhardy]

I've written off ever getting an Xbox and am now in even less of a hurry to get a PS5. Honestly just doubled down on indie support.

 

[DJtal]

Nothing has changed, own a PS4 and a Series S. Due to cost of living here, I only buy heavily discounted games (>70%). So I'm not missing out much and will keep doing that.

 

[CaptainMatilder]

Can't even boycott Gamepass, since I never purchased it in the first place. Obligatory fuck off Microsoft