I don't know if you're coming off the way you hope you're coming off here...
Gaming isn't an expensive hobby.
- Thread starter SilentEagle
- Start date
I mean, other things being expensive doesn't make gaming less expensive.
We don't exist for these people, is what they're basically telling us
Growing up in the Philippines, yup. Games were either priced similar to the west, or sometimes were more expensive and working salaries aren't even close to making such purchases affordable (imagine making around 30,000 pesos a month and having games costing anywhere from 2-3k). It's why piracy as a business was rampant there with tons of people and shops selling pirated games and offering modding services (still kind of is nowadays).
We only exist so any time regional pricing initiatives appear, certain elements can take advantage of them and brag about it on forums, and then pikachuface when pubs decide to say screw it and ruin things for us again because of them.
It's pretty cheap.Even buying all my games at release for full price, I'm still only spending maybe a grand on a busy year.
I could easily spend a lot less just by waiting too.
Other hobbies are way more expensive.
I could easily spend a lot less just by waiting too.
Other hobbies are way more expensive.
It is a bit of a mixed bag and it depends on each user case.
You can get into gaming with one of those retro handhelds that cost less than 100€ and play a bunch of retro games, that cost from 5€ to a lot of € (if we include those rare games, etc).
You can also buy a current gen console or Steam Deck around 300-400€ and play current titles and in the case of the Steam Deck retro stuff.
Of course you could go HiGH END and pay 1.5k - 2k to get all the bells and whistles, if it fits the wallet.
For example, my kid started playing games recently, and is currently playing on an old Laptop with an i7 and GTX 950M. For some Sonic Mania and stuff it works fine. I gather a laptop like that goes around what...100€? 150€? Used of course.
But lets say you want to play recent stuff in a decent quality. You can buy a current gen console (PS5 | XSX) for around 500€ or a gaming PC around 1000€. The entry cost is not negligible in any way. 500€ is a LOT of money for a lot of people (minimum wage where I live).
So you have a considerable entry point for current gen stuff. But after that is when things get cheap.
Games go on discount a LOT, at least on the PC side of gaming. I wishlist something that came out today and in a couple of months it goes half the price. So lets say 30€. For 30€ I have DOZENS of gaming hours (depending of the game of course) and more even if I go the MP GAAS route. Helldivers 2 costs 40€ and it never ends. I can buy a game per month and be satisfied.
Of course if I want to be an avid consumer, play everything I want day 1, high graphics, etc, than I would have to spend a bunch more money.
So it depends, and it really is a mixed bag. It can be cheap, average or really expensive. I think most hobbies are like that lol but yeah, it is not a gold consuming dragon of a hobbie lol
You can get into gaming with one of those retro handhelds that cost less than 100€ and play a bunch of retro games, that cost from 5€ to a lot of € (if we include those rare games, etc).
You can also buy a current gen console or Steam Deck around 300-400€ and play current titles and in the case of the Steam Deck retro stuff.
Of course you could go HiGH END and pay 1.5k - 2k to get all the bells and whistles, if it fits the wallet.
For example, my kid started playing games recently, and is currently playing on an old Laptop with an i7 and GTX 950M. For some Sonic Mania and stuff it works fine. I gather a laptop like that goes around what...100€? 150€? Used of course.
But lets say you want to play recent stuff in a decent quality. You can buy a current gen console (PS5 | XSX) for around 500€ or a gaming PC around 1000€. The entry cost is not negligible in any way. 500€ is a LOT of money for a lot of people (minimum wage where I live).
So you have a considerable entry point for current gen stuff. But after that is when things get cheap.
Games go on discount a LOT, at least on the PC side of gaming. I wishlist something that came out today and in a couple of months it goes half the price. So lets say 30€. For 30€ I have DOZENS of gaming hours (depending of the game of course) and more even if I go the MP GAAS route. Helldivers 2 costs 40€ and it never ends. I can buy a game per month and be satisfied.
Of course if I want to be an avid consumer, play everything I want day 1, high graphics, etc, than I would have to spend a bunch more money.
So it depends, and it really is a mixed bag. It can be cheap, average or really expensive. I think most hobbies are like that lol but yeah, it is not a gold consuming dragon of a hobbie lol
The fuck is going on here? I'm all for a good meal but if I pay like 400€ at a restaurant for two people it better be fucking perfect and not just decent.
And what I'm about to say is not towards you but towards certain individuals in this thread.
Some of you people got no grasp on reality beyond their own perception. Gaming absolutely is expensive. Some of you act so entitled like they know it all. Gaming may not be expensive to you but there are people out there who are struggling and to act all like "actually it's not that expensive if we are being honest" is a ridiculous mindset.
It's all relative and everyone's circumstances are different.
I just looked up some prices and taking my whole family to go see a movie in a nearby movie theater would cost about $100 USD. But I wouldn't consider watching movies an expensive hobby because there are also much cheaper options to watch movies.
I just looked up some prices and taking my whole family to go see a movie in a nearby movie theater would cost about $100 USD. But I wouldn't consider watching movies an expensive hobby because there are also much cheaper options to watch movies.
It's wild that some people are going "Well, you only need a smartphone to start gaming and who doesn't?" when here the absolute cheapest piece of garbage smartphone still costs ~10% of the corrected average wage (that means the average wage removing the 1% richest). This reminds me of the time a student project at a local university from an initiative meant to help lower income people required to have a smartphone (it even was the grand winner) and when they moved to try to implement it for real they found out almost no one actually had a smartphone because they were out of their price range.
You're being overly dramatic here. Gaming isn't an expensive hobby compared to many others. Hell people can play Tetris on ten year old laptops. Yes, it particularly cheap for people living in richer countries but the point still stands. It's an extremely diverse hobby that can fit a variety of budgets.
I'd like to point out to those that mention Nintendo prices being crazy high in the 80s and 90s that for some of us they were not the only game in town. In the UK microcomputers where a popular alternative and the games prices tended to be much much lower on those systems plus there was near free stuff like shareware. Even back then price of gaming could be pretty relative like it is now.
If you have a full time job and/or family and you don't day 1 every single game, then it's quite easy? I have a really bad backlog, which is mostly comprised of games I bought very late.
With third party sites such as CDkeys and steam sales, games for my steam deck can be dirt cheap. I also do a least a little research before buying a game. I don't just fill my library with junk. Sites like slickdeals.net also help for purchases. That's why I was able to randomly get Zelda: ToTK for $40 from staples well before I actually plan to play it.
FF7 Rebirth is probably going to be the only game I day 1 this year (mainly because I was worried about spoilers).
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Some people really do be thinking they're the authority on what's expensive or not, that's privilege for you
Cell phones are pretty common in poor countries. The fact that your on this message board posting this on a device or computer that likely plays games tells me I'm not really wrong. Who exactly are we talking about here? Gaming is a hobby that is able to fit a wide range of budgets. How is this controversial?
What the actual fuck?
"You have a device and an internet connection, so X must not be expensive for you"
Do you fucking realize how insulting this is?
What? The fact that *I* can play games does NOT immediately means that everyone else can or that it's suddenly cheap to play games. And funny that you mention cell phones, because indeed they're pretty common around here; know what's not so common? Smartphones.
So we're not talking about you given you're posting on this message board? We're talking about some other hypothetical person? Who exactly are we talking about here?
My mom has played a Scrabble knock off called Words on her phone for years. She's plays just about every day for hours and it's never cost a dime. The game runs on a toaster.
I feel like you are being overly pedantic here.
And we're back to cell phones. It's exactly the kind of stuff you see in right wing tabloids with Tory voters saying "You can't be poor! You've got a flat screen television and a smartphone! How dare you!"
No, we're not talking about me, since we're asking if the hobby is expensive or not I thought we'd analyze it on a more grand scale, not on an individual basis. I was putting out numbers based on national averages excluding the 1% richest as they distort heavily the numbers.
Why isn't phone gaming valid for you? What's with the gatekeeping?
The funniest thing is that they keep using a cheap smartphone to play clash of clans as their argument to why gaming is cheap but movies are expensive because you simply *need* to watch the latest blockbuster on a 50$ ticket high end theatre or music is expensive because you *need* to go to the big megaconcert of your country or food is expensive because you *need* to eat a ps5 worth of costs on a five star restaurant to "have a decent meal". Clearly arguing in good faith, these folks are
I give up, putting this thread on ignore. Trying to argue with privileged idiots wanting to feel better about their privilege is punching a wall. These kind of people must actually believe people enjoy saying theyre poor and cant buy stuff, they probably think they're doing it to get some pity or something, can't be real, its so cheap to me!
Depends on the month, May is the first month in a long time I'm not looking to buy anything. April was
Manor Lords, Sand Land, and no Rest for the Wicked. January through March was a lot too.
I never said any of this so don't put that evil on me. I'm a frugal gamer who never buys anything day one and I wait for sales.
The rich certainly have way more and better options. That isn't up for debate. However gaming can be an inexpensive hobby. I don't really think this is a conversational stance unless you really gatekeep on what types of experiences we're talking about.
Nobody said you "*need*" to do these things. What was being said is that those experiences are similar as the full price AAA console releases. Nobody "*need*" to play those either to play games so they shouldn't be set as the bar level as representing the cost to all of gaming and yet some people are and then comparing it to the absolute lowest entry point of other hobbies.
I'm with you. It's insane to me that some people can be so blind to their privilege and don't realize how vile and insulting the things they're saying are to people less fortunate than them.
Yeah, I thought the restaurant example was a sarcastic joke. I'm still not certain if it's serious.
Also, many of the music and movie examples are really bad comparisons. With music and movies, you watch/listen to what you want with one subscription and be done with it. You don't need to go to a concert or cinema to consume the specific thing you want.
Whilst with games, you HAVE TO buy the console (along with accessories etc) and pay a high price for the game itself just to play the specfic games you want. Want to play FF Rebirth or FFXVI? Buy a PS5 and pay €80.
The comparisons used for movies and music is the same as playing games on the most expensive 8k TV or the best speakers/headsets. They're nice to have but they're not the core games themselves and absolutely not essential to play the games you want.
It feels like a bad faith argument just to make it sound like music and movies are comparable in terms of expenses when they're not. Just say what you're really thinking. You're basically saying that fans who want to play certain games should be happy with playing different games that they don't necessarily want. Or wait x years until the games or consoles they want become cheaper, something that is becoming harder and harder when consoles are not getting cheaper. And the sale price of triple A games are close to the normal prices they used to have not too long ago.
You're very clearly looking to argue yet don't really have anything to say.
You're on Era, people don't need to specify that they don't mean Cut The Rope or Gacha when they say "gaming", it's implied. Nothing wrong with those, it's just not what anybody here talks about.
$40 for a game I'm not particularly interested in (which includes Helldivers 2) sounds expensive to me. $40 for a game I'm excited about (say, Hellblade 2) is something I'd buy in a heartbeat. I don't have $40 to drop on everything all the time. I do have $40 to drop every now and again on things (not just games) that genuinely interest me.
You don't have anything say so you're making up weird arbitrary rules like "no one talks about these games on this enthusiast message board so they don't count... for reasons" to make appear like like you have an actual point. Your wrong. Gaming can be an extremely cheap hobby. Full stop.
It's expensive af. Even 'free' games with mtx will have you spending more than typical AAA prices after a fashion. My wife has dumped more money than she is willing to admit into phone games for convenience and qol features. Used market or subscription services like Steam are some of the only ways to game on the cheap and even then, every game comes with DLC or mtx of some kind these days.
Gaming can be, on a dollars-per-hour basis, anywhere on the scale from one of the most affordable passtimes (big open world RPGs often average out to less than $1/hour, no need to squeeze out the dregs) to one of the most expensive (for people who fall prey to predatory monetization, or people whose buying eyes are bigger than their playing stomachs).
Which is completely irrelevant to the OP's point--apparently he's mad that his friend consults his own preferences when making a purchase.
Which is completely irrelevant to the OP's point--apparently he's mad that his friend consults his own preferences when making a purchase.
It isn't at all compared to other hobbies. My steam library is worth pennies compared to my creative softwares/plugins. Heck even gaming hardware is cheaper. With that said, even if it's cheaper, I'll mostly buy games when they're on sale because I'm not a millionaire.
Was in Phillipines in december 2023., and noticed that prices for Nintendo Switch console and first party Nintendo games were cheaper then in Europe.
For example Datablitz for example has Switch OLED for 234,37 euro when you convert from pesos, and Amazon.de same console is 329 euro, and here in Croatia is 399 euro.
Is there some extra reason for this low price? I ask because PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles and game have prices like in Europe or more expensive.
Maybe some of the games you saw were of Asian region? I believe those tend to be a little cheaper there so I try to check out local stores for Switch games whenever I visit. Saves me a bit of money compared to ordering through places like play-asia (for instance, picked up Etrian Odyssey Collection for $45 and FF Pixel Remaster for $75 last year).
It depends a lot on how much into the hobby you are. The girls I coach will pay 170€ a month next season as our team is going to a national league insted of the local one. The amount of money I spend on gaming is peanuts compared to that. Outside of the years I buy new hardware I don't think I spend 170 a year on gaming.
I mean sure, for the privileged of y'all who live in first world countries it's a rather cheap hobby. Now try living in my country where a PS5 can literally cost you an entire month of the average salary and a single new game will run you about 1/6 of it. And no, discounts and sales on video games are not common here at all.
Yes, you are right. Switch games I saw cheaper were Asian region with english language.
Another way to look at it for people outside the US is that everything else is so expensive in the US that gaming in comparison feels inexpensive. When monthly rent for a small apartment in a bad part of town starts at 4 digits, unless you're just barely making ends meet, buying the occasional videogame isn't going to make much of an effect on your budget.
