QOTW: Is the cost of gaming getting out of hand?

[HEXUS]

Irrespective of platform, have your gaming habits been forced to adjust to rising costs?

Read more.

[QuorTek]

Yes it pretty much is too much today especially if want 'topend' equipment

[spacein_vader]

Not necessarily, it depends on if you must have things the instant they're available.

If you must have the latest GPU and buy games on or before launch day you'll pay more, but discounts on games are usually available within 6 months of launch and a GPU capable of running most things at max settings @ 1080 can be had for less than £200.

[Percy1983]

It seems GPUs are back to reasonable levels if you don't convince yourself you need the new 2080ti (ie RX580, GTX1060), past that its only ram which is an issue now, the rest can be done with reasonably priced hardware if you don't want to spend a fortune.

With that the consoles do look more attractive now for what they achieve for the cost so I wouldn't blame people for going that way.

[cptwhite_uk]

I build a pre-use gaming rig with RX 470 / 16Gb RAM and i5 3rd gen 3.2ghz for £275. It does 1080p 60fps gaming without any major issues. I think it's still possible to game with a small budget if you know tech well, but the upper limit on the high end side has been increased dramatically.

[Korrorra]

Prices are getting pretty high. The only thing cheap these days is an AMD cpu. I don't really blame people for buying consoles. The tariffs on GPU's are going to kick our butt. With nvidia price gouging and AMD not having anything useful to counter them. No matter what the fanboys say. Samsung's price fixing plans for 2019 will not be fun for 2019+. So yes everything except AMD prices are getting wei tu hai. Just glad I built the rig I did before it all went to hell.

[Ttaskmaster]

The cost of most hobbies is out of hand, really...

[peterb]

It’s a hobby - you can choose to spend as much or as little as you like within your chosen budget.

[Tunnah]

Gaming is cheaper than ever: 1080p is now doable at an insanely reasonable price, and most people are still rocking that. 1440p same, a 1060 would do just fine. Hell 4K is now cheaper than ever with the new cards coming out and knocking the 1080Ti down in price.

It's the high end which is just ridiculous, and it almost feels like it's trying to move into the realm of "more money than sense" with the cost vs performance. Unless you earned a ridiculous wage, and £1200 is not a big deal, I'd have a hard time not judging someone for being a bit of a plant pot for buying one.

[Gerrard]

Whilst I would say components have gotten more expensive, I am also find myself needing to upgrade a lot less. So overall, I would say a price/year for the hardware is probably around the same, maybe even lower as it's all a bit stagnated really.

As for software, I have noticed that the launch prices are higher, and the discounts take a bit longer to get it down, but given time and patience, and the fact there are a lot of games to keep me busy anyway, I haven't had much problem with that either.

[nar53]

I only ever play Solitaire which costs me nowt!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yes,as everyone I know is paying more and more all-round even taking inflation and exchange rates into consideration,and this is despite the services of a bargain hunting Moose,and none of us are doing "high end" stuff,and I have seen the trend over the last 5 years even on here and helping out a lot with builds on two forums. Its come to the point some of the gaming laptops seem like better deals than upgrading my mates gaming desktops(!).

Also not helping is the current trend towards paid Alpha/Beta titles which are very poorly optimised which compounds things.

The inflated high end is pushing up both low and midrange pricing upwards and more and more companies are tacking things on, to further up prices. The issue is a lot of people don't seem to realise the tierisation and seem to be accepting smaller and smaller performance bumps,which is what is happening as a result of this.

The only really bright light in recent years has been Ryzen but again the motherboards and RAM also somewhat tarnish things depending what level you are looking at. I thought of going secondhand then realised the secondhand prices were not great either compared to a few years ago if I wanted an upgrade,so I might as well get some new AMD gear.

Even my current upgrade,is probably the most I have spent in a long time on such components,and its hardly high end in the scheme of things.

[FRISH]

There's multiple factors that I find expensive in gaming. First of all I tend to get games when they're discounted, so with things like breath of the wild still being £50 with extra being charged for DLC, that's a negative to me. Then there's prices of hardware such as RAM and GPUs that are holding me back from upgrading.

Other than that, another thing that puts me off gaming is that it's more of a habit than it actually bringing the same joy it once did. I have been tempted to save the money and just find another hobby, but habits are tough to break.

[yeeeeman]

Nope, the cost of being obsessive with what you have is getting out of hand. I have a GTX950M with 6700HQ laptop and I played all my games in full hd, with some of the details turned off.

[Saracen]

Well, I'm (surprise, surprise) probably in a minority of one on this.

Is gsming getting too expensive and chsnging my habits? No.

But break that down. What habits would I have to change?

I took a decision many years ago that, whatever the implications, I was not signing up for Steam, or any similar platforms. Not then, not now and not ever. Why not? Several reasons, but importantly, I simply am not letting some American corporation vet or veto the ability to install, or even run, games I have already paid for, and possibly, months or years later. It just ain't happening.

Soooo ... given that most new, premium games seem to require Steam, I am by virtue of my decision, locked out of jumping on the latest bandwagon, whether hardware or software. The result iscwaiting until, and if, games are released in a DRM-free variant, like by GOG.

By an amazing coincidence, by that time typically a couple (or more) yea4s after initial release, such games are 10-30% of initial cost and, quite often, run on far from top-end kit at adequate, if lower, game settings.


So no, cost isn't affecting my gwming habits. A reqiirement by a game for Steam (etc) sure had, though.

[fail_quail]

I don't think so really.

For PC, the GPU and RAM prices indeed got silly for a while, but the decent medium to medium-high range isn't too bad value for money now.

The high end however, especially for GPU's, is ridiculous though. Unless you must have a 4k gaming setup, a 1080p/1440p setup can be powered with a decent (but not the ridiculous top-end) hardware.
A have a RX580 now because my brother needed a GPU and had no money, he got my R9 390 and i used it as an excuse to get the RX580 . That R9 390 would have happily handled everything i could throw at it on my current PC even though it's now fairly elderly and wasn't a top-end card when new.

Consoles also seem much the same as they've always been in my opinion, prices don't seem to have changed that much. As ever you pay less for the hardware but pay more for the games in the long run, so it does even out with PC gaming really.