The New Dad’s Budget Guide to Gaming

So I had to come to a pretty difficult decision and reality that any gamer might have to face when becoming a parent and that reality is pretty much that game time will become extremely limited. In some severe cases, you might not even be able to play online for a much longer period of time (such is a case I’m in, but that was a choice made long before the baby came). Although this guide might be more aimed towards those first-time dads that are heavy gamers, a lot of what will be in this guide could pertain to others as somewhat helpful advice.

Not Every Game is a First Day Purchase

As much as it pains me to say this as a hardcore gamer, not every game can be a first day purchase. If you’re anything like me you’ve done your fair share of midnight launch events and pre-loading to make sure you have that awesome new game the moment it becomes available. You might’ve even called out of work sick at some point in time to pull an all-nighter trying to beat it. Well the sad truth is, with a little one taking up a lot of your time, you won’t have the time, energy, or even the money to keep up with each release. So my main advice is to really take a look at what games are releasing that year and prioritize which can be that first-day purchase (I’m currently sitting solely on Halo 5: Guardians for this year). Keep in mind a lot of games released near holiday seasons will likely have some sort of sale worth waiting for. You can always come back to a lot of these games later for much cheaper prices than at launch. I’ll even go as far as to say that reviews might help you make that final decision on whether or not it can wait. Reviews aren’t everything, but it might help to know whether or not a game might be worth your full value purchase.

The Pile of Shame

Let’s be completely honest here. If you’re a gamer, you have a backlog (or pile of shame as I call it). PC players usually have the worst backlogs of any other gamer out there (yeah, I’m looking at your Steam sales), but we all share this fault as gamers. So start crossing these games off your list. It’s a way to get that gaming fix in without having to go out and spend money on the latest and greatest. A lot of times, you’ll have ended up realizing how much you love a certain game or series but almost missed it because it’s been sitting in the pile of shame. I myself went back to trying to beat Splinter Cell Blacklist and Ghost Recon Future Soldier, mainly because I liked the online features so much I never bothered with the campaign and then moved on when the next big thing came along.

Free (Sort of) Monthly Games!

 

If you’re the proud owner of an Xbox One/360 or Playstation 4/3/Vita, then you should be subscribing to their prospective services. I’m talking of course about Xbox Live Gold and Playstation Plus. Yes, I know that both services cost money, but one of the biggest perks of both services is the free games they give out each month. XBL Gold costs you normally $60 a year and PS Plus is $50 a year, but it’s fairly easy to find them on sale (or even just stock up during Black Friday sales every year). In both cases you’re guaranteed at least one free game a month and it only gets better for you if you own a console from each generation (like an Xbox One AND a 360). Most of the games on the newer generation have been shorter games that don’t take very long to beat, but a free game a month sweetens the deal. The older generations (PS3/Xbox360) typically get two or more games a year, different from the previous month, and have been getting better and better with each passing month.

Xbox One owners can even go as far as subscribing to EA Access. A service that only costs $30 for the year and gives you access to the EA “vault”. It mainly consists of sports games currently, but they’re adding a game every month to the list and still have a few goodies to choose from like Need for Speed Rivals, Battlefield 4, and Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. There’s a couple more benefits to this service, but access to the vault alone is starting to become more and more worth the price tag.

Digital Sales

Xbox and Playstation platforms often have digital sales that are getting better and better all the time. Although Xbox sales require you to have an Xbox Live Gold account, the sales are still pretty good (Dragon Age Inquisition was half off a few weeks ago). Playstation tends to do flash sales often which range from current platforms to older PS1 classic games. Just last week they had Mass Effect Trilogy for $5. You won’t be able to trade these games in, of course, but at these prices you don’t need to. Luckily both companies will showcase these sales making them easier to find and browse through.

Shop the Deals

This is my favorite section as there’s a lot of ways to go about this. Most gamers know about CheapAssGamer.com, and that website is perfectly acceptable to find yourself some good deals. Of course I now have a routine to find these deals for myself and others. I’m going to name the big 3 stores I check when it comes to finding the best deals around. Toys ‘R Us, Best Buy, and Target always seem to be the real winners when it comes to pricing with good reason.

Toys ‘R Us: They’re mainly good for sale prices and buy 2 get one sales. Recently a friend was thinking about picking up Destiny but didn’t want to pay for the $40-$60 price range most places were asking. $20 on sale for all consoles it was available on.

Best Buy: This place gets a bit more interesting as they have one of the best memberships when it comes to being a gamer. Best Buy offers a “Gamer’s Club Unlocked” membership that usually retails at $120, but it’s been on sale quite a bit for the past year. Now I got my membership for $10 when they gave it to anyone who bought a phone, but lately it’s been on sale for a regular $30. Why should you get this? 20% any new game. That is the only incentive I needed as a gamer to justify the purchase (granted my purchase wasn’t exactly hurting my wallet). This extends to any game that might also be on sale for the day/week. A couple weeks ago Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was on sale for $20 from $40, and with the membership it was only $16. STEAL. On top of that you get 10% used games and 10% more trade-in credit. Best Buy tends to do 1-2 really good game deals weekly, so it’s best to check their weekly ad.

Target: Okay, so this one is my favorite. Target not only does decent sales from time to time along with occasional buy 2 get 1 free sales, but with the inclusion of Cartwheel you’re bound to get some good deals in. Cartwheel is their digital coupon app available on most smarthphones (I think windows is excluded) that sometimes can run with weekly ad sales as they’re handled by a different department within Target that doesn’t really seem to care. Some Target stores are flexible enough (not all stores will do this) to allow you to price match AND use cartwheel making those deals much sweeter. Example: Assassin’s Creed Unity was $40 at Target, I price matched Amazon for $26 and then proceeded to use the 50% coupon from Cartwheel making my total price around $13. Check the weekly ads and Cartwheel often to see if there’s something good you can snag up. Also, Target often clearances tons of items which extends to games from time to time. Wolfenstein: The New Order made its way to clearance a few weeks back and some people were able to grab it for as low as $11. CHECK TARGET OFTEN.

Noteables: Walmart’s in-store game prices aren’t usually terrible, but not as great as what is cable from other retailers. They do their best sales online, so check it out from time to time for some good sales. Amazon is also a good place to shop from time to time as they often do game sales (or maybe use them as a price match).

Conclusion

There’s tons of options out there to save some money while gaming as a new parent. I mean, this could even extend to anybody trying to penny pinch who loves gaming. I know the list isn't perfect, but its surprisingly efficient.