A new survey has found that 62% of hardcore gamers no longer buy full price games anymore, with a surprising split between age groups.
As we’ve seen with the furore surrounding Mario Kart World and the rumours around GTA 6, the rising price of video games has become a key sticking point for many.
The issue will only get worse as publishers continue to wrestle with rising development costs, and when combined with the ballooning price of hardware, there’s concern the next generation of consoles could be out of reach for many.
However, according to a new survey, the majority of gamers are already no longer buying full price games, especially older fans.
A Generations In Play report, developed by IGN Entertainment in association with Kantar and UC Berkeley, has polled thousands of ‘highly-committed’ consumers based across the US, UK, and Australia on their gaming habits.
According to the survey, 62% of gamers no longer buy full price games, which is a pretty damning reflection of how costly things have become.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
When broken down into age brackets, 38% of Millennials (people aged 30-44) and 42% of Gen Z (people aged 14-29) said they still buy full price games. However, only 20% of Gen X (people aged 46-61) said they still do.
This is surprising considering the rise of free-to-play games is often blamed on Gen Z, but it seems they are buying more full price games than Gen X – although the latter perhaps has less time to play new titles.
However, it’s unclear if this encompasses full price indie games too, which are more affordable (Hollow Knight: Silksong, for example, is only £15.99), so it’s possible this has skewed the answers somewhat.
As outlined by IGN’s senior vice president of global marketing, Karl Stewart, on the Brands In Play podcast, this survey is focused on ‘highly qualified entertainment cinephiles’ and not ‘casuals’, so it’s predominantly people who choose to play games often in their spare time.
As such, the savviest of gamers are likely more aware that game prices quickly drop after a few months, so there’s less incentive to pick up titles at launch.
Elsewhere in the report, it found Gen X mostly prioritise Google search to discover new games, while 85% of Millennials favour YouTube and Gen Z relies on social media.
Additionally, Gen X prefers single-player games, whereas Gen Z steer towards multiplayer titles. Millennials, meanwhile, like Hannah Montana, enjoy the best of both of worlds evenly.
Gen X and Millennials are more likely to return to games to complete or master them, in comparison to Gen Z who are more motivated by new customisation or community content.
In other weirder discoveries, Gen X were more likely to consume tips videos when searching for guides, whereas Millennials like map tools and Gen Z like build guides. Lastly, Gen X is more sceptical of AI and more trusting of brand recognition, being 38% less likely to use AI for discovery and 44% less likely to believe AI summaries are as good as those by humans.
While we’re not sure what to gleam from Millennials loving a map, it’s nevertheless an interesting snapshot into the habits of different generations.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.