The new $70 price tag for games is very concerning. I will NEVER be willing to pay nearly $80 after tax for a game. So if there's no way to purchase a game for cheaper on release date, I'll always be waiting for a price drop.
That said, I haven't even paid $60 for a game since 2010. Tsilon was great, and then the Futureshop e3 sales became the new best thing. I've used that for the last few years, and I have all of my 2014 games pre-ordered for $40 thanks to last year's e3 sale. I'm concerned about this year's e3 sale, though; if Futureshop doesn't do the deal, I'll be purchasing FAR fewer games on release day in 2015.
Many people have expressed dissatisfaction with 2013's game sales. But 2013 was amazing for me. Thanks to Shop.ca and ebates.ca, I got a PS4 in December for $299 before tax - incredible! The COD/BF4/AC4 trade-in Futureshop fiasco also allowed me to snag the PS4 versions of AC4 and BF4 for just $10 each. In addition to all of this, my other new release games all cost $40 or less thanks to the aforementioned E3 Futureshop sale. 2013 was my best year ever for sales. It's 2014 and onwards that I'm concerned about.