What Percentage Of Games Do You Buy vs Rent

adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
For the sake or simplification, let's include sub services like PS+ Extra and Game Pass as rentals as you don't fully own those games in perpetuity. Services like Game Fly will naturally count in rentals.

This came to my mind as there's a couple of games coming out in the coming weeks that I want to play, but not own full time, therefore my go to will be to rent them.

Eg Destroy All Humans 2, the new Saints Row, Biomutant's next gen patched version etc.

But there are some games like Soul Hackers 2 which are a 100% buy for me, to support Atlus if nothing else.

How does it break down for you guys ?
 
I don't follow...

When it comes to Gamepass, am I counting the games I have installed or the games we have access to through the service? Because it changes weekly.
 
Apocryphon said:
I don't follow...

When it comes to Gamepass, am I counting the games I have installed or the games we have access to through the service? Because it changes weekly.
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For simplification I would count game pass games as "rentals" as you don't own them, they can be taken off the service x number of months or years later.
 
right now i buy all my games outright. the only option to "rent" for me is on PC with gamepass/xcloud. i refuse to download any games from Microsoft's awful store and xCloud (and any other streaming service) is unplayable due to the lag and simply not enjoyable with the awful image quality.

when i buy an Series X i'm sure as shit going to be gamepass most of the time. if there is a dev i want to support then i'll buy it outright.
 
Always buy.

I use rent to demo stuff, like when gamepass has some 1 euro promotion i do one month to try games that i'm not sure of...and 100% of times turns out i was right in not buying that game.

Sometimes i used the ubisoft gamepass so i can just play their games for 10-20-30 hours before getting bored with only 10 euros or less.
 
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Between Game Pass and PS+ Premium, I barely buy any games, especially at full price. I've probably only purchased two games for full retail in the past two years.
 
I'm going to include games I buy, play and sell immediately as rentals - with Game Pass as well, it's probably about 85%. Steam is the rest.
 
adamsapple said:
For simplification I would count game pass games as "rentals" as you don't own them, they can be taken off the service x number of months or years later.
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Then fuck knows...

I own 900-ish games on a Steam, around 100 games on Switch, 100-ish on PS4, 30 or so on Series X, own all of the games I have on previous generation consoles and handhelds...

This is impossible to work out 🤣
 
Just looked at TrueAchievements and it looks this year I have played around 30 GP games and 20 that I have bought
 
100% buy.

All big names as physical on Nintendo, digital for indies.

All digital on Xbox and PC.

Once a year or so I qualify for a Gamepass trial, so I sub to that for $1 and then typically forget about it till it expires.
 
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If we're counting sub services as rentals i would say i still buy the majority of my games, prob 80-90%.

But this is a bit tricky, I play the games on those sub services, but games I would don't really have a large amount of interest in. I don't think i'd ever buy a game on GP, same for PS Plus that came day one that I didn't already pre-order - For example, I wouldn't buy/play Stray if it wasn't for being on PS Plus Extra. Most of the ones on the service are games I wouldn't buy if GP/PS Plus didn't exist - the only one I bought was state of decay 2 and that was before I got a GP sub.
 
50/50 if I like a game on gamepass enough I'll prob get it on a steam sale.
 
I'm probably 75% subs, physical 25%, and most games come to subs at some point anyways so it just depends on on if you need it day one or if you can wait. I refuse to buy NEW games anymore. I'll buy used and save a minimum of 10$ or wait for a big drop. Especially with this 70$ shit.
 
I like my disks, I own more physical copies than digital, but I still grab whatever looks good from PS+.
 
On PC, it's 100% buy. Cheap Steam and GOG games.

On console it's probably 10% buy, 90% GP. Only games I buy are COD, Diablo, split some games 50/50 with a friend through home sharing and I'll buy some indie games for myself.

If future CODs and Diablos come to GP on launch day, it'll be 95% GP.
 
I'm not buying another game until my Game Pass Ultimate expires Nov 2023. Maybe I'll make an exception for the occasional Switch game.
 
MScarpa said:
I'm probably 75% subs, physical 25%, and most games come to subs at some point anyways so it just depends on on if you need it day one or if you can wait. I refuse to buy NEW games anymore. I'll buy used and save a minimum of 10$ or wait for a big drop. Especially with this 70$ shit.
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I'm pretty much the same. I've only bought one new game this year, Sifu. Most of what I've been playing is on Gamepass or PS Plus Extra. When I buy I usually wait for prices to reach a point where I feel it's worth it.
 
ReBurn said:
I'm pretty much the same. I've only bought one new game this year, Sifu. Most of what I've been playing is on Gamepass or PS Plus Extra. When I buy I usually wait for prices to reach a point where I feel it's worth it.
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Sounds exactly like myself. Everyone hates on me but the future is subs/streaming. Physical is all but dead already. If this Gen goes 10 years, There is no way next gen consoles will have a disc drive. I think this was the last gen IMO.
 
At this point, mostly buy. Probably 80%. When Game Pass starts ramping up with MS first party, though, that will change. I'll continue buying/playing/reselling games not on Game Pass though. I rarely keep games.
 
Bought dozens in 2021, played four on GamePass over the past 2 years.
I got GamePass Ultimate for free (from Taco Bell) for two years. It's ok, but I play very few games on it…like 4 in the past two years. The subscription ends in 12 days and I don't think I'm going to resubscribe since I don't usually play stuff on it. I'm surprised as I only use the service to play the Cloud on my iPad, and even then, it's stuff I've bought over the years that's already on Gamepass.
 
Mostly rent, couldn't afford to buy every game I had a interest in. And playing a game on gamepass/ps plus counts as renting
 
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I don't rent (or gamepass) but get refunds if the game does not cut it (under the 2hr limit which has its own flaws obv.)
 
Digital like steam is technically renting too. But if we count it in as owned, then I only played for real 3 gamepass titles and stray from ps premium.

Renting ecosystems like gp and cheap pricing devalue games. It's shovelware you don't play
 
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Stephen Colbert Blockbuster GIF by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
 
100% Buy. 0% Rental.

I tried the PSPlus rental thing about when it first launched. One of the free games offered was The Simpsons arcade game. So I thought, yeah, why not, I'll get it for free. Then later, when it went on sale, I thought it would be a good time to buy it, but the store wouldn't let me because it thought I owned it via the PSPlus rental. So, I thought, fine, I'll side step this issue by buying a digital code for the game. Too bad the system wouldn't let me redeem a code for a game I already owned. Apparently, the only solution was to wait for my subscription to lapse and then buy it before resubscribing. Seemed like a decent enough solution but then the game got delisted. Not sure about the current state of the subscription rental process, but I'm pretty soured on the whole thing and have basically never utilized it again. I'd much rather wait till a huge price drop that will let me "own" my digital games vs. having them tied to a subscription model.
 
Probably about 75% subs (Gamepass) and 25% buy. When I do buy games, it's never day one and always on deep discount.
 
I pay for Gamepass Ultimate and Ps Plus Premium.

I buy around 3 fully priced games per year and at least 1 game on sale per month.

I pay 5 usd per month on Genshin Impact.

The percentage...

Power Rangers Reaction GIF
 
100% buy physical for games I want. If it's only digital there is a strong chance I won't buy it, but I do own less than 10 digital games. As for rentals they are disposable so I don't bother.

Ps I'm an old fart, but if I can't hold it and play offline. I'm just not real interested. I have huge backlog of games that meet that criteria.
 
90% buy physical on PS5 or digital on PC

10% renting whatever games Microsoft puts on Game Pass for maybe $20 a year.
 
On Xbox I generally don't buy games, I get enough games through Gamepass. I preordered the ultimate edition of Stalker 2 but before that my last game was bought in late 2020. So, 99% "renting".

On PS5 it's a bit different. I'm subbing to PS+ Premium and right now I only play games there, but I bought games before that and since Ragnarök won't be on PS+ it might end with another purchase. Maybe 80% renting.

On Switch I only buy games. No subscription service there.

On PC I almost only buy games, I use Gamepass though when cool games come but it's been awhile now. 10% renting,
 
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