Am I a bad gamer?
Like millions of others, I preordered my PlayStation 4 on that fateful June afternoon. Games were announced that seemed pretty amazing to me at the time — Killzone, Infamous, Drive Club, and Knack all seemed to scratch various itches I had for Next Gen. I’d even hold out for Battlefield 4 until that version arrived as well. Contrast and Tiny Brains were announced, as well as a plethora of indies.
Everything would be available from day one, or damn near it. Then development reality set in and games got pushed back. That November 15th date didn’t, though, and the $399 price point was still digestible. I was all in.
It’s been two months since that release day, and I haven’t spent a dime on any games for my PlayStation 4.
/Uncompelling
I couldn’t wait for games like Assassin’s Creed IV or Call of Duty: Ghosts to launch on the new consoles. I was impressed with AssCreed at E3 and picked it up on release, falling in love with it as my main October/early November gem. Most of my online friends would still be plugging away at CoD through Live, so switching over to a new console when they couldn’t seemed like a dangling participle in a college English course.
The majority of the games available on PS4 and current gen consoles only really showed graphical improvements, and not major ones at that. Yes, palm tree leaves looked decent now, and water was sparkling, but I already had the games and didn’t need to trade up to lose my saved states. Having already played and completed many of the games, upgrading wasn’t an option.
The loss of Drive Club and many of the indies from launch day, and Infamous becoming more nebulous, meant that Sony’s exclusives were suffering. Killzone and Knack seemed to be garnering mixed reviews, and nothing about them screamed “YOU NEED TO BUY ME, DAWG!” It wasn’t a boring launch, just a non-exciting one from a software standpoint. I didn’t have anything new to throw my moneys at, and the ones that I did — Battlefield 4 — seemed to not work 50% of the time.
/Plus, You Thief
But, at the same time, I knew downloadable games were coming, and quickly. Contrast, Don’t Starve, Outlast and Resogun looked amazing in previews. I was ready to drop coin on them just to prop up my console, and I’d be completely fine with that. That is why I bought the device, after all, considering I didn’t have a PC to play many of them.
When Resogun was announced as a free game for PlayStation Plus members, I rejoiced. I had a game I would play, and love. And then Contrast was announced for Plus, a game I was going to buy anyway. And then Don’t Starve. And Outlast. And several Free to Play games. Suddenly, many of the games I was planning on purchasing were free for the service that I paid $30 for on sale last year. Counting on my fingers, I’d realized that I hadn’t bought a game for a PlayStation device since June, when Last of Us was released. Everything else I’d wanted to try popped up for free eventually, and at a rate that kept my time being sucked up.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m madly in love with Plus. It’s provided me with content for my Sony devices that I’d either never have picked up or would have waited far too long to do so. In the case of the PlayStation 4, it provided me with content that I would have purchased. To top that off, I’ve been able to (through a couple of trades) nab a used copy of Madden 25 for free.
So, in a bizarre way, I feel like a horrible person for not supporting the games and studios I like by not purchasing anything. But at the same time, I have a console I am enjoying with games to play on it. I may not buy a retail or digital game until March. Sony’s missing out on my dollars — I already had Plus — but they have me coming back every couple of weeks. Eventually the company will get past the blank launch window slate and original titles will start appearing at a more regular pace. By then I’ll have a decent collection of games I haven’t paid a cent for, and perhaps a bit of non-buyer’s remorse.
So, am I a bad gamer? No, maybe I’m just a smart shopper. Or a picky one.
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