I’ve been tracking which games I play, on my Gaming Diary, for 6 years now. It’s helped me realise how many different games I play, and how many I complete. This year, however, I’ve additionally started tracking the games I buy, and how much I paid for them – the aim being to scare myself into how much I spend on gaming.
Thing is, just knowing that it’s logged has actually made me more frugal with my spending. Not only did I decide early in the year to drop the £25 Rule to £20, but I’ve also been actively avoiding buying pretty much everything on release. Everything except that huge blip and rule-breaker that calls itself Fallout: New Vegas, at least. But more on that game another day.
You’ll notice I’ve also listed a few games with a cost of £nuffin. That’s because they were either genuinely free (lots of iPhone games were, and so was Guardian of Light on the 360) or were presents to me (therefore cost me nowt).
Game |
Price
|
Platform
|
Ghost Squad |
£7.00
|
Wii (US)
|
Rabbids Go Home |
£12.00
|
Wii (PAL)
|
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 |
£5.00
|
Wii (US)
|
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast |
£4.00
|
Wii (US)
|
Lego Rock Band |
£17.99
|
360
|
Batman Arkham Asylum |
£15.00
|
360
|
Excitebike: World Challenge |
£7.00
|
Wii (Ware)
|
Sonic and Knuckles |
£5.60
|
Wii (VC)
|
House of the Dead Overkill |
£7.00
|
Wii (PAL)
|
The Conduit |
£11.00
|
Wii (PAL)
|
Monkey Island Chapter 5 |
£7.00
|
Wii (Ware)
|
Castlevania Rebirth |
£7.00
|
Wii (Ware)
|
Mega Man 10 |
£7.00
|
Wii (Ware)
|
Dead Space Extraction |
£9.25
|
Wii
|
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia |
£11.47
|
DS
|
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood |
£6.30
|
Wii (VC)
|
Guitar Hero: Decades |
£5.00
|
DS
|
Handheld Famiclone/Wii Wheel |
£19.12
|
Wii
|
Wii Sports Resort with Motion Plus |
£23.61
|
Wii
|
Wii Motion Plus |
£14.16
|
Wii
|
Outrun 2006 |
£2.95
|
PSP
|
Humble Indie Bundle (World of Goo etc.) |
£6.77
|
Mac
|
Portal |
£0.00
|
Mac
|
Bit.Trip Runner |
£5.60
|
Wii (Ware)
|
Lego Indiana Jones 2 |
£0.00
|
360
|
Bioshock 2 |
£0.00
|
360
|
Mass Effect 2 |
£0.00
|
360
|
VSmile and 6 Games |
£10.00
|
VSmile
|
Another Code R |
£14.46
|
Wii (PAL)
|
Carcassonne |
£2.99
|
iPhone
|
Crystal Maze |
£0.00
|
IPhone
|
Forza 3/Metroid Trilogy/Okami |
£36.90
|
360/Wii
|
Last Gladiators Pinball |
£2.99
|
iPhone
|
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 |
£2.99
|
iPhone
|
SimCity |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Command & Conquer: Red Alert |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Dragon’s Lair |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
The Settlers |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Ultraviolet Dawn |
£0.00
|
iPhone
|
21 Famicom, 6 NES games |
£40.00
|
Famicom/NES
|
Grand Theft Auto III |
£2.50
|
PS2
|
Monster Hunter Tri |
£20.00
|
Wii
|
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories |
£2.50
|
PS2
|
PES6 |
£2.00
|
360
|
Prince of Persia |
£2.00
|
360
|
Smackdown vs Raw 2007 |
£2.00
|
360
|
Namco Arcade Plug and Play Console |
£3.00
|
Standalone
|
Xbox Live Subscription (12 months) |
£27.99
|
360
|
Lara Croft: Guardian of Light |
£0.00
|
360
|
Scott Pilgrim vs the World |
£6.80
|
360
|
Minerva’s Den (Bioshock 2 DLC) |
£6.80
|
360
|
Fallout New Vegas CE |
£67.49
|
360
|
Band Hero |
£6.67
|
DS
|
Brutal Legend |
£6.67
|
360
|
Tomb Raider Underworld |
£6.66
|
360
|
Happy Mrs Chicken |
£1.79
|
iPhone
|
Monkey Island 2 |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Peggle |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Spider: Bryce Manor |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Myst |
£1.19
|
iPhone
|
Spectrum Elite Collection |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Peggle Nights |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Sonic 4 Episode 1 |
£5.99
|
iPhone
|
DJ Hero |
£19.97
|
Wii
|
Sonic 4 Episode 1 |
£10.20
|
360
|
Sonic 4 Episode 1 |
£10.50
|
Wii
|
Mirror’s Edge |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Game Dev Story |
£2.39
|
iPhone
|
Super Meat Boy |
£5.60
|
360
|
Pinball FX 2 Core Pack |
£5.60
|
360
|
Naughty Bear |
£0.00
|
iPhone
|
Mr.AahH!! |
£0.00
|
iPhone
|
Rage |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Say What You See |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
ChuChu Rocket! |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
180 |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Rayman 2 |
£0.00
|
iPhone
|
Tron |
£0.00
|
iPhone
|
Cave Story |
£7.00
|
Wii
|
Harm’s Way |
£0.00
|
360
|
Doritos Crash Course |
£0.00
|
360
|
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit |
£0.59
|
iPhone
|
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare |
£5.10
|
360
|
Dead Money (Fallout NV DLC) |
£6.80
|
360
|
Professor Layton 3 |
£0.00
|
DS
|
Dead Space |
£0.00
|
360
|
Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga |
£0.61
|
360
|
Mass Effect 2 DLC |
£5.10
|
360
|
Sonic Adventure |
£3.40
|
360
|
In all, I spent £590.32 this year. That sounds a lot, but I know for a fact it could quite easily be just one tenth of what it has been in previous years. Of course, no new consoles were bought in 2010, which helped keep the spending down a bit.
Lets look at a breakdown of where that £590.32 went.
So what does this all tell me? Nothing I didn’t really know, actually. I found it a little surprising that almost exactly one quarter of my spending has been on intangible downloadable software, for the iPhone, Wii (WiiWare, Virtual Console) and Xbox Live Arcade as well as game downloadable content (such as Undead Nightmare and Dead Money). However, almost 4 years ago I predicted that the next generation of consoles will have downloadable content as the primary distribution mechanism. Things are certainly shifting that way!
The real “tell” with this data will be when I run the same calculations for 2011’s figures and compare them! Stay tuned.
You purchased surprisingly less iphone games than I have thought with all the 59p & free sales during the year I dread to think what my list would look like.
Well, since I still haven’t played most of the free games from 2009 yet I didn’t bother with most of the free games in 2010 either, unless I knew I’d play them!
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