How long does it take for a new game to go down in price / go on sale?

[JakBrod]

I have been saving my money for the first part of this year hoping for a RE4 Remake announcement or something like that from capcom.

 

Because there seems to be very little to nothing about RE4, i'm considering getting a new/upcoming game like Horizon Forbidden West or Grand Turismo 7. However i don't feel comfortable paying £70 for a game.

 

So i'm waiting for either game to go down a bit in price.

Does anyone know roughly how long after release a game would go down in price?

 

Or should i consider getting HFW or GT7 at full price?

[DaivRules]

1 minute ago, JakBrod said:

Does anyone know roughly how long after release a game would go down in price?

Keep an eye on physical stores, if there is going to be a price drop on a AAA game, it’s going to be around 45-60 days after release, unless there is potentially another promotion before them. That’s both to capitalize on capturing higher margin and reducing warehousing costs. 
 

Digital: Good luck. Your best bet instead of a generic “roughly how long do games…” question, would be to look at the publishers of the games you’re interested in, finding a similar volume game, ideally in the same genre, released around the same time, on the same systems, and see when they altered pricing. 
 

There isn’t a steadfast predictable rule for all games about when/if prices will drop. 
 

 

[Sir_Bee]

I obviously don't have any official answer to this question, but I would be surprised if you were to see a digital version on any decent sale before Christmas.  If you are ok buying used copies however, you may see some physical copies drop in price in a few months.

[EAFC_Rico]

It just depends on the Publisher/Developer really. Some games go on sale not long after they are released and some don't. Also usually there are promotions/holidays which bring sales and could bring the price of a game down.

[HuntingFever]

19 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

Keep an eye on physical stores, if there is going to be a price drop on a AAA game, it’s going to be around 45-60 days after release, unless there is potentially another promotion before them. That’s both to capitalize on capturing higher margin and reducing warehousing costs. 
 

Digital: Good luck. Your best bet instead of a generic “roughly how long do games…” question, would be to look at the publishers of the games you’re interested in, finding a similar volume game, ideally in the same genre, released around the same time, on the same systems, and see when they altered pricing. 
 

There isn’t a steadfast predictable rule for all games about when/if prices will drop. 
 

 

 

17 minutes ago, RicosTrophyHunt said:

It just depends on the Publisher/Developer really. Some games go on sale not long after they are released and some don't. Also usually there are promotions/holidays which bring sales and could bring the price of a game down.

These^

 

This is a "How long is a piece of string?" type question that has no fixed answer so all you can do is keep an eye on the sales pages and twiddle your thumbs whilst waiting for the games in question to get a price drop.

[TugaSonic]

Like everyone said there is no definitive answer. One of the factors is how well the game is selling. If the game is selling well at full price it can take months for it to get a sale (when talking about the digital store since physical can depend on the store itself) while if the game has trouble selling it can take weeks or a month from launch for it to start getting discounts.

[Baranov_925]

Sometimes you can grab good offer digitally, sometimes physically.

[ChiefMichigan]

There's not much to go on besides rough estimates. And it really depends on the publisher sometimes or the game itself.

A lot of games (from small indies to AAA) get their first discount within 3 months or so. Select titles even have PS Plus discounts at launch (usually small games).

[TJ_Solo]

There's no predictable pattern or timeframe. 
You can use a wishlist or psprices for notifications on a title, I think

[da-Noob123]

This close to release, finding a used copy will probably be the cheapest route though not by much. However, since it's so new, a used copy will probably be rare.

[IntroPhenom]

Though we're only in February, if you can wait, anticipate the usual big sales - Black Friday, December holidays, etc. Gamestop has a buy 2 get 1 sale at least once a year, if I remember correctly. Best Buy often has numerous discounts in both their online and brick-and-mortar stores. Target almost never has a good sale in store, but online can be fruitful. (Please keep in mind I haven't read up on where in the world you might reside.) Best Buy is my go-to. I pop in to my local store on occassion just to see what's going on. I've spontanesously purhcased several games this way.

[OmegaRejectz]

I usually say 3-month intervals. 3,6,9 & 12. It definitely varies by publisher & game though. November (Black Friday range) and December though are good bets regardless of when the game is released.

COD Vanguard:
25% off < 1 month (December)
35% off a little over 1 month (December)
COD Cold War:
25% off a little over 1 month (December)
35% off 5 months later
Hitman 3:
25% off 2 months later
50% off 5 months later

12 months after launch is generally when it drops to its lowest price (in terms of time v cost).