The video game industry is among the highest-grossing ones out there. Just check some figures provided by many reputable marketing agencies out there and you will see this claim is true. When you think about it, that makes perfect sense. We have many different titles released every year, and quite a lot of them are commercial successes. Sure, many factors need to complement each other for this to happen.
Naming all of these successful titles would take days, but we are sure that you are aware of them, especially if you’re someone who can call yourself a gamer. Not to mention franchises that get a new installment every year, like FIFA, Football Manager, or NBA 2K. Plus, some of them can be called the most influential ever, like Diablo, Warcraft, Wasteland, Fallout, etc.
However, when a new franchise is about to start, or when we get an entirely new game, many gamers don’t know whether they should buy it. If you would like to see the prices of some titles, you should visit here. For this reason, we would like to discuss the commonest mistakes that can happen when we buy some of these. Let’s check some of these mistakes out.
1. Not Playing the Demo
Practically every title that is released has a demo that appears before the game itself. It is done because the companies want to provide gamers with a possibility to have a first look at what they have created. It is not uncommon that a quality demo was followed with a high-quality product. For some reason, it is quite obvious that not too many people want to try the demo out.
We would understand when this happened a decade or two ago since there were no sites where you can download them. They were distributed on CDs or DVDs. However, since we are living in a digital age, testing out the demo before you spend your money is something you should consider. There are countless websites where you can come find a demo of the next title you’re expecting.
2. Not Consulting the Forums
Gaming forums are quite common these days. But that doesn’t mean that they weren’t present in the past. If you think about it, there were a lot of sites where you could inform yourself about new titles even two decades ago. Still, the penetration rate of the internet wasn’t as high as it is these days. Now that practically anyone has a chance to visit these easily, this looks like a good idea.
On these sites, you can get a high-detail explanation about the game, its pros and cons, and whether you should buy it or not. People invest their time into writing these. So, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t check them out. However, there is the question of personal preferences when you decide whether to spend your money or not. So, check them, but this shouldn’t be a game-changer.
3. Not Reading Online Reviews
The next feature we believe to be essential is pretty connected to the entry on this list of ours. However, instead of talking about forums, it’s crucial to speak about the importance of online reviews. You can find these practically on every website where there is some sort of description of the game you are attracted to. Once again, we would say that people write these from their perspective.
While reading them will not make your mind up completely, we feel that checking these out is important. Those who write them will point out aspects like gameplay, graphics, controls, storyline, etc. When all of these elements are in harmony, you are looking at a high-quality game. That’s why we think this is an integral part of understanding all the factors in determining whether you should purchase or not.
4. Buying Only Because of Cover
We will all agree that games out there with a great cover. In many cases, that doesn’t mean that the product itself will have any kind of quality. It can be quite the opposite. Despite this has happened so many times, many consumers still have a bad habit of deciding whether they will spend their money based on how cool the cover looks. We talk about one of the biggest mistakes customers can make.
Believe us, this is not something that can provide you with any sort of insight into what you can expect from the product itself. In some cases, it can even be misleading, mainly when determining the genre. We believe this is significant to say since many people want to play only one genre, and they are not interested in purchasing any other titles. Therefore, find another way of informing yourself.
5. Looking for a Look-alike
When you use Google to look for a certain title, you will see that many people insert the title they love at the end of the query that starts with “games like”. Sure, this can tell you about the genre. But when you think about it, there is absolutely nothing else you can learn from it. Sure, you can come across some great titles as a result of this search, but in most cases, you will learn nothing.
We would call this process “looking for a look-alike”. The reason is quite simple, some games have influenced the whole genre, but that doesn’t mean that those titles that follow them will be of the same quality. If we look at the past, we will see that this is not likely to happen. Looking for a look-alike is not something you should turn your attention towards.
Summary
Since there are hundreds of video games released every year, it can be quite hard to find the title that will serve your needs and preferences in the most efficient way. In this article of ours, you can see what are the commonest mistakes consumers made in this process. By knowing them, avoiding them will become much easier in the future. Be sure to try some of them out.