How to Enjoy Top-Quality Games without Breaking the Bank

Of the approximately 8 billion people in the world, 40% like to play games, with the highest proportion of these – almost half, opting to do so through their mobile devices. While this number is impressively high, it’s also understandable given that gaming, alongside watching shows and movies, listening to music and reading, is among the chief ways that people like to relax, unwind and connect with one another.

With such an enormous prospective market, it also makes sense that the industry has grown massively in the 21st century – in no small part responding to the influx of gamers brought in by the arrival of the smartphone. But gaming is also more expensive than ever before. Why is this?

Flagship gaming productions, often referred to as ‘Triple-A’ games, have become much larger today than at any other point in their history. Super Mario 64 was one of the biggest games ever produced when it launched alongside the new N64 console in 1996. The in-house Nintendo studio behind it consisted of about 50 people, and the game took three years and cost around $2 million to develop ($3.5 million today, correcting for inflation).

Compare that with Red Dead Redemption 2, which was produced by Rockstar Games using a team of 2000 people. It took eight years, and was the most expensive game ever developed when it launched in 2018, costing an estimated $200 million.

This results in games of much greater scale and complexity, but the consumer ends up footing the bill. Current next generation games are increasingly retailing for $70 apiece, which makes them inaccessibly expensive for certain gamers nowadays. The same is true for consoles – a PlayStation 5 costs around $500 today, 200 more than the PlayStation 2 on launch in the year 2000.

Fortunately, this price hike is not uniform across all platforms. In truth, today there are many compelling low-cost alternatives for gamers to explore – let’s look at the best of these below.

Free Trials and Sign-Up Offers

One of the best ways to cut costs is to take advantage of the various promotional offers provided by game developers and platforms across a range of sectors. For example, Apple’s new subscription gaming service, Apple Arcade, has an impressive free trial period of 1 month for new sign-ups, extending to 3 months when bundled with new Apple hardware.

Elsewhere, the iGaming industry has made a name for itself in serving up competitive welcome bonuses for new and returning patrons, with the majority of leading online casinos providing a range of offers to suit different customer’s needs and requirements. These can be a great way to both ‘try before you buy’, and shop around to find a platform with a feature-set and games to your liking.

Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming is a technology by which users can stream video game content from remote servers in real time, much like they would a video on YouTube or Netflix. Because they are streaming game content from elsewhere, it removes the requirement to own powerful proprietary hardware.

In effect, users accessing cloud gaming are at liberty to play next generation games through their web browser, or on a low-powered smartphone. For cutting costs, there are numerous advantages to this.

For one, it side-steps the need to invest in a $500 console or multi-thousand dollar PC in order to play triple-A games. Secondly, these platforms typically offer curated libraries in exchange for a monthly fee. This works out much cheaper than buying for each game at full price each.

Xbox Cloud Gaming, which can be accessed as part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription for approximately $15 per month. For this, you get instant access to over 170 Xbox and PC games past and present, including day one releases on major upcoming Xbox Series launches like Forza Motorsport. In 2023, there’s no more cost effective way to play the latest and greatest games to hit the market.