For the vast majority of games being sold through a publisher, during the time the game is sold at full price, the devs get nothing from the sale anyway. They're already paid an upfront fee and only get a cut of sales if they exceed a certain number of units sold (i.e. the advance the publisher gave them is recovered).

For indies, I'll sometimes pay full price if it's something I'm confident I'm going to really like. But generally, I wait for sales. Oddly, from what I've read, sale revenue often helps indie devs more than full price revenue, as it drives more overall unit sales, influences long tail sales for a period of time after the discount, and results in overall more income.

I pretty much only buy on sale or in a bundle anymore. Given that I've only played about 1 in every 8 to 10 games that I purchase I sort-of have to limit myself. I don't have much income now, so honestly wouldn't buy much at all if it wasn't for the sales - but the money I spend certainly gets spread out across quite a high number of publishers whose games I might never play. I think I probably spend quite a bit more because I buy on sale, but spread it across more titles. My backlog is probably over 300 games now.

fwiw, Anno 2070 was probably the last game I spent over $30 on, and despite thinking I wanted to play it immediately, I still haven't played it over a year later.

I buy games when they reach a price point that I feel is appropriate for how much fun I'll get out of the game, compared to how much fun I would get out of spending that money on something else. Which usually means that I'll buy games when they are on a heavy discount.

Classics - will pay full price if i can ( my wishlist is shrinking now however)

AAA - never pay over $25-30 bucks anymore - last one was around 60 bucks for Diablo 3..(if its something i really want on Steam and unlikely to be in a bundle down the track i will find a steamtrader who can get it cheaper from a non US steam store...)

Indies - max i will pay is 5-10 bucks - lets be honest, many of them will end up in a bundle at some point :/

Kickstartered Games - up to around $25-30 reward tier (thought id add this hehe)

1) Want to play it now
2) Have enough cash for it
3) It's on a 50%+ sale

Assuming at least two of the conditions are true, I buy it.

Usually drunk and/or in a whim.

Seriously. I buy pretty much most of my games when they are on sale. Except for certain and very few (mostly console) games that I got to have right that moment.

With the exception of the indie games, buying a game rarely supports developers. The beneficiaries are usually the publishers.

I'm not a huge fan of all-out digital distribution - I always prefer a boxed version - but GOG is great for legally buying games whose boxed versions have become supposedly rare and overpriced. I also use DD for the odd cheap indie game for which a boxed release wouldn't have made much sense or really have been financially viable.

With the previous exception of Minecraft, I don't buy Early Access games and I don't do Kickstarter.

I don't pay more than €5 for a game on Steam, and I don't pay more than €10 for a digitally distributed DRM-free game. I do buy full-price games on the Wii U and PS3 if they appeal to me though. Most of the games I bought full-price in 2013 were for console - Disgaea D2, Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World, Wonderful 101, The Last of Us, Tales of Xillia, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Ni No Kuni.

I mostly buy bundles and the odd game off GOG, but other than that, I don't really buy many games on PC anymore because with the problems with DRM and the bizarre turns that PC gaming has taken with Steam, Early Access, Kickstarter and countless amounts of shovelware masquerading as indie, I just find that consoles offer a better deal.

What I do do occasionally though is buy the console version of a game on disc and then pick up the PC version cheap later on if there is a significant difference.

I usually only buy games on sale. $60 is a lot to spend on a game, and I rarely do it and when I do it's for something that I feel is best experienced when it first releases, when everyone else is new to it. So far that's only been Bioshock Infinite asof late, but I will probably be shelling out the big bucks to get The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 2 on release. Gotsta explore and discover stuff along with everyone else, man.

How I buy games depends on how much money I have...

Sales mostly, except when I am extra happy of some game appearing on GOG, like Outlast, Assassin's Creed, some of the Telltale games, probably the future The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, etc. Albeit I am not sure if Outlast actually had some promo sale right away when it appeared on GOG...

But the thing is, I sometimes feel, especially with indie games, that the default price is inflated because the developer/publisher doesn't really expect most people to buy it at full price anyway, but wait for sales. So the discount price is actually the price they expect most people to pay for it.

If they don't feel that way, then they always have the option of not putting their game on discount, ever. I think it worked quite a long time for many Codemasters games on GOG, or Minecraft (not on GOG), or Diablo 2 + LOD, or the way how Interplay hiked up the default price of the old RPGs (possibly so that they could sell them more often in promos).

Oh and those 50-80€ new games... I very rarely have an urge to buy some game on release day (unless I specifically want to support something by buying it on release), because I most probably wouldn't start playing right then. I don't recall when was the last time that I'd buy a game and start properly playing it right away, beside just trying the game out.

So no, I wasn't one of those waiting the whole night outside a store to get a copy of GTA V. Heck, I was still playing GTA San Andreas at that point! I'll buy GTA V maybe in 2018 (the PC version, if available).

That's also why I personally don't mind it that much if e.g. Banner Saga appears a bit later on GOG than it did on Steam. As long as it comes here too.

Hah, newbie! You just haven't used your CC enough. I recall my credit card details without even looking it up.

Console games are really easy for me to tell going in if I will like it or not, so it just depends on how much time & fun I expect to get out of it. 40+ hours I'll pay full price without question, but a sub-10 hour game is not worth $60 to me no matter how pretty it is.

PC games are a lot more hit-and-miss as to whether I like it or not, even within fairly specific genres like Diablo-style ARPGs. So I will typically forget about them while waiting on a price drop. Most purchases then happen during big sale events (like GOG's Summer & Winter sales) that prompt me to scan the entire catalog for anything that looks interesting.

I'm glad I'm not the only 'cheapskate' around here; during the last year I paid about $3 per game on average. On the other hand in total I spent loads on games and that included many I might never really play. I probably spent a lot more money than I would have if I was more generous with individual games but also more selective in general. Of course this average is mostly due to the glut of indie bundles and I also bought full price games, but none for more than $20. And I'm more willing to pay higher sums if the money goes directly to the developers or to show GOG my appreciation and if it gets me a DRM-free installer, and of course only if it's a game I'm very likely to love. I buy games on Steam or games that I'm just mildly curious about only in 50-75% off sales and in cheap bundles.

Mostly on sales.

For me, paying full price is paying half of it for the game and half of it to play it NOW. So unless I want to play it instantly or really feel the developer deserves it (Will buy Divinity: Original Sin here upon release because Larian & GOG!) I wait for a sale.

I could never afford all the games I impulsed over the last sales for full price. Sales also tempt me to buy things I would have never risked buying otherwise, because I might not like them or won't have time to play them in ages. I think I bought over 50 games last year, guess how many I installed, let alone played...