It’s the last week of August 2010 which means we’re at the cusp of the end-of-year rush of games beginning with Halo: Reach in just a few short weeks (September 14th). With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time to review my gaming expenses.

I set a $1000 cap for the year and so far I’ve spent only $606.16 on gaming software and hardware. (Note this doesn’t include my 2010 PC) I have a fair bit of breathing room for holiday titles and if I keep a tight leash on things, I should make it under my goal.

How did I manage to keep this all in check? There were gift certificates earned through Amazon, but it’s primarily thanks to selective purchases. I have yet to purchase games like Red Dead: Redemption because they have yet to go on sale. If a newly release game does not go on sale within the first three weeks, I don’t bother with it and will gladly wait for a more substantial $20 – $30 price drop.

Looking at the purchases, the only “new” games I’ve picked up as of late were Dragon Quest IX and Metroid: Other M; both offered $10 off the MSRP during the pre-release window.

Needless to say, I’m quite pleased by this. I’m still playing relatively new releases, but at a fraction of the cost.

Related Posts

• 2009 Gaming Expenses
• Setting 2010′s Gaming Budget
• Checkpoint: Q1 2010 Gaming Expense

MSRP Total: $339.91
Actual Total: $228.53
Total Savings: $111.38

After gift certificates, coupons and other deals, I’ve spent $228.53 thus far.

The game I paid the most for was Battlefield: Bad Company 2 while Peggle Nights win the award for least paid at the price of free.

I’ve acquired many games via use of EB Games/GameStop’s Power Trade including:

• Mass Effect 2
• BioShock 2
• Metro 2033

It’s true that I’ve fallen in love with the Power Trade promotion. And why not? Adding 25-50% on-top of a $40 trade in value game makes the trade-in nearly 1:1. Plus, I clear out old games I don’t want and I clear out trade-in credit which I use to supplement those trades.

My next Power Trade will be Super Street Fighter IV.

I still haven’t purchased every game I wanted to though. Heavy Rain, Demon’s Souls, Bayonetta (360) and Splinter Cell: Conviction are still off the list, but that’s what I need to do if I want to keep within my limit.

Related Posts

• Checkpoint: Trading It In Edition
• Checkpoint: 2009 Gaming Budget Checkup Edition
• Checkpoint: Pre-September 2010 Gaming Expenses

At that time I was considering buying many games and while I still do, I didn’t factor in the release calendar. With so many games coming, I can space out my purchases and with the fact that many games are floating at the $59.99 MSRP, the amount of money spent should be less.

So with that in mind — and a bit of conservatism on my part — I’ve decided to set my 2010 gaming budget at $1000. I think that’s manageable and if I stick to my mantra of not paying MSRP regardless if it’s $59.99 or $69.99, I should be okay.

What are your targets, folks? Are there targets or are you just going to wing it?

Related Posts

• Checkpoint: 2009 Gaming Budget Checkup Edition
• 2009 Gaming Expenses
• Checkpoint: Pre-September 2010 Gaming Expenses

The end of 2009 is nigh and I can say with certainty that I will not be making any more gaming expenditures. So let’s take a look through the year and see how much I’ve spent on this hobby of mine.

I could have spent nearly $1700, but that amount was reduced to just under $1400 courtesy of deals. A savings of nearly $300 is nice — really nice even — but I did spend a lot since I did purchase a console or two this year. The Nintendo DSi and Xbox 360 Pro 60GB accounted for just over $400 alone. And then there was my MadCatz Street Fighter FightStick purchase and modifications which cost me approximately $175. Tallying it all up, that’s approximately 33% of my gaming expenses; a third spent on hardware and accessories alone.

Needless to say, I’m hoping to spend less on hardware and accessories in 2010.

Looking through the software side of things, I’ve done a pretty good job with sticking to my mantra of not paying full price for retail games. The only title I spent full MSRP with was Street Fighter IV which was also the first title I recorded for this year.

As I reviewed the list of game purchases, I did come across some regrets. The first was God of War for PlayStation 2 which I purchased for $20. It sat on my shelf for months and then Sony announced God of War: Collection and the host of improvements that came with the re-release. The second regret was a freak accident of sorts. I purchased Infamous for less than the MSRP, but within weeks of its release, BestBuy was holding summer sale which knocked the game’s price tag down to just $29.99 for a day.

In the end, I’m quite pleased with this little exercise and will continue tracking it for 2010. I’ve spent approximately $116 per month on gaming which doesn’t seem too bad. With 2010′s lineup of games, I don’t see myself spending any money of hardware or accessories; just software. With that in mind, I can definitely see next year’s expenses ending up around $1500 or so.

So how about everyone else? How much have you spent on games in 2009?

Related Posts

• Checkpoint: Pre-September 2010 Gaming Expenses
• Setting 2010′s Gaming Budget
• Checkpoint: 2009 Gaming Budget Checkup Edition