Pre-owned games are checked for defects and usually come with a decent returns policy, so there\u2019s no need to worry about bringing home faulty games either!<\/p>\n
Wait a few months (or years) to buy a game<\/h3>\n
Games, like cars, lose half their value as soon as you leave the shop. A game that cost \u00a340 last year will cost \u00a310 this year, simply because so many new games come out and retailers need to clear space.<\/p>\n
That means you can usually pick up some top titles for a fraction of the price if you\u2019re willing to wait a couple of months.<\/p>\n
For example, the Mass Effect<\/em> series would have cost you \u00a3120 if you bought each title on release. Now, you\u2019ll pay about \u00a320 for the lot. And they\u2019re still great games!<\/p>\n All gamers have a secret stash of untapped value sitting on their shelves \u201d\u201c their old games.<\/p>\n If you buy new games regularly, sell the last game you bought to fund the next one. In most cases, you\u2019ll pay \u00a340 for the first title, sell it for \u00a320 and then pay \u00a340 for the next title. That means you\u2019ve only paid \u00a360 for 2 games!<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to see how the savings add up; over 5 purchases, you\u2019ll save \u00a3100 \u201d\u201c enough for two games and \u00a320 change!<\/p>\n It works for old games too. If you sell 2 games for \u00a310 and buy a new game for \u00a340, you\u2019ve only spent \u00a330. Repeat this over 5 purchases and you\u2019ve saved \u00a350 \u201d\u201c the equivalent of another game (and some snacks)!<\/p>\n People don\u2019t tend to replay games. They take hours, days or even weeks to complete, which is too much time to invest in playing through a story you\u2019ve already experienced. So why do we hold onto them?<\/p>\n There are a couple of common reasons: we might want to play them in the future, we want to impress our mates, and they look good on our shelves.<\/p>\n But none of these make financial sense. Sell the games<\/a>\u00a0(or even sell the consoles<\/a>!)\u00a0you don\u2019t play (they don\u2019t make good ornaments, honestly) and make some cash!<\/p>\n Who remembers the epic demos that used to come with magazines?<\/p>\n They don\u2019t do them anymore, sadly, but you can still download demos via Xbox Live and PSN and it\u2019s still the best way to determine whether a game is worth your money!<\/p>\n Bear in mind that a lot of publishers will put out demos months after the initial release of a game to encourage more sales after the initial rush \u201d\u201c another reason to wait a few months before buying!<\/p>\n This one is for Xbox gamers only (although if there\u2019s a PS equivalent, we\u2019d love to hear it). Xbox Live Rewards<\/a> is a scheme that offers players money for playing video games. Yep, you read that right \u201d\u201c it\u2019s like a dream job!<\/p>\n The scheme offers \u201d\u02dcpoints\u2019 in exchange for carrying out certain tasks. These include taking a survey, renewing your Gold subscription and (more excitingly) playing any new game for 10 hours within 30 days of release.<\/p>\n These points can then be converted into credit for your Xbox Account. Admittedly, these points don\u2019t work out to much \u201d\u201c 5000 credits gets you about \u00a33.35 \u201d\u201c but it\u2019s well worth signing up if you find yourself regularly forking out for downloadable content.<\/p>\n So those are our money-saving tips for gamers. Got any you\u2019d like to add? Let us know on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> or in the comments below.<\/p>\n Image credit: Davidlohr Bueso<\/a>\u00a0& Matt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gaming is expensive. \u00a340 for a game is a big price for something that might not be that good, especially if you\u2019ve got bills to pay and other hobbies to pursue. Luckily, saving cash on gaming is pretty simple. Read on, and save big… Buy 2nd hand Most 2nd hand …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[593,204],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3129,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/3129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sell your old games to buy new ones<\/h3>\n
![\"Old](\"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/old-games.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDon\u2019t be a hoarder<\/h3>\n
Play demos<\/h3>\n
Sign up for Rewards<\/h3>\n