Video games are expensive. A new video game near to release date normally costs around £40 in the UK or $50 in the USA. I am going to suggest five tips to reduce your expenditure on video games without reducing your enjoyment.

When I talk about the “value” of a used game I am referring to the price that you could get by selling it on eBay or similar..

1. Rent games rather than buying them

Some games are better for their offline play, for example Metal Gear Solid. If you have a week off you can easily complete the game and then return it. Services such as LOVEfilm in the UK and Gamefly in the US. You will pay reasonable rates and still be able to play the game.

2. Sell games after using them

This, in effect, is like renting. However there are some differences between the two. One good thing about reselling is that you can have more than a certain number of games at one time, giving you greater flexibility in, for example, vacations when you may want a variety of games to play with friends and family. The disadvantage is that you can never be sure how much games are going to resell for. If you buy a game on release and it becomes very popular you may only lose £10/$15 off the value of the game over the next three months. If it is unpopular a game can lose over £20/$30 off its value. This means that renting allows you to budget more easily than buying and then selling does.

3. Buy older games

If you enjoyed a game a year ago there is no reason you wouldn’t if you picked it up for the first time today. Well, unless you had already played new season games and therefore had higher expectations in terms of graphics and production. What I do is buy my games three or four months after release. This means that I profit from the fact that games are cheaper. Moreover, following this initial fall in price they rarely fall under £20/$30 for another six months, meaning that I normally only lose about £10 when I sell them on eBay. Another advantage of this system is I can wait and see if games are popular before I buy them. Therefore I only buy the games that get good reviews and I know that I will enjoy. This also saves me money.

4. Share with friends

If you have a game try and convince your friend to buy a different one. This is especially valid if the game is mostly offline based such as Skyrim. Then when you are both finished you can swap games. This is more efficient than buying and selling as you save eBay selling fees. You can, also, sell your games to friends. However when games are online it is hard to do this as one of the best things about them is that you can play with your friends. Therefore this tip is mostly for the offline gamers out there.

5. Get the best price

There are a number of good websites that track the price of video games across different stores. I normally find Amazon the cheapest in the UK or Shopto.net. However using a price comparison site will ensure that you find the best deal. Sometimes the best deal is by buying used games. Even a couple of days after release date you can find games online that are slightly reduced in price as they are used, however for the best deals on the best games you normally have to wait for a few months. Pokemon cards