Gaming in 2011 cost me $3292 Au, how much did it cost you?

2011 has now officially ended and I can complete my spending on games for the year. As the title states, it cost me $3292 Au. That equates to $274 every month, or $63 a week. Does that sound like a lot? For comparison, in 2010 I spent $2469, so it has gone up a bit, but 2010 contained no consoles, where as in 2011, I added a PS3 and a 3DS to that collection, which is about $600 worth of it.

The balance was made up of 123 games purchased for the year. Does that sound like a lot?

As for the breakdown, the winner for 2012 was the Xbox360, which increased the collection by 27 games. However, the winner when it comes to dollars was the DS, as the 27 Xbox360 came to a mere $417, where the 26 GS games came to $673. Hell, even the Wii with 24 games came to $644. The dollars is entirely reliant on the availability of cheap games and the Xbox360 just had more cheap games to collect.

Full list:

Xbox 360 - 27 games, 18 new, 9 used at $417 = $15 a game.

DS - 26 games, 23 new, 3 used at $673 = $26 a game.

Wii - 24 games, 18 new, 6 used at $644 = $27 a game.

PS3 - 18 games, 13 new, 5 used at $325 = $18 a game.

PC - 10 games, 3 new, 7 used at $109 = $11 a game.

PSP - 9 games, 6 new, 3 used at $104 = $12 a game.

3DS - 3 games, 3 new at $138 = $46 a game.

PS2 - 1 game, used at $1 = $1 a game.

The balance is 2 iPhone, 2 DSiWare and 6 Wii VC.

I tend to buy most of my games later, when the price drops, as I am not into donating money to game companies. A good game today is still a good game in 6 months, a year or 2 later. Some games didn't wait though, like Pokemon Black & White, Solatarobo, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Disgaea 4 & Xenoblade Chronicles. I can't say I have actually played all of the games I picked up, but I will get to it eventually - perhaps.

Predictions for 2012:

I will very likely add the Wii-U, but not the PSV. I will certainly add an extra 3DS, that being an NTSC version for importing games. I will probably add 100 plus games again, but the DS will drop off dramatically, as will the Wii and PSP. Thinking about that, I may struggle to reach 100 and 2012 could be a relatively lean year, as even with a Wii-U purchase, like the 3DS this year, I don't like payong $100 for a game, so I will have very few in the short term. I am not expecting Xbox Fusian to launch next year and there is even less chance of a PS4.

How did your 2011 year look from a gaming cost perspective?

Edit: It helps when you have a good paying job and don't drink alcohol, or any other bad habits ....... you have to spend your money on something right?

2011 has now officially ended and I can complete my spending on games for the year. As the title states, it cost me $3292 Au. That equates to $274 every month, or $63 a week. Does that sound like a lot? For comparison, in 2010 I spent $2469, so it has gone up a bit, but 2010 contained no consoles, where as in 2011, I added a PS3 and a 3DS to that collection, which is about $600 worth of it.

The balance was made up of 123 games purchased for the year. Does that sound like a lot?

As for the breakdown, the winner for 2012 was the Xbox360, which increased the collection by 27 games. However, the winner when it comes to dollars was the DS, as the 27 Xbox360 came to a mere $417, where the 26 GS games came to $673. Hell, even the Wii with 24 games came to $644. The dollars is entirely reliant on the availability of cheap games and the Xbox360 just had more cheap games to collect.

Full list:

Xbox 360 - 27 games, 18 new, 9 used at $417 = $15 a game.

DS - 26 games, 23 new, 3 used at $673 = $26 a game.

Wii - 24 games, 18 new, 6 used at $644 = $27 a game.

PS3 - 18 games, 13 new, 5 used at $325 = $18 a game.

PC - 10 games, 3 new, 7 used at $109 = $11 a game.

PSP - 9 games, 6 new, 3 used at $104 = $12 a game.

3DS - 3 games, 3 new at $138 = $46 a game.

PS2 - 1 game, used at $1 = $1 a game.

The balance is 2 iPhone, 2 DSiWare and 6 Wii VC.

I tend to buy most of my games later, when the price drops, as I am not into donating money to game companies. A good game today is still a good game in 6 months, a year or 2 later. Some games didn't wait though, like Pokemon Black & White, Solatarobo, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Disgaea 4 & Xenoblade Chronicles. I can't say I have actually played all of the games I picked up, but I will get to it eventually - perhaps.

Predictions for 2012:

I will very likely add the Wii-U, but not the PSV. I will certainly add an extra 3DS, that being an NTSC version for importing games. I will probably add 100 plus games again, but the DS will drop off dramatically, as will the Wii and PSP. Thinking about that, I may struggle to reach 100 and 2012 could be a relatively lean year, as even with a Wii-U purchase, like the 3DS this year, I don't like payong $100 for a game, so I will have very few in the short term. I am not expecting Xbox Fusian to launch next year and there is even less chance of a PS4.

How did your 2011 year look from a gaming cost perspective?

Edit: It helps when you have a good paying job and don't drink alcohol, or any other bad habits ....... you have to spend your money on something right?

You pay in gold?

O__O

Not that much. Not having a job this year hurt my gaming this year. I only bought L.A. Noire and NCAA Football 12 and I got Modern Warfare 3 for Christmas.

i was counting but i was using a lousy calculator and ended up losing my place.

though i got to tally up like, 40-ish of my purchases and that rounded up to nearly 1000$. 40 out of 70-something is kind of nuts when it's already 1 grand.

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

LOL!

3 Gold bars.

@ssj4raditz said:

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

LOL!

Well, the Au dollar is worth more than the US dollar, so perhaps yes?

New computer: 2000 bucks

Games: Like a 1000 bucks

3000 bucks

If I were to include the new desktop PC I built, then the figure is around $4,000. If not, it would be closer to $1,000 (since I spent about ~$2800 on my PC). 

@TheSeductiveMoose said:

New computer: 2000 bucks

Games: Like a 1000 bucks

3000 bucks

Your bank account has taken a similar hit then. If I buy a new iMac and Macbook Pro this year, is that really a gaming cost? I do play games on them believe it or not.

$300 in games and I bought a $100 headset.

I bought more games than I usually do this year but a bulk of that $300 are $20-30 older titles.

@Contrarian: How did you play 118 games this year? Am guessing you played half, and the other half are just purchases you regretted.

At least this thread made me feel better about my gaming procrastination, and how steam always tempts me into buying games i probably won't finish. ( Only bought 4 of those this year though,)

Not a lot.

Probably about $400 overall, give or take a few bucks. I only bought a few games at full price this year.

@Beaudacious said:

@Contrarian: How did you play 118 games this year? Am guessing you played half, and the other half are just purchases you regretted.

The only game I played and regretted was Tom Clancy's GRAW (2 hours of utter boredom before I gave up forever), but hell, it cost me $5 new. No harm, no foul. Mind, there are a decent number that haven't made it into a console ( I would gues that being about 40 of them) ....... I see it cheap, I figure I will play it eventually and so I pick it up.

I am scared to do the math to be honest.

I'd like to not know... but for funsies::

3DS - 250

1 3DS game - 40

2 $40 console games - 80

6 $60 console games - 360

On sale PC games add to ~55

Downloadable console games - 45 

New keyboard 170

New mousepad 40

New mouse 45

2 new headsets 100

So total is $1092 O_O not counting silly ipad games or DLC

somewhere around that amount

@laserbolts said:

I am scared to do the math to be honest.

My organisational nerd qualities win over me. I have a simple Word document with all the games by month with details including cost and PoP (place of purchase). Then there is the Excel spreadsheet, which has everything broken down by console and new/used. It is a beautiful sight for the geek in me. Never be afraid of any mathematics, they are your friend.

@GrandMarshal said:

somewhere around that amount

That makes me think ... do any of us have to answer to someone for what we do and spend? Is there someone questioning you or are you a lone wolf, answerable to no-one? When you look at it, everyone spends money on something, yet money on gaming is always looked down on. It is better than gambling, or many other stupid money pits.

Resident Evil 4 = $9
Silent Hill 2 = $12
Viewtiful Joe = $8
Odin Sphere = $20
Need For Speed: Underground = $15
GTA: San Andreas = $20
Total = $84

Could be a lot better, but a got quite a bit of bang for my buck.

Waaaay too much.

Weird, I expected this to be filled with PC upgrading expenses. I guess you're just hardcore.

With upgrades to the PC and extra controllers and instruments (rock band) and consoles around 43.000 Danish Kroner 
Might sound like a lot but in a year that's like, not even enough to make homeless guy worried(probably not true, but you get the idea, it's not a lot in US Dollars it's like $7480 or something) 
 
Most of them are full priced games but there's a lot of deals in there too (steam especially) so yeah.  
Most of my money went on bills, food and stuff like that. Stupid bills

@Contrarian said:

@laserbolts said:

I am scared to do the math to be honest.

My organisational nerd qualities win over me. I have a simple Word document with all the games by month with details including cost and PoP (place of purchase). Then there is the Excel spreadsheet, which has everything broken down by console and new/used. It is a beautiful sight for the geek in me. Never be afraid of any mathematics, they are your friend.

deep

Will probably attempt this for 2012, but not looking forward to the total. Have you included games given to you for bdays and crimbo?

Erm...bought a Kinect system with 4 games: £130.

Skyrim: £40.

Gunstringer: £12.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: £10

WWE: Allstars: £10

Nintendo Wii and 5 games (pre-owned): £50

Battlefield 2: £12

Gears 3: £30

Xbox Elite: £70

Modern Warfare 2: £8

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood: £7

Dead Space 2: £8

That's all I can remember at the moment...

40-60 bucks a month, typically, No where near as close as your estimate.

On Steam alone: $312.87

Non-Steam stuff would probably be another ~$300 D:

Also, I'm not counting hardware.

...

@Contrarian said:

@laserbolts said:

I am scared to do the math to be honest.

My organisational nerd qualities win over me. I have a simple Word document with all the games by month with details including cost and PoP (place of purchase). Then there is the Excel spreadsheet, which has everything broken down by console and new/used. It is a beautiful sight for the geek in me. Never be afraid of any mathematics, they are your friend.

deep

So I have bought one new game every week (more or less) with the exception of some weeks where I bought no games (that happened 5 times) and weeks where I bought more than one (Mortal Kombat and Portal 2, Skyrim and Saints row the third). These are all 60$ games plus various XBLA/PSN purchases from time to time. I'm going to say 200$ in digital purchases so 3800$

I may have spent close the the same amount as you. Mostly on PC components and monitors etc. if you count an iPad and it's games, then yeah I'd be close to you or more maybe. I also only bought LA Noire for my 360 too. Yeah, that is the only game I got for my 360 this year. So I don't think I bought as many games are you, but I'm close in the money side of things, which is strange because I don't have a job, which I would love to have. 2012 is going to be a tough one if I don't get a part time job, how do I expect to get Ivy Bridge stuff, an iPad 3 and a new iPhone... hmm this is going off topic now.

I kind of went crazy this year. From buying a 3DS to purchasing something on PSN almost every week due to the PS+ discounts I'm in the thousands for sure. I might tally it all up just so I know to cool it in 2012.

ive paid over $1,000 on just controllers..

i have a problem. but companies are evil for charging $50 per controller that is easily broken with ONE heavy throw. i broke the B button on a 360 controller making the whole thing useless.

ive had red controllers white controllers silver controllers black controllers halo controllers, even wired madcats controllers

EDIT: i used to keep a graveyard. but instead of being useful for replacement parts, it became a shameful sight of horror

About $1000 on my PC, then a couple hundred on games.

@theandrewtaylorsaid:

All in real money, USD, not yer Elizabethian faced, pink colored canuck and aussie money.

Come on now, it used to be real money, but not now. Perhaps one day it will be real again. I hope not though, as importing has been brilliant since our dollar was worth more than the US.

@SpliTTMark said:

ive paid over $1,000 on just controllers..

i have a problem. but companies are evil for charging $50 per controller that is easily broken with ONE heavy throw. i broke the B button on a 360 controller making the whole thing useless.

ive had red controllers white controllers silver controllers black controllers halo controllers, even wired madcats controllers

EDIT: i used to keep a graveyard. but instead of being useful for replacement parts, it became a shameful sight of horror

Anger management :? It might be cheaper. I have my moments, but the worst I get is throwing my controller into the couch I sit on.

More then I ever want to admit

Probably around £1,000.

@chrismafuchris said:

Viewtiful Joe = $8

Yes. Everyone needs this game

I don't know the exact number but I probably spent a lot less on games this year than during previous years. Being a university student has its priorities :/

Like $650 or something. I probably could have done with out about $150 of that though.

I rent most of my games, so not a whole lot.

@Contrarian said:

@theandrewtaylorsaid:

All in real money, USD, not yer Elizabethian faced, pink colored canuck and aussie money.

Come on now, it used to be real money, but not now. Perhaps one day it will be real again. I hope not though, as importing has been brilliant since our dollar was worth more than the US.

@SpliTTMark said:

ive paid over $1,000 on just controllers..

i have a problem. but companies are evil for charging $50 per controller that is easily broken with ONE heavy throw. i broke the B button on a 360 controller making the whole thing useless.

ive had red controllers white controllers silver controllers black controllers halo controllers, even wired madcats controllers

EDIT: i used to keep a graveyard. but instead of being useful for replacement parts, it became a shameful sight of horror

Anger management :? It might be cheaper. I have my moments, but the worst I get is throwing my controller into the couch I sit on.

welcome to anger management 101, please introduce yourselfs.

guy one : i hit my wife alot

guy two: i drink alot and hurt animals

guy three: i throw controllers

good times.

i actually got a job about a month ago and ive gone from playing games 10 hours a day to maybe 30 minutes.

@TheSeductiveMoose said:

New computer: 2000 bucks

Games: Like a 1000 bucks

3000 bucks

This post made me actually lol for some reason :)

@Contrarian said:

@ssj4raditz said:

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

LOL!

Well, the Au dollar is worth more than the US dollar, so perhaps yes?

I know this post is two months old, but I believe Andorski was referring to gold on the periodic table where it's symbol is Au. Just thought I would learn you something.

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

You made me laugh.

@Contrarian said:

I tend to buy most of my games later, when the price drops, as I am not into donating money to game companies.

I can't say I have actually played all of the games I picked up, but I will get to it eventually - perhaps.

I know this is 2 months old but buying games you probably wont play sure sounds like donating money to game companies to me. How do you even play half of those games? Do you not work/go to school/interact with real people/shower/eat/sleep?

@Redbullet685 said:

@Contrarian said:

@ssj4raditz said:

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

LOL!

Well, the Au dollar is worth more than the US dollar, so perhaps yes?

I know this post is two months old, but I believe Andorski was referring to gold on the periodic table where it's symbol is Au. Just thought I would learn you something.

I feel a great shame as somewhat of a geek I did not see that joke at the time. Shame on me. I knew that and never for a second "got" it. D'oh.

@Hunkulese said:

@Contrarian said:

I tend to buy most of my games later, when the price drops, as I am not into donating money to game companies.

I can't say I have actually played all of the games I picked up, but I will get to it eventually - perhaps.

I know this is 2 months old but buying games you probably wont play sure sounds like donating money to game companies to me. How do you even play half of those games? Do you not work/go to school/interact with real people/shower/eat/sleep?

No. I live in the basement of my mum's place, eat Cheetos and drink Mountain Dew all day, weigh 300kg and only ever play games and talk to people on the internet. I don't shower, but I do have a rag on a stick. Just a normal every day gamer really.

@Contrarian said:

@Redbullet685 said:

@Contrarian said:

@ssj4raditz said:

@Andorski said:

You pay in gold?

O__O

LOL!

Well, the Au dollar is worth more than the US dollar, so perhaps yes?

I know this post is two months old, but I believe Andorski was referring to gold on the periodic table where it's symbol is Au. Just thought I would learn you something.

I feel a great shame as somewhat of a geek I did not see that joke at the time. Shame on me. I knew that and never for a second "got" it. D'oh.

@Hunkulese said:

@Contrarian said:

I tend to buy most of my games later, when the price drops, as I am not into donating money to game companies.

I can't say I have actually played all of the games I picked up, but I will get to it eventually - perhaps.

I know this is 2 months old but buying games you probably wont play sure sounds like donating money to game companies to me. How do you even play half of those games? Do you not work/go to school/interact with real people/shower/eat/sleep?

No. I live in the basement of my mum's place, eat Cheetos and drink Mountain Dew all day, weigh 300kg and only ever play games and talk to people on the internet. I don't shower, but I do have a rag on a stick. Just a normal every day gamer really.

Hey man, nothing wrong with a rag on a stick.