Waiting for the Price Drop

I always face a quandary when buying new games. While I'm sure we all have a list of day-one pick ups, there are many other games that I'll wait a month or two until they knock 20 dollars off the price before I buy. The sad thing is, the games I'm waiting for aren't usually the AAA titles, but the smaller ones that need the day one support if they're going to see sequels, or even see the studio make more games. The problem is I know these games will fall in price quickly, and if I don't wait I'll regret it when I get the flyer from gamestop announcing the great new price (which will still happen no matter what I do, because that is the way of life). Case in point is the image for this post, Shadows of the Damned. Suda 51 makes games I enjoy for their offbeat sense of humor, over the top game-play, and self-aware writing (Check out No More Heroes to see what I mean). I want this game, but when it was released I was warned to wait because it wouldn't be a big seller, and lo it wasn't, in fact it experienced numbers well below what's desirable for something with these production values. This adds up to the fact that if I keep waiting, this game will be a whole lot more affordable and we as gamers will be a lot less likely to see similar titles, a problem that is compounded if I wait to buy it used.

What's a gamer to do when faced with such a situation? Lucky for me Suda just announced his next game at Gamescom this week so I don't have to worry I ruined a dev in this case (cause I can do that on my own), but even as I was following the news from Germany this week I was going on a mini tirade about how there's a lack of great new IPs coming out, and I think that waiting for the price drop is a big reason for that. Why would a business take a risk on selling a few thousand units of a new game when they could just used an established formula, polish it a little, and then sell a few million? Critical acclaim and great review scores don't speak as loudly as sales numbers (just ask Mirror's Edge) but alas I game I've never played doesn't command my dollars in the same way a sequel in a beloved franchise does.

It's a puzzle with no solution, except of course infinite money for all!