Tuesday, October 31, 2006

How to Save Money On Video Games

By Richard Heaney

If you are a keen video game player like myself you will know the fun and excitement that can come from buying a new game for you game system. However there is a catch, these games are really expensive! It does not matter which games console you own, new games for Xbox, Playstation and Gamecube are all highly priced.

We understand that some games do have high development costs, the programmers, sound engineers, animators and testers all have to be paid. But once a game is finished it can sell all over the world and some titles sell in really large quantities. The game development houses must make a serious amount of profit, most customers pay the full retail price for their new games.

One way of saving money on video games is to buy from wholesalers. Now I know that in general wholesalers only sell in bulk quantities. It's not much use to you in having 100 copies of the latest game, you can only play 1! But now there are some wholesalers who sell in single units. The thing to do is search on line for wholesalers which sell the games you are interested in that also sell single units. Using this method you can save up to 60% off the retail price for your brand new video game.

Another option is buying and selling second hand video games, it is not as difficult as you might think. Once you have finished playing a game you can take it to your local game exchange store where you can swap it for a new game or cash. This is a great way to save money on video games, how many old games do you own which you know you will never play again? You might as well sell them when you have finished playing with them and use that money to buy your next new title.

You can also sell your used video games on eBay, there is a good market for games on the auction site and you can often get a better deal than if you take your old games to a game exchange shop. If you do this it is worth noting that games drop in price as they get older. If you try to sell your games as soon as you are done with them you will get a better price.

Now this method is better than saving money on video games – you can actually get them free! Games developers require game testers to check out their new titles before they go on general release. You may not know this but you do not need any special skills or qualifications in order to test games. If you know the right people to contact and you go about it in the correct way you could become a video game tester. They send you a copy of the game they want tested along with how they want you to report on the game. You play the game, fill in the report and send it back to them. You can get paid anything from $8 - $80 per hour to test games, you just sit back and wait for the cheques to come in. A great perk of the job is that you get to keep the games you test, if you become a game tester you may never have to buy a new game again!

Rich Heaney is the web master at Game Testing Guide. Find out how to become a video game tester right now at rjheaney.com/gametesterguide

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Heaney

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