I picked up Final Fantasy 2 for the iPhone not long ago and have really been enjoying it. It’s a classic RPG much like FF1 was, but for a few reasons, FF2 has so far been better. One reason is certainly the pace of the story, as FF1 really dragged and was predictable, while FF2 is moving along at a good clip and has already taken a few interesting turns. Another reason is the class-less advancement system along with how magic works. Since characters are skill+stat based, you are more or less free to develop your party however you see fit, which leads to more flexibility and ‘ownership’ of your characters. Perhaps as I get deeper into it (10hrs so far) things will slow down or get dull, but so far it’s been great.
And since I was enjoying the game, I recommended it to a buddy of mine, although I said he should wait for a sale. The game is regularly priced at 1/5th of a pony reskin ($4.99), and I picked it up when it was down to $2.99. The difference between the sale and regular price is just two bucks, which really is nothing.
Yet I’m sure Square-Enix sold a ton of FF2 copies during the sale (it’s why I bought it), and it is after all almost 50% off. But the actual dollar amount being so small, it seems silly. Why would my buddy wait weeks or months just to save the equivalent of one soda for something he is going to use for 20+ hours? Now granted, if he has others games to play, fine, wait for the sale, but in this case he does not.
Plus lets look at the alternative; how smart is it to buy a half-decent game on sale versus paying ‘full price’ and getting something good? If we are talking PC games at release, it might make sense to avoid the $50 title and pick up a Steam-sale game for $25 or less (maybe, although that still seems silly to save $25 on something over the course of dozens of hours). But something that’s either $5 or $3? Again, that seems silly, yet I had been eyeing FF2 for a bit before buying it due to the sale.
My point is that we seem to do a lot of silly things to save a few bucks at the possible expense of our enjoyment. Not that you are going to hate that $25 game (hopefully anyway), but is having just a decent experience really worth the savings when we are talking the type of time investments we make with gaming? It’s not like we are talking about seeing a 2hr movie or downgrading a single bottle of wine over dinner here.
Why is it that I’ll gladly pay $5 more per person to see a 2hr movie at the premium theater, yet wait for a month to save $2 on an iPhone game? Or better still, buy a $400 video card but then wait for a Steam sale to buy a $20 game to use it with.
Chuck-o-the-day: World records are just things Chuck Norris has not attempted yet.
Hardcore Casual 
If you really want to play a certain game then your argument to buy it now rather than wait for a sale makes sense. However I find that there are so many excellent games available for the PC at the moment and so many of them are on sale that I can always find something that will entertain me for a bargain price. Its not a case of save €50 and have no fun. Its a case of buy a different game for €20 that happens to be on sale and have just as much fun as if you paid €50.
When it comes to my (single player) PC games I am often doing the stupid opposite. I buy them for $50 when they are just released, then let them sit in my drawer because I can’t find the time to play them. And only after the price has dropped I get around to start them up.
“Oh my gosh, it’s a limited time offer, I will have to buy it now, wether I basically want the product or not is totally neglectable at this point, I just can’t stand to let this chance pass by.”
It’s probably nothing else then this basic psychological principle used in every other area of commerce since their respective dawn. The games-industry discovered this quite late and is now doing it for every product possible. Although I’ll admit the 2 dollars off sounds a bit ridiculous. But if you look at the percentage off, it’s quite a good deal, a deal you don’t want to miss, do you ? ;)
If you’re interested in this topic you should read some behavioral economics books – my favorite ones are written by Dan Ariely. In “Predictably Irrational” he describes a bunch of experiments that show how much more important is the % value of discount than absolute value. People will walk 10 minutes for 5$ discounted pen but not for 5$ discounted suit.