How to never pay full price for PS5 games

It’s no secret that games are more expensive now than ever. Not only has the base price been raised to $70 for nearly all PS5 games , but most also push you to buy more expensive collector’s editions or make in-game purchases that can easily rack the price up to $100 or more. Games are a luxury, sure, but that doesn’t mean we should have to give up our favorite hobby just because the barrier to entry keeps getting higher.

Publishers don’t want you to know it, but there are plenty of ways to get around paying full price for a game. If you are willing to be a little patient or exploit a few tricks, you can still play all the great PS5 games you want at a discount. We can’t guarantee you will save a ton of money, but any amount is better than shelling out the full price. Here are the top tricks you can use to avoid paying full price for a PS5 game.

Put it on your wishlist

Set it and forget it

Pressing the little heart button on a game’s store page isn’t just good for showing support and interest in a game, but actually has a secret feature you can enable that will alert you when a game goes on sale. Here’s how to turn it on:

1. Go to Settings
2. Select Notifications
3. Make sure Allow Pop-up Notifications is on
4. Scroll down to Wishlist Updates and turn Show Pop-Ups on.

Now, any game you have on your wishlist will automatically send you an update on your dashboard whenever it is on sale. Digital sales on PS5 happen fairly regularly, but you never know when the game you have your eye on will be included so this make sure you never miss your chance to snag it at a discount.

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Be a star

Get the app

PlayStation

The majority of people on PS5 don’t use PlayStation Stars, and that’s a massive mistake. This is a simple rewards program that can earn you select games at best, or store credit at worst. Not a bad deal, right? If you have the PlayStation app, you just need to access the Stars page to look through the various campaigns you can complete each month. Most only reward you with digital collectibles, but look for the ones with Coins as a reward. Some do ask you to buy games, which at least rewards you for a game you were going to buy anyway, but a good number can be done for free. Typically, they ask you to play some specific games on PS + that month. It could take a while, but saving up your Coins is an easy way to knock a little chunk off the price of a game.

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Buy used

Physical all the way

Unsplash/Phil Hearing

Finally, physical games aren’t dead yet so you might as well take advantage. Local game shops, Ebay, or people selling or trading games in your local area tend to offer the best deals you can get on a game. This will take a bit more work if you’re waiting for someone to sell a specific game you’re looking for, but will likely cut the price of the game in half or more. You do run the risk of it being damaged, though, so make sure you test the game before purchasing it if possible.

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Do you prefer to buy your games physically or digitally?

Buying games used to be an event. You’d need to save up or wait for your parents to agree to buy one, and then get dragged along on five other errands before you could get back home to start playing. Thankfully we had those awesome game manuals to read in the car to tide us over until we could slap that game in our console and play. We’ve already gone from cartridges to discs, but now games are primarily sold digitally. PC gamers have been primarily downloading games for decades, but it’s only been since the 360 and PS3 days that downloading full games on a console was even possible. What started as a novelty has now turned into the primary way games are sold and bought. The upsides to digital games are obvious—you can download and play them without having to leave your home, they don’t take up space, and you can’t lose or damage them. However, there has been a big pushback against this all-digital future for games. Preservation and ownership issues are chief