Gaming On A Budget - How To Avoid FOMO

If you’re a gamer, then you’ll know the overwhelming power of FOMO (fear of missing out). This feeling can make you feel as if you’re being left out of all the latest trends when it comes to gaming. Your friends are enjoying the latest releases, and you’re left with out-of-date hardware that’s incapable of running those games, wishing you had a more up-to-the-minute rig. 

The good news is that you can avoid FOMO easily when you’re a gamer. There are plenty of options out there for gamers on a budget, so there’s no reason for you to miss out on new releases. With the right approach to your finances, you can approach gaming with a smaller budget and still get to enjoy it to the fullest. Here’s our guide to avoiding FOMO and gaming on a budget.

Take out loans if you’re just waiting for payday

Before we go on, we should say that you shouldn’t consider a loan if you’re in long-term financial difficulty. This option could just hamstring you further and prevent you from getting back on your feet. However, if you’re just out of cash in the short term and waiting for your next payday, taking out a loan could help you buy that console or that game you’re after. You don’t need to worry if you’ve got a poor credit rating, either; plenty of platforms provide bad credit personal loans so that you’ve got options no matter what your borrowing history looks like.

Look for deals

The nice thing about being a gamer these days is that most digital storefronts have regular sales. Steam, the Nintendo eShop, the PlayStation Store, and the Microsoft Store regularly discount games, and if you’re a PC gamer, there are lots of websites you can go to where you can often find PC gaming keys for ridiculously low prices. Remember that we’re not talking about grey market key resellers here; that’s a controversial issue we don’t want to wade in on. Rather, legit sites like IndieGala or Fanatical often hold sales, so you’ll usually find something good there.

Buy cheaper consoles

Every single major console that’s on the market right now has a cheaper option you can buy if you’re hard up for cash. The PlayStation 5 has the Digital Edition, which has the exact same specs as the disc model but lacks an optical drive. If you’re an Xbox gamer, you can pick up an Xbox Series S, which runs all of the same games as the Series X (although admittedly it does lack a little in the power department). Finally, there’s the Nintendo Switch Lite, which is handheld-only, so you won’t be able to play it on a TV. All of these options are cheaper than the flagship models by quite some distance.

Don’t break the bank when it comes to a gaming PC

If you’re buying a pre-built PC, you don’t need to break the bank to play most modern AAA games. While a certain degree of investment is necessary – and that investment will often dwarf what you’ll spend on console gaming – you can buy cheaper components or cheaper pre-builds and save some money. For example, if you don’t have a 4K display hooked up to your PC, then the latest and greatest graphics cards aren’t going to make much of a difference beyond a certain point. Do your research and find out what kind of components will work for you.

Swap out PC components instead of buying a new one

PCs aren’t like consoles. When a new PlayStation comes out, you pretty much have to ditch your old one if you want to play new games. That’s not how PCs work, though; you can replace many of the components inside your PC, and doing so is often cheaper than buying new. Is your graphics card starting to chug a little? Buy one that’s a few models more advanced and you’ll notice a difference without needing to upgrade anything else. Noticing some slowdown when multitasking? Adding more memory can make all the difference, and you won’t need to spend huge amounts to get this either.

Look for cheaper audiovisual equipment

Companies love to upsell equipment like TVs, soundbars, and accessories for your gaming hardware. The fact is that most gamers can easily get by on budget versions of major tech. You probably don’t need the all-singing all-dancing flagship OLED TV model, for example; a standard LCD screen will suffice. Similarly, a good soundbar with an optical connection (or HDMI for ARC) will often set you back less than £100, and you can buy great PC speakers for criminally little. If you shop around and make sure you’re not falling for the first offer you see, you can build a setup without going near your limit.

Wait a little while to play major releases

Many AAA game developers bank on the FOMO you might feel when a game comes out in order to get you to preorder it or buy it on launch. The fact is, however, that not doing so will often result in huge savings for you. Indeed, many say that it’s not a good idea to buy games at launch, not just because of the costs involved but also because games are often in a partially unfinished state when they launch now due to restrictive deadlines. It’s best to wait a few months before picking up a game; the price will inevitably drop, and you’ll almost certainly be getting a better version of the game anyway!

Related