Game Save #01 | New Series Introduction, Insights, & Community Spotlight
Welcome to the first Game Save! We're diving into an intro for this series, tracking digital game discounts, Gen Z money worries in gaming, a heartwarming tale from the gaming community, and more!
Introduction | What are Game Saves?
Welcome!
If you don’t know me yet, my name is Joe! You can read more about me and The Saved Game here!
For those of you who already know The Saved Game, you'll know that my typical time to release a new article is on Saturday mornings. These early weekend articles focus on memories of new and old video games, the stories they tell us, and ways to help you engage with those games and their experiences! These are typically my longer articles and newsletters, and they come out every other week on Saturdays! I’ll still be publishing them, and I have a great one I’m finishing up for this upcoming weekend!
So, if my main articles are on Saturday mornings, then why am I sending out another newsletter on a Thursday like today? And what the hell are Game Saves?
To answer those questions: Game Saves are shorter, more casual articles that I will start publishing periodically on Thursdays! They’re a quicker and easier-to-digest article for you, and they will focus on a much wider range of topics that would be too long for a Substack Note or social media post, but too short for my Saturday newsletters. The topics can include anything from a short review of a recent game/accessory I found interesting, something amazing I found in the gaming community that I want to give a shoutout to, or getting a bit deeper on a gaming topic that I wouldn’t want to do for my Saturday newsletters! Generally too, it will be content that has been on my mind lately that I want to write about!
My hope is that these Game Saves will give you something new to think about or check out, or a new creator or writer to go support that you may not have heard of, or a way to get involved further in the gaming community! I’m sure that they will evolve over time, and I look forward to building them out even more!
So, with the introduction out of the way, let’s get started!
Welcome to The Saved Game
But first off, I want to extend my warmest welcome and send my thanks to you for reading this article! You can subscribe and get all of my writing works in your inbox that I publish regularly! Read more here about the benefits of a free subscription!
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An Easy Way to Keep Track of Digital Game Pricing
I buy physical games as much as possible! I love being able to collect them, as well as the basic idea of owning the game so that I can do what I want with it. However, I do have two main exceptions: steep discounts and availability!
One major exception for me is if I come across a deal for a digital game that is seemingly too good to pass up and is a game I don’t mind potentially losing access to down the road (i.e., an online digital store closes or I lose access to an account). The discounted deal has to be drastically worth it though, with it being at least 60% – 80% on sale. Likewise, there are some games that just weren’t feasible to purchase physically due to availability/rarity issues, such as the Persona 4 Golden re-release from Limited Run Games. I recently picked that game up digitally for the PS4, as I already own it on the PS Vita and didn’t want to pay a ridiculous price for the physical copy online.
If there is a game that I would like to pick up digitally, I found a great resource to help find and keep track of their prices/sales that I wanted to share!
It may not be new to many of you, but for me, I recently found a website called PSPrices that shows you the price history for a large selection of digital games across most platforms! More so, they will notify you (with a free account) when a game you’re interested in goes on sale. Their home page also has some great information too, with games that are heavily discounted or games that are most-wanted deals — with filtering options that let you set a minimum discount percentage, which is helpful for only viewing heavily-discounted games!
One game worth checking out on sale right now for a great price is Dragon’s Crown Pro that I mentioned in my article on that game a few weeks ago — with it being on sale for $3.99 right now on the PS4! It’s a fantastic game, and well worth throwing in your PlayStation Store cart for that price!
Generation Z is Buying Fewer Video Games?
I can’t imagine this would come as too much of a surprise in 2025, but I ran across several news reports lately about the lack of video games that Gen Z is purchasing compared to just last year, and it’s something that I wanted to talk about.
A recent report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) showed some results based on research from Circana about how Gen Z is cutting back on spending lately across various industries. The number that stood out to me though was a decline of almost 25% for video games being bought by Gen Z compared to the previous year!
While it was surprising at first, I also know that for myself, I have been cutting back too over the past few years. Even though the ninth generation of consoles has been out for several years now, I still haven’t upgraded at all yet. There are still so many quality singleplayer games that I am working through, and I just haven’t seen any major games that have come out for newer consoles that have persuaded me to switch yet. I also can’t help but think back to older consoles I would buy a few years post-release, where I would get them for a lower cost compared to their initial release price. However, newer consoles still have not dropped in that initial price at all, which has been a big factor for not upgrading yet, at least for me.
This recent report from the WSJ reminded me of the news from last year about the split of PS4 and PS5 monthly users being close to 50/50, which seemed a bit shocking given how long the PS5 had been out at that point. But, it also reminded me of just how popular the PS4 console was/is, and how many quality games it has on it. Again, I can’t help but feel like most people who haven’t upgraded yet, either from last year or so far this year, are stuck on the high cost of newer consoles and the lack of overall value that a new console would bring them compared to sticking with what they currently have.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this topic down in the comments below! Have you been cutting back on video game purchases this past year? What are your feelings about that recent WSJ report?
Community Spotlight
I’ve loved a lot of articles that I’ve come across for the past few weeks here on Substack! Many of them are insightful, informational, and just interesting to read — especially those from the gaming community and the people I’m subscribed to! For each Game Save, I want to highlight an article or content that came from the community that meant a lot to me!
A Compelling and Emotional Journey in Space
I recently came across a story about the game Elite Dangerous from the work of ROP that was incredibly emotional and heartfelt! It’s a tale about a group coming together for one of their own in a time of need to fulfill a final wish. This compelling account reminded me of the power that the gaming community has and the extraordinarily positive effects that gaming has on our lives!
I would highly recommend checking out his article down below if you have not yet, as well as giving ROP a subscription for his amazing writing that he has put a lot of work into over the past few months!
Wrapping Up, Updates, & What's Next
Thanks all for reading!
In this Game Save, I introduced and discussed what this new writing series will be about. There’s a lot more to come, and I look forward to future entries! I also took a quick look at PSPrices, and how I’ve been using this website lately to find good discounts on digital games. A quicker dive was also taken as well towards the pretty drastic spending cuts from Gen Z on video games. Lastly, I highlighted ROP’s stellar article from this past month that reminded me of the positivity that games have on our lives!
Life has been busy for me the past month or so, and I’m glad I switched up my posting schedule here on Substack for new write-ups! Posting my main articles every other weekend gives me more opportunity to make sure it all looks good and has the level of care that I want to put into my writing. I was playing a ton of Dragon’s Crown after my article I posted on it a few weeks ago, and that was fun! Now, I’ve been getting ready for my next newsletter by playing some Shovel Knight!
Speaking of which, my next newsletter for this upcoming Saturday will be on Shovel Knight! This was such a fun game, and I played it pretty soon after it came out a bit over a decade ago! It has so much heart put into it, and I loved the details that game has! It was a game that I only played because online reviews and a YouTuber I used to watch, which I was glad for. I look forward to posting it, so keep an eye out on your inboxes this weekend!
Thank you for the honor and privilege of your time! It means a lot that you’re here, and I appreciate your readership! Let me know below what your thoughts are on anything I shared here today!
See you all next time,
Joe
Support and Connecting
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I wish you much success with the new series.
Good start for a new Series! :)
It is cool that you are collecting games physically, sadly these are subject to similar dangers of loss... as hardware and software evolves, old programs like game are left behind without proper compatibility and without the Hardware to read their discs.
As a PC gamer, I need to have a few DVD Readers at hand, for my collection, along with archiving patches or working kits for the current Windows version. This is why my preferred platform to get games, is GoG. All their games come DRM free, you can download the installation kit locally, and install it at your discretion on as many PCs you want. They have a launcher app, but it is completely optional, and they have initiatives like the "GOG Preservation Program" which ensures classic PC games remain playable on modern systems. Quite the awesome platform.
Also... BIG Thank you's!
I am real honored to be part of your first edition. It is indeed a cheer to see my Elite stories get noticed, have an impact and be appreciated! Very much obliged!