What makes you buy a game at full price?

It's weird, between PS+, Xbox Games With Gold, and Humble Monthly, I rarely buy many games anymore let alone on release. My back catalog is huge, and I don't have to worry about getting a "free game" that I already own.

buying games on Steam Sales occasionally happens but it comes down to my past experiences, which hasn't been great as of late (where as of late is the last 6 or so years)

(recent) Games I've bought at release
Civilization V: bought and played a few games when it came out, didn't enjoy it all that much. It wasn't until the DLC until the game was good. Bought the full game+ all dlc for $10 a few years later on a steam sale, felt like I wasted the $60 on the base game, because I didn't really enjoy it until I had the DLC.

Diablo III: Couldn't log in for the first few days, then couldn't get past how tied it was to the real money auction house. Never made it past Act 2. I know it has become a better game since, but I haven't gone back

Xcom Enemy Unknown: Bought it on release day based on positive reviews. Most reviews talked about a few features such as character customization without pointing out that they were pre-order bonus and were $7 more in DLC for those that didn't pre-order. Felt ripped off

Mass Effect 3: Raced to the end to be one of the first ones let down by the ending.

NHL 2015: Was fun to play online for the first 48 hours or so until people figured out all the glitch goals. After that I only played single player

Overwatch: Best Day1 purchase I've made in a long, long time. Helped me find this community, and so many great people to play with. Still play it regularly

Battlefield 1: based on my experience with Overwatch I picked this up, hoping to be a part of another community. While I enjoyed the single player, I hated multiplayer. Would have been fine picking this up in a few years for the single player only.

I just bought Vampyr at full price because I just really wanted a Vampire game.

1. Trust. If a developer has done nothing but produce great games that I routinely enjoy tremendously, I have no problem paying full price as a pat on the back to the developer.
2. The other factor is if I'm going to get a great amount of hours out of a title.
3. Word of mouth. If everyone on a certain site whose tastes mirror my own is over the moon about a title, I'm willing take a chance.

Top of the list now is CD Project: Cyberpunk 2077 and any future Witcher games are no brainers.
Firaxis never misses a beat. If it's Civ or XCOM I'm in.
BioWare used to be the top of the list, but after Andromeda (which was ok) I feel the need to be a bit more cautious.
Anything Total War, so long as the early reviews are good.
Paradox titles, particularly Stellaris DLC

Budo wrote:

1. Trust. If a developer has done nothing but produce great games that I routinely enjoy tremendously, I have no problem paying full price as a pat on the back to the developer.
2. The other factor is if I'm going to get a great amount of hours out of a title.
3. Word of mouth. If everyone on a certain site whose tastes mirror my own is over the moon about a title, I'm willing take a chance.

The first two, plus how excited I am to play it. I would have paid full price for Persona 5 if I knew how much I would love it; I also totally will pay full price for Dragon Quest XI later this year.

I pretty much have resorted to Humble Bundle monthly to be my new stream of games. I get so many free games through Prime and giveaways I already cannot keep up. I figure Humble will keep me stocked for future games to play.

However if Dishonored 3, New From Software game, Portal, or Half Life 3 is released tomorrow, imma gunna git it.

Bad decisions.