Five ways to keep video gaming during the economic recession

As the world lurches irrevocably into catastrophic financial meltdown there's every chance that many of you will have some truly alarming thoughts rushing through your heads right now. 'What will happen to the economy? 'Will I be made redundant?' 'Will I lose my house?' And – possibly most important of all – 'Will I be able to continue my wholly unjustifiable and extraordinarily decadent gaming lifestyle?'

Traditionally speaking, the video game industry has always been fairly robust in the face of such monetary malarkey, but just in case you feel the urge to be a proper Scrooge this Christmas and keep a beady eye on those precious pennies we've come up with a list of helpful hints that should enable you to weather the impending financial storm and keep your thumbs busy in the process.

Read on for our five tips on how to keep gaming during the recession.

1. Sell your games on eBay
The process of constantly purchasing new games is astonishingly costly – you've got to be pretty flush to drop 30 notes on a game and not feel a painful pinch in your wallet area. Therefore it makes excellent sense to use auction sites (such as eBay) to flog on your previously played titles and then use the proceeds to fund further purchases.

Naturally the newer games in your collection are going to net you the most profit on the second-hand market; if you buy a game and then complete it within the space of a week, it makes good financial sense to whack it up on eBay as soon as possible before everyone does the same and the value drops – you'll earn something closer to what you originally paid. In all honesty, it will only sit there on your shelf gathering dust anyway. 

2. Buy games second hand
Common sense dictates that once something has been owned by one person, its perceived value drops. The second-hand video game market is booming at the moment, with people keen to trade in their completed games for cold, hard cash. Therefore if you're shopping on a shoestring it makes a lot of sense to check the 'nearly new' section of your local video game emporium before grabbing the latest full-price FIFA or Need for Speed – although you naturally have less choice, there's a good chance you'll get lucky and pick up an immaculate copy of a new title that has literally only been in someone's PSP or DS for a few hours.

If you want to get ethical you could point out that neither the developer nor publisher of the game will get a sniff of the profit made from the sale, but otherwise this is an entirely guilt-free transaction.

3. Wait till the January sales and buy in bulk
Traditionally the Christmas period acts as the video game industry's dumping ground. Publishers hold onto key product for most of the year only to shovel it out onto the market around November time in the vain hope that it won't get lost in the monstrous avalanche of software released by rival companies with exactly the same idea in mind.

Inevitably, not all of these games are going to find the audience they crave, but the results of this festive fallacy aren't usually apparent until you check the bargain bins come January time. You'll find that at the start of 2009 stores will be desperate to shift unsold stock that hasn't been snapped up prior to Christmas, and consequently the reductions are pretty impressive. It's perfectly possible to snap up several major releases for next to no money whatsoever, so keeping your powder dry is certainly sensible if you want to enjoy your hobby at less expense.

4. Keep your eyes peeled for promotions
With every shop from WH Smith to Tesco selling games these days, the marketplace has become incredibly cutthroat and competitive. Naturally this is good news for us consumers.

In an attempt to outdo each other these stores are constantly running promotions to attract new customers, and it's not entirely out of the ordinary to see a high-profile new release discounted in its first week. Online, the battle for your cash is even more intense; leading sites Play.com, HMV and Zavvi all have pre-Christmas sales on at this very moment, with many a bargain to be had. But even outside of the year's major commercial periods many stores run 'Deal of the week/day' type promotions that are always worth checking out.

The key here is to keep your eyes peeled for offers, both online and in-store, by checking newspaper ads and signing up to video game forums that showcase a trading section – people will often post up details of bargains they've seen, which naturally saves you some tiresome donkeywork.

5. Play free games instead
This is obviously the best option if you're looking to be as frugal as possible. The rapid evolution of Flash-based PC gaming has resulted in an explosion of sites offering free ways in which to pass the time of day – many of which simply run in your web browser. Incredibly, some of the better examples are close to rivaling commercial titles when it comes to playability.

Simply typing 'Flash games' into Google should bring up a whole host of sites, although it must be noted that the quality of these titles can vary dramatically – you have been warned.

Whatever you do, keep gaming. We'll see you on the other side.