I've only bought a few games at launch, and I can honestly tell you they were worth the asking price. For instance, I bought Pokémon Diamond and Pearl on their day of release, and while Pearl was relegated to the side, I played the ever-loving snot out of Diamond—I just couldn't bring myself to stop playing. Another good example is Drakengard, which I bought during its week of release for about $50 I believe, and I can tell you once more that it was well worth the price, as I played the hell out of it. One of my all-time favorites, in fact. Final Fantasy XII is another good example, although I spent the majority of my time playing power-leveling and never actually finished the game.
With that said, I'm not one to buy games at launch, to tell the truth, so it has to be something that I'm genuinely interested/invested in, and even then I will stop and think twice. Nowadays I feel most games aren't worth the asking price solely due to how shady the industry has become what with day one patches, locking content behind a paywall, and all that other nonsense. Granted, most games that recur to these type of practices usually don't appeal to me, especially in regards to online multiplayer, but it's still a factor regardless.
As I've stated before, I wait until the hype dwindles, so I just wait for prices to go down and either get them on sale or used. There's a good chance I'm not going to play the game right away, so why waste $60 to begin with.
Almost no game is worth $60... not unless it is some really rare print or an older difficult to acquire import.
I think people are morons if they actually pay $60 for a new game since (just about) every damn game ever made ends up eventually dropping to $20 or so if you simply wait awhile.
At any given time, >>95% of the greatest games ever made were made over a year ago. So what's with the obsession with whatever is brand new??
Have a brain and just wait a bit. Your pocket book will reward you. You'll be able to own 2 to 3 times more games.
And perhaps you might even have some money left over to get out of your parents basement and live on your own.
Tone aside, I agree with you. Most people that tend to buy games as soon as they get released do so for the instant gratification and experience, though, somewhat following what
kamikazekeeg said. Usually these kind of people can't be dissuaded to do the opposite, so that's basically the demographic the industry is shooting for. These often are also the type of people that tend to buy into hype, as well as buy consoles and games with a "short-term" mentality, meaning once a new generation console is released they jump into that bandwagon and abandon the last. So, basically as
sworddude stated, the industry needs these type of customers to keep afloat.