Cutting out most subscriptions. It’s exhausting knowing you gotta pay for something forever with no ownership.

Back to form. I became your subscriber years ago because of the diversity available on your channel, so I am incredibly glad that you brought this series back to the main channel.

Love that the coffee videos are back. I missed them dearly.

This is one of my favorite series of videos on YT rn. These are very chill and nice to watch, so I just wanted give some feedback and hope u keep it going for a long time! cheers

Coffee is a subscription service that causes me anxiety, exhaustion and energized in a negative way lol. That's why I cut it off from my diet

This video honestly fundamentally helped me. I feel like so often I've let this "fear of missing out" control me, and feeling like I need to have everything. I really enjoyed and found so much more pleasure in games as a child when I only had like 4 games on my 3DS. There has always been a constant anxiety of missing out or getting my money's worth whenever I play games, to the point where it's been ruining my enjoyment of many of them. I heard someone say when looking at my steam library that "you're not really getting your money's worth unless you put it in at least an hour per dollar you spent on a game" and I let that change how I view things. It led to me playing games I just didn't like anymore just so that I didn't feel bad for buying them, and always buying cheap games that I never come back and replay after I get my "money's worth" of a few hours. The idea of picking and choosing a small selection of games each month sounds amazing. The fear and anxiety of feeling like I have to get new games or get my money's worth out of old ones really just takes away from the actual enjoyment and alters which games I really want to play. The first game in a while that I've genuinely wanted to play ahead of time (rather than just endlessly scrolling through the steam store until I found something that looked kind of interesting for me to pay for and put time into) was guilty gear strive, which has been getting me into the fighting game community, which I love. This video as well as Strive in general has encouraged me to take things slower, and really just put time into the things I love, or really am genuinely interested, rather than feeling almost forced to sink my time and money into things I don't really enjoy as much as a result. Thank you so much for making this video, it's really helped me and my mental space for games (and many other things, I've really always been controlled by the idea of "missing out").

I am glad you are making these coffee video again. Those were my favorite of your videos.

Great topic. I canceled my ps plus subscription when they said it was going from $60 to $80. I bought MK1, TEKKEN 8 and SF 6 on PC where it's free to play online. The games were also cheaper at launch.

I love that u brought this back

I am absolutely loving this series, I subscribed to you quite recently and by binging your older videos these were my favorite

I would just rather own now then having access to a large library with little time. Your right no one talk about the value of our time. Maybe its a manipulative way to get the money out of use.

I've had difficulty reconciling this same issue. Thank you for making this video, it helps alot.

I recently bought some old Game Boy games whilst in Japan, some of these games are famous and I could easily play them with my NSO subscription, some I had no idea what to expect. It was nice to plug these games in and play them, and I've spent a lot more time with them than I likely would have done had they popped up on a subscription. I guess people that listen to vinyl have a similar argument.

Was buying lotta board games, far too much for far too long, but was coming to similar conclusion. So I really do appreciate the re-affirmation here to keep on and the help!

Love your content man.

This video helped remind me of just how many subscriptions I've forgotten about! It's frustrating keeping up with each new game release, and on top of that, It's not sustainable. What do I accomplish by purchasing and finishing each game? Bragging rights? It's not worth it. Thanks for this video and keep making content!

Great series.

Great talk. More like this please.

Awesome to see you lean into the coffee hobby proper.

I really like these coffee chats when talking about gaming, all my hyperfixations all in one place 😂

I have same conclusion with gaming gear, but gear can be at least sold later and with subscribtions it never comes back. Great topic! Thank you!

I don’t have any 😅 I just play tekken and buy whatever I want

Use what you need, I often found my self collecting large digital collections in the past on Steam rather than playing what I actually want to the most.

I felt so identified when you mentioned the regret by not choosing the game of the night correctly after a long day of work, or when I see my arcade stick I think like god… I’ll be worst at ranked haha. Loving this series.

I felt that way when I had game pass I had to make a list of what I wanted to play first then go down the line.

There is just too much out there 😫 and then being on social media seeing everyone have fun with the latest game makes you want to be a part of that moment. But because it is their job to play games all day you can never keep up. It just becomes a never ending treadmill of content that you feel burdened to get through.

My annual PSN plus subscription finished last month, and i still haven't renew it, i do miss playing online with one of my friends, but with the price hike and the way the 9th gen is going i have serious doubts i will renew it at least not for now, luckily i have a great backlog of retrogames and Switch games to play

I only pay for Nintendo and PlayStation subscriptions for the Save Data Cloud Storage backup. I have had my saves for 1000+ hour games corrupt and ever since I pay to back up my saves just in case. I don't care about the free monthly games I just use it for the ability to have save backups AND of course playing certain games online like Mario Kart or other Playstation online games that require PS Plus.

Shoutout to the Ethiopian Coffee

Yes, buy your games people.

You will be reviewing Seimitsu's Alutimos? From what I say some just released and seem to be promising.

I love "classic" NihongoGamer videos 🙂

two things: there are games i play once and never touch again - subscription. and games i keep replaying/endgame loop - buy the game.

Hello, yesterday I bought an Xbox 360 for the first time. I’m playing armored core 4 on it. It fels so right just loading the disc to the system and start playing right away without internet, without any accounts.

I funnily enough came to this same conclusion because of Piracy. I had an R4 in my DS and a hacked PSP and had access to their whole libraries. I ended deleting every game I had except for around the 10ish that I played most frequently

I look at the list of games and play nothing.

Being in a somewhat similar situation with yours (minus the fighting game addiction I guess) I have to say that having my guitar on constant display really helped a lot with playing more. Also, I have set a few rules for myself to keep game purchases under some control. For example I try to only buy a new game if I've finished another. But I actively hate subscriptions and I have to disagree with you; subscriptions ARE evil as they kinda rely on you either forgetting to end them or simply losing track of them. Also, digital libraries and subscriptions are not promoting preservation. History has shown that at any given moment a game or a whole eshop might get pulled from the internet and you might lose access to them FOREVER. That's why I ended up buying PC games almost exclusively from GOG and physical on Switch whenever possible. But generally, every time I think about how many games I have and how little time, I just can't help feeling guilty for having those kind of thoughts when there are so many people who have no access to far more essential things than video games. I think we should all appreciate how lucky we are and enjoy the things we have a little more.

I will watch this video But first coffee

i just paused my gamepass last week. I've been to busy to pay even my purchased games, so the subscription wasn't getting used enough. i think having limits or restrictions can help promote focus, like how fewer resources can sometimes. unlock creativity. if i only had access to a game or two at a time, i might finish more games. but that's coming from someone with access to thousands of games, so take some gains of salt should also be taken. Many of my purchases were made to support developers, with intentions to pay "eventuality", but what if all games were available in a public library? If games and other art were treated as the good they are and publicly supported, people who liked making them could create and everyone could enjoy at their leisure.

I only have PlayStation plus. Because I forgot to cancel my renewal in time. Got rid off the rest. Also trimmed down the rest of my subscriptions to just a 3 for the whole family.

The only gaming subscription that I have is the basic PlayStation Plus one. In general the only other subscriptions I have is for my PC security, VPN, and...I think that's about it. The thing is, many people don't realize how much money they end up spending so much money with these subscriptions. It's kind of like an obsession that people don't realize how much money they're wasting unless actually sitting down and listing it all out. When it comes to video games, I don't think digital subscriptions is the best means to preserve games; especially since games can be taken offline any time. I prefer to own physical copies of games. The problem comes when FOMO is something people consider when it comes to video games being accessible. Of course it would be nice to have all of it, but realistically, it's best to strive to have only what is meaningful for you. A lot of get into the endless cycle of FOMO, backlogs, etc.

My Bank business account lets me create virtual credit cards via the android app on my phone. I create one virtual card at the stat of every month. And I make sure I cancle it before the end of the month. Or just cancel it immediately after subscribing. If I want to play again and its cancelled I just sign up again. That way I never pay for more than a month at a time. I do it with all subscriptions. Keeps me in control

I really don’t like the concept of subscription because every second unused is value lost but sometimes they’re a good money saver. I didn’t have to spend $70 for P3R with the Xbox Game pass, and I could beat the game at a leisurely pace, and buy it later on Steam for a lower price in the later years. One could see it as a paid demo, but I could at least experience them. One thing I don’t like are programs becoming subscription based, like Adobe Premiere and After Effect. I always buy lifetime licenses since I am not going to edit things on a daily basis, but there are limitations to that: I.e: new releases and dropped support for old ones.

I subscribe to the service which offers me the most (Hello Prime) then I turn on the VPN and pirate the rest. I don't have a game pass subscription. There are games I want to play, if there is a game I really want to play right away on game pass I'll sub for a month. What I found is that I had a backlog of game pass games on top of my normal steam backlog. Thus I was just in a state of backlogs and by the time I got around to playing my 4th persona game in a row, I was burnt out. The fear with these subscriptions is that they'll eventually be removed. I'm going back to buying on Steam sales for the most part.

I used to spend more time pirating games than playing them. When I stopped and started playing games on the PS4, I actually enjoyed games much much more. I only have the budget to buy one game per month so if I buy a 7/10 game, it becomes an 8/10 for me. I maintain a list of games I want to buy, it's maximum intentionality when playing games xD

I tend to stay away from those subscriptions because atleast from someone who plays on PC in addition to console. The games on those services more than likely have been given for free on services like epic games or Amazon prime. So it just seems super redundant especially if you have a backlog.

This was the wrong video to watch while dedicating my time to drawing as a way of avoiding having to do essaywork. xD

I Currently Play NOSTALGIA KONASUTE (コナステ ノスタルジア) , A Monthly Base Subscription From E-amusement By Konami, I Love Enjoying The Game That Simulates Close To A Piano. And The Fact, There Are No NOSTALGIA OP3 Arcade Cab In NorCal Unfortunately Or Any Round 1 Arcades. Most BEMANI Titles Aren't Available In The States. Especially Pop N Music Cabs😭🥺

too many choices usually end up with not doing anything with any of em. Similar to Netflix when you scroll looking for something to watch for 15 mins and end up watching nothing.

Coffee subscriptions are great. Support a local business.

I actually prefer the simplicity,size and price of consoles over pc but I moved to pc 4 years ago because I was sick of paying for multiplayer functionality and because due to thumb issues from years of using pad I can only play on mouse n keyboard now. I would love to have a little series x or the ps5 pro that’s coming but it’s impossible unfortunately

The amount of steam sale games I have and will never play 🤣🤣🤣

I quit most twitch streamers that try new games daily, quit discords that talk daily about new games, same with twitter. Suddenly i started buying less and less "okay"indie games and started only buying games i looked up myself and i really want. Tho i do love having access to roms or else i had more difficult way of playing skies of arcadia this year. Now my money goes partly to also other and healthy things to make my life better. Balance is key, 1k games in just my steam library is not Balance anymore haha

I have no subscriptions. It's nice to only buy what I want. And I only really buy 2 or 3 games a year during sales

Subscriptions really need to be looked at. If they were physical products you weren't getting and had to store, we would cut many in a heartbeat. We have grown accustomed to having things "always available" that subscription services don't get looked at the same. Many pay just as much for streaming as they did before they cut the cable cord. I just don't see how people get their money's worth out of gaming subs. I guess it saves from "wasting" money on bad games. If you bought the item, you're probably more inclined to use/play it.

this why I also quit gaming subscriptions on console since it gets way expensive, it could cost alot to 3rd party sellers just to get a ps+

This is the reason why I only play online games on steam because the online is free while i buy single player games for my PS5.

I bought a arcade stick lost all my drive for everything gaming. 😩 I need a rival or something 😩I guess I can train if I could go to a arcade I'd go

And as far as gear goes. I could've bough an actual car with what my sim rig cost me

😊😯😎🍵☕ flashback

I just buy the games I really want. A subscription would probably just distract me from those.

This FOMO we've been feeding on lately really hurt our inner self

Gaming subs are the reason I refuse to play games online on console anymore (or paid MMOs like FF14). Large game library or not, I just don't like that they gate cloud saving or even just playing multiplayer, things that PC does for free. And like you imply, by having a sub you're compelled to always be playing to "get your money's worth", rather than buy once (and which you own, not just renting with a sub) and play whenever you want to. Btw, I feel like it's been ages since you did coffee talk videos.

Ultimate subscriptions becoming more expensive over time, it felt better to downgrade to the basic tiers and just focus on the games I own.

Also real luxury is having less time working and more free time to do things that you like. Money is nice but not nice if you work 60 hrs a week.

You forgot to mention the subscription subscription.

Guess I'm cancelling my onlyfans subscriptions. Thank you frend

Subscriptions are great if you have the spare income and time but still buy things you really like.

10:12 ADHD. ADHD is where it comes from

If Capcom and SNK (or just Capcom using their own rights) make a downloadable online edition of CVS2 for at least PS5 - I would delete Fightcade2 immediately and quit playing on PC. In fact a similar thing like Fightcade2, e.g. playing every fighting game as an online edition, on the PS5 - let's say for PS Plus Premium users only - my dreams would have come true. But we are far from that, because what I see is only a few old fighting games free available for PS Plus Premium users...

Torrent > subscription

How much are games worth if they are so abundant? To me, it's an availability thing. If it's easily accessible, it seems like it's not worthy of pursuit. My backlogs on xbox, ps4, ps5 and Steam are completely unplayable. Why? Because it's over 200 unplayed games on each. Who has that kind of time when you have a full time job, a significant other and any other hobby? No one. I find much more value and have more fun trying to develop my own games these days. When I play, it's the bangers only.

the only subscription i bother with is my VPN

I think the paradox of choice, n analysis paralysis, becomes irrelevant due to the sheer size of games now n relative lack of storage space. You can really only hold a few games on the internal hard drive so you're forced to decide on a select few - nobody is going to uninstall n reinstall different games to swap between This take has more merit when it comes to retro ROMs with thousands of games, or one of the '10,000 games plug n play stick' that connects to the TV

I cut out PS Plus, some extended warranties, Netflix, Prime, and waiting for Game Pass to run out. Don't need all this crap.

Like people trying to recommend game pass then that means no one should get game pass if anyone wants to join a subscription

Hmmmmmmm😂😂😂😂

Cutting my subscriptions as well. it might be convenient from a money point of view. but the anxiety and Fomo are not worth it.

You know you're doing well when these are the kinds of things you worry about. I'm happy for your success.

I hate subscriptions.

Subscription services are evil and games should not be linked to them

Just canceled Gamepass. Great service but it's just being used by me and I can't play that many games.

Game Pass is the best deal in gaming on the market. Ultimate applies to both Xbox and PC. Sue me.

I dont know anyone that uses game subscription because it's such a dumb concept, most games are not made to be "consumed" and finished in few hours like most movies or tv shows, they are huge experiences that take you hundred of hours, so subscribing to thousand of games when you're just going to play the same 3 games all the time is incredibly dumb. And for people who want to support indie games, buy the game directly from them instead of going through your subscription.

i am evil man

@NihongoGamer have a kid???? married???

My solution, sub and unsub right away, If I need it next month, I resub and unsub. Like paying for a MONTH.

Sure, I'll watch you ruin your gut. In the mean time I have paint drying in the background, I'm multitasking.

I disagree with this sentiment. For me, I enjoy the game better when I play the way I wanted to play. If I want mods, I will play on PC, if I just want to access and play early, then I play it on the released platform. If I want to play cheap, I wait for years until it is in a discount. If you only want to play fighting games, then subscriptions makes no sense since you will never wanted to try new games anyway, why bother? But for me, I can't get into the same genre over and over again, subscription works as it brings me different variety of games that I can try, so I am not bored. I'm pretty sure that your brain will get bored and you want to try different games, but without subscription you can't. Then you are back to subscription very soon, or you have to buy the full games to experience it.

subscriptions allow those who make the things we love, allows them to get lazy and/or shove bs down your throat.

There’s no games worth paying to play online anymore . MMOs have died . Competitive shooters have died . Fighting games are dying . Everything has become to greed oriented. Golden days of gaming are over .

The fools that drove it to subscriptions are to blame, Wedding dress superficial DLC's are what created the problem and alerted them to the promise of your finances.