The holiday rush is finally winding down. You’re likely sitting there with a leftover pile of wrapping paper, a stomach full of leftovers, and that one specific thing: a $50 or £50 gift card. It might be for Steam, the PlayStation Store, Xbox, or maybe just a generic Amazon balance. It’s a great position to be in, but it’s also a bit of a headache. Do you blow it all on one big thing, or do you try to stretch it across three or four smaller wins?
New Gear, New Possibilities
If you’re lucky enough to be setting up a brand-new console today, you might want to run through these five essential setup steps before you start downloading—it’ll save you some serious time and ensure your system is actually ready to play. Let’s be real for a second. In the current gaming climate, $50 isn’t quite the “buy anything you want” ticket it used to be. With most major blockbuster titles now sitting at that $70 mark, your gift card is more like a very generous coupon if you’re looking at the latest Triple-A releases. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get something incredible. In fact, if you’re smart about it, that credit can actually go a long way.
If you’re a console player, you’re probably looking at the heavy hitters that defined the last few months. Games like Ghost of Yotei or the long-awaited Death Stranding 2: On the Beach have likely been dominating your social media feed. If you don’t own them yet, using your $50 to take the sting out of that $70 price tag is a solid move. You’re essentially getting a brand-new, massive experience for twenty bucks out of pocket. It feels like a win.
Then there is the Monster Hunter Wilds factor. That game came out earlier in the year and has likely seen its first real price dips by now. If you can find it on sale for around $40 or £40, grab it. It’s the kind of game that will eat up hundreds of hours of your life, which is a pretty great return on investment for a gift card you didn’t even pay for.
Hunting for Value in the Indie Scene
But maybe you don’t want to spend extra cash. Maybe that $50 is your total budget. If that’s the case, you should probably be looking at the indie scene or the “AA” gems. There’s a certain magic in finding two or three smaller games that you actually end up playing more than the big-budget stuff. Take a look at Hyper Light Breaker or whatever the latest breakout hit is on the Steam charts. These games usually land in the $25 to $30 range. You could pick up a highly-rated indie title and still have enough left over for a DLC pack or a smaller “cozy” game to play when you need to decompress.
Is your hardware feeling a bit stale? Sometimes the best way to spend a gift card isn’t on a game at all. If you’re an Xbox or PC player, $50 covers a few months of Game Pass Ultimate. It’s not the flashiest way to spend your money, but it gives you access to hundreds of games instantly. It’s the practical route. But hey, if it gets you access to the entire Halo library and the latest Day One releases, who’s complaining?
Gear Upgrades and Digital Hoarding
If you’re on PlayStation, you might want to look at third-party accessories like 8BitDo controllers or a decent mid-range charging dock. There is something deeply satisfying about never having to hunt for a USB cable again. For Switch owners, that $50 is almost exactly what you need for a new set of themed Joy-Con grips or a high-speed microSD card. If you find yourself deleting games every time you want to install something new, please, do yourself a favor and buy the storage. It’s a quality-of-life upgrade you’ll appreciate every single day.
What about those of you who play everything on Steam? The Winter Sale is usually in full swing around this time, and $50 in a Steam Wallet during a sale is like being a kid in a candy store. You could probably walk away with five or six world-class games from a couple of years ago. Think along the lines of Cyberpunk 2077 or Elden Ring if you somehow haven’t touched them yet. Those prices usually tank during the holidays.
It’s easy to feel like you have to spend it immediately, but you don’t. Sometimes the best move is to just let that balance sit there. There’s always a dry spell in February or March where no big games are coming out and you’re bored. Having a “free” $50 waiting for you then feels like a gift from your past self.
So, what are you leaning toward? Are you going for the big blockbuster discount, or are you going to try and build a mini-library of indie hits? Maybe you’re eyeing some new thumbsticks to fix that slight drift you’ve been ignoring? Let us know in the comments what you ended up picking up! We’d love to hear if you found a hidden gem or a killer deal we missed. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more gear guides and gaming news.
Sources:
- www.rockstargames.com/newswire
- www.playstation.com/en-us/games/ghost-of-yotei/
- www.monsterhunter.com/wilds/en-us/
- www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass
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