Games are getting more and more expensive. There’s no denying it. All you need to do is look at Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart to see where the industry is heading with current-gen titles. You’re looking at $70/£70 if you want to play the latest titles at launch. As someone who used to struggle to scrape together the £40 needed to play Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater at launch, it’s a really shocking turn of events, despite it having happened over the course of years. The thing is, you don’t need to spend all your money in one hit to enjoy a game. In fact, you can spend nothing and still have a great time.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: some games are entirely free. Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Dauntless, and many others cost you nothing to download to your console. In exchange for that free buy-in, the developers do lock most of the good content behind a paywall, but you can still try the title and get a good feel for it after 20 hours or so without spending a penny. Unless the developers release a demo, you don’t have the same opportunity with any triple A game. You just have to put your money down and hope that the game’s good. If not, it feels like a waste.

Moving up slightly, you can also pick these games up for a small price that adds some of that paywalled content. The game still has hundreds of hours of content for you to enjoy. You just have to put a sort of deposit down if you want to access a little of it. It’s similar to minimum deposit casinos in that you’re being asked for a small buy-in, but the experience you have is more than worth that initial price. Unlike the full price of a brand new game, no one minds putting $10 or so into a game that they could potentially be playing for years to come.

Outside of this, sales and the slow decrease in the price of games occur over time. The games you want to play today will be cheaper in a few months. In a year, they’ll be even cheaper, and that’s without counting the phenomenal discounts you might be able to take advantage of in sales. If you’re interested in a game but don’t want to pay full price, add it to your Steam wishlist or a personal one. Keep an eye out for it in every sale you can see, and eventually, you’ll see that game go for a price you’re willing to pay.

Don’t be disheartened if a game you’re passionate about is out of your price range. One day it won’t be, and that’ll be the day you play it. For now, though, there are plenty of games to keep you entertained until that one big title you’re after is within reach. Of course, every game you invest your time in could be your next favorite, but you’ll never know that unless you give them a chance.