Do you buy games as soon as they come out or wait a while?

I usually pre-purchase/order. But I almost never do it on steam. I get em on places where it is much cheaper.

Agreed - kNox. (And welcome to SG too!) The game prices here in Australia can be as much as $120 (Retail) at times, however they're usually $80-100. Given that, I find that more and more often I'm waiting a few months to buy games just for the sake of saving money. That and as a university student, I really don't have the money a lot of the time.
There's exceptions now and then where a title I might really want is concerned. An example of this being Dark Souls. I'm pre-ordering it since they give you the Collector's Edition for no extra cost (That and I was extremely fond of its predecessor.)

Maybe I might change the way I go about things if retailers or Steam lower their prices, for now I'll stick with waiting and getting one or two games a year on release.

Only when they are on sale and are muuch cheaper.

Depends on game, I bought Infamous 2 day 1 (regret it), while I waited a year for Sims 3 to go down.

I plan on getting Uncharted 3 Collector's Edition day 1

I wait a minimum of five years to purchase a game. Soon I'll be able to play that Portal game and find out what the deal is with that cake.

I gave up buying games right away when Black and White was released, if any of you remember that?

Twas riddling massively with bugs, kinda like the Dead Island Issues at the moment, but in them days people didnt have uber speed connections we have today.

I am a cheap bastard, so I usually wait and hit up sales. I stepped out of my comfort zone and pre-ordered Dragon Age 2 because I loved Origins so much.

Never. Again.

I usually wait for games to get a price drop or to go on sale, but for games I -really- want I don´t like to wait. So for some games (for example, Total War: Shogun 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution) I either pre-order them or buy them immediately on release.

I wait for sales. Patiently. This month is a huge exception though. I got a bunch of onlive games (Batman Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Deus Ex: HR, and Saints Row 3) :)

Depends on the game. But i do buy quite a few games on release, i simply can't wait.

I've been burned to many times on pre-purchases! Know I usually wait a month or 2 and check out the reviews.

I never every buy a game at full retail price. Especially on steam. I know its going to sell for $10 in a year so why not what for the 75% of sale and price drop.

That being said though. I will probably jump all over sc2 expansions and D3 when they are released. Blizzard doesn't like the idea of a sale or dropping prices much so you about have to pay full price, specially if your gonna play with friends as soon as it comes out.

Depends on the game, but like a lot have said already, never for the full RRP.

Sometimes. I usually wait for a sale.

The only game I bought as soon as possible was Portal 2, which I preordered. I usually wait until games are on sale.

I'm waiting fo GotY-Editions (Game of the Year) bundled with all DLCs/Addons for a lower than original price. :)

Depends on the game. Most games I do, but if I can reasonably assume that the game won't work properly at release (ie, most Paradox games or Skyrim) then I skip it til it has a sale.

If it's worth it's get pre-ordered else ill wait.

I usually wait for a sale.

I always wait because not only am I a student with student loans to worry about, but I also am an indie dev. Thus money does not come easy to me, so I tend to wait for steam sales.

Depends on the game and the situation I have.

If I have time, I'll go and buy the retail version(since it's cheaper)

Or if it's a game I really want(Portal 2 for instance), I'll buy it right away or preorder it

It depends, on the game but normaly i wait, test the betas or something like that. but with games like Diablo or Elder scrolls i always try to buy it right away

I usually wait for reviews etc and buy 1-3 months after release

I'm also a student and I usally wait for the games to be cheaper, sometimes I even buy used games, because I can't afford new games that sometimes cost 50€ while used games I can buy them at 10€-20€.

i only pre-purchase/order if it's a game i care about.