Most games are actually most expensive at launch. A year after release their prices tend to be half. If not, discounts and other promotionals will surely come your way.
Seriously depends on the game. Black Ops 2 for example, a game that came out over a decade ago, still costs $100 on steam (assuming you want the DLC). At best you'll get it for $50 during sales. The fact that, even during a sale, a game with a completely dead playerbase costs as much as a modern title is absolutely nuts.
A lot of games are like this, unfortunately. Not everyone takes advantage of sales because many people are going to end up buying the game regardless.
Oof. How are you managing? I'm in Canada and I'm finding inflation/wages to be incredibly stressful. 10 consecutive interest rates raises. Groceries up 20-40%. Cost of housing has doubled. Electricity + water is still dirt cheap though. Video games are way too expensive for me, library or bust.
I am lucky enough to be the owner of a house (government regularly makes houses and lets you buy them). Finished payment not too long ago, so it could be worse, but getting a house outside these housing projects is really hard. Groceries keep going up regardless of multiple blocks the state puts on them (these have very easy workarounds so the state can't really enforce much). Electricity has a symbolic price unless you go over a certain threshold and healthcare and education are free, for now at least.
Main problem is that there's a shortage of jobs, you usually get temporary hired so they don't have to pay severance or are "hired" but not legally employed so no laws protect you. If you can program you can probably be hired for an international company (they hire here because it's cheaper) but that's about it.
As for games and other digital content? We pay around 90% in taxes (yes, that is not a typo), that sometimes translates in higher prices than in the US, like is the case of Street Fighter 6 (price tanslates to about 65$ atm, translation was 80$ on launch for illustration purposes) or really any Capcom game. and there's also 'Dollar Blue' but I don't really understand the mechanics of it much, but is more expensive than a regular USD while having the same value of it. So usually piracy it is.