do you pre-order or buy games day 1 ?

[DanielBrown]

Only pre-order if it's a game I'm really hyped for and that I trust to be worth the money. When I do it's generally a month or two before the release date. Lately I've been cancelling pre-orders to spend money on more important things(booze) however.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I preordered Assassin's Creed Brotherhood because GAME had some sort of deal where you got your money back if you completed it within 7 days. As it happened, I had just come into some holidays, so it was a no-brainer. Otherwise, no, never pre-order or launch price, I'm FAR too cheap for that. Armored Core V I might have preordered if there was decent extra content, only because if there is a single franchise that could possibly make me preorder it would be Armored Core, but the bonuses were a bunch of parts you could get during regular play anyway, which is just such a f***ing joke. ^^

 

[Ljs1121]

Assassin's Creed 3 (which by the way is so amazing guys I can't even) was the first and so far only game I've ever preordered.

Typically I wait a few months for the price to go down but in this case I had to have it immediately.

 

[EHKOS]

I only pre-order if it's a limited edition. I missed out on the ultimate loot chest because I didn't act fast enough. I have the Ultimate Songbird locked down though!

 

[Catfood220]

I will pre order games if I am interested, mainly from Amazon as it is convenient to have it delivered to my door. I will also buy on day one/week of release mainly as an impulse thing or if I've enjoyed the demo. Otherwise I will wait until it gets cheaper.

Usually I have no regrets, but I wish I had of had the funds to buy Skyrim last winter when it went down to about £20. It would of saved me buying it in January for full price and getting bored of it a couple of weeks later.

 

[The Consequence]

I buy it on the first day. Always, always, always.

 

[Arina Love]

Yes but only J-RPGs because usually they don't print much of them and they soon disappear. i wait for a price drop on everything else.

 

[Bat Vader]

I tend to pre-order any games that I want. If a collector's edition is available I will always pre-order the collector's edition.

 

[Icehearted]

I've learned this is a foolish move. Better to wait till a game is finished being developed (read: patched) before buying it, otherwise you risk buying an unfinished mess. See the patch for Assassin's Creed 3? I hear it's a doozy. I was burned enough by Skyrim on my PlayStaion 3 to not know better.

Preordering is the biggest nonsense of all though. If it were a smaller dev I'd at least see the purpose, but big studio pre-ordering seems like abusing the system. I've done it myself only four times, and only one of them made sense since there was a cartridge shortage for a while upon release. The other times the games went down in price in a matter of weeks. I will never be as frivolous again.

 

[SlamDunc]

Halo 4 Legendary Pre-Ordered. I will buy any single player DLC they release. Map packs are a maybe as I am not big on multiplayer.

Elder Scrolls Skyrim Pre-Ordered. Bought al DLC the first chance I could.

Mass Effect 3 Preordered. No DLC. Dont play that game anymore.

 

[Rednog]

I used to but not anymore, the market has basically taught me to not buy stuff day 1 or preorder. Why? Because almost every time some place is going to have it on some sort of discount in like 2 or so weeks, this is especially true around Winter/Summer with things like the Steam sale. For example this summer Max Payne 3 rolls out, I pick it up like 2 weeks after release for half off, Specs Ops The Line came out even closer to the sale and was discounted 5 days after release for 50% of more.
I honestly can't justify buying a game at full price on day 1 anymore when companies will just slice off the price so quickly.

 

[Tiamattt]

I can't remember the last game I did a day 1 purchase, if I want a game bad enough I would pre-order it for a bonus. If I didn't want it that bad and/or there was no bonus I probably would just wait for a sale.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

Since I have other things to do, plus my backlog of games, I sometimes don't buy games until a year after. For example I just recently finished New Vegas.

 

[Rule Britannia]

I pre order big titles. Though this year i'm going thin on video games, not getting assassin's creed 3, not getting Call of Duty, not getting Medal of Honour. I might get Halo 4, still debating it :/

The only FPS shooters I'm looking forward to are Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4...Wow EA are just pumping out FPS games

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I only pre-order games if I'm getting a good discount and some extra goodies that make it worthwhile. Otherwise I'm waiting for a sale.

 

[J Tyran]

Pre-ordering games can backfire but I still do it, recently I pre-ordered Dishonoured and have the CE of Halo 4 on pre order. The only times its gone wrong for me was pre-ordering the Signature edition of Dragon Age II and RAGE. Dragon Age II was Dragon Age II, no more explanation needed and RAGE was broken at launch and AMD took their sweet time fixing the drivers. Between waiting for Bethesda to patch the game and AMD to release a decent driver it was 2-3 months before it was playable.

Sometimes its worth the risk of a pre-order if the games likely to be good and you get free stuff like DLC, skins or weapons or something. Lots of games come with bonus goodies for pre-orders and some of the larger retailers like Gamestop or Amazon have retailer specific goodies. With Dishonoured for example I got a free game to download and play the day I made the order and a hat and a knife for Team Fortress 2.

 

[TehCookie]

I pre-order if I'm going to pay full price for it, since if I'm going to pay that price anyways I want the free stuff with it. I never day one buy without preordering. Most of the time I wait for prices to go down, I only pre-order like four games a year.

I usually wait until a game is cheaper, unless I'm really looking forward to it. Then I'll buy it day one. I don't pre-order games. The only time I have pre-ordered a game, the shop closed and I lost my deposit. So I don't think I'll be doing that again.

They didn't move it to the nearest other store (assuming it's a chain)? I had that happen and I had no issue picking up my game.

 

[Tazzy da Devil]

I pre-order if I'm going to pay full price for it, since if I'm going to pay that price anyways I want the free stuff with it. I never day one buy without preordering. Most of the time I wait for prices to go down, I only pre-order like four games a year.

I usually wait until a game is cheaper, unless I'm really looking forward to it. Then I'll buy it day one. I don't pre-order games. The only time I have pre-ordered a game, the shop closed and I lost my deposit. So I don't think I'll be doing that again.

They didn't move it to the nearest other store (assuming it's a chain)? I had that happen and I had no issue picking up my game.

Nah, it was GAME. They all closed.

 

[skywolfblue]

For games that I want: Buy in the first week. (Even on titles I know I'll probably love I still like to have the opportunity to read reviews about it first. So I'm not a "pre-order and pray that it's good" person)

For games that I'm not absolutely sure about: Wait a year or so and buy it cheap.

 

[CyanideSandwich]

I've never preordered, and given the current trends in the industry, I never will. I've learnt my lesson with Assassin's Creed 2 and worked out a system:

If I find out that a game will have DLC or preorder-exclusive content, I wait a year for the game of the year edition. This usually includes all the DLC and "exclusive" content for only about $40. Sure, I have to wait a year, but a year-old game is just as good as a recent one.

I've used this system to get Arkham City, Borderlands and Red Dead Redemption with all the DLC for a very low price. It's worth the wait, as far as I'm concerned. I'm doing it with Borderlands 2 and Assassin's Creed 3 as well.

EDIT: Oh, wow. I just realised that you said the same thing as me in the OP.