Jimquisition: The Poison of Pre-Order Culture

[ShadowGandalf01]

I pre-order stuff. I do it, not for bonuses and incentives, but because I get double reward points on my card at GAME. Those reward points stack up, and get me discounts in the future. I managed to take quite a chunk of the price off my PS4 when I bought it that way.

 

[mike1921]

I'm not going to say to never pre-order,but jesus christ if you don't care about the bonus (which you don't 90% of the time) or aren't doing it to show your support for the developer I don't have the slightest clue why you would ever. I pre-ordered bioshock infinite cause it saved me $16 and got me a free copy of xcom, that's worth the risk of it being shit. I would have pre-ordered SMT4 if I could've (didn't have money) because I love atlus and I love SMT and I trust them not to fuck up. What I don't get is why you would pre-order a game not from a beloved franchise that comes with some shitty cosmetic bonus, or why you would pre-order from EA, a cancer, ever.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Remember kids, it's not just AAA publishers who have ruined preordering. Early Access is the indie version of preordering, and it's just as bad.

pre-order are complete and utter shit

but lets consider for a minute they werent freaking awful, i say offering content already in the game as incentive is terrible for obvious reasons, i could get a tiny little bit behind pre-order if they offered instead something like, a free game, maybe a previous encarnation of the franchise, like say, giving away a copy of AC2 with each pre-order of AC Unity, or something like that, a few games have gone this route, tough not nearly enough

of course thatd wouldnt make me get behind pre-orders but atleast they wouldnt be buchering games to have something extra to offer as pre-order incentive

Whether you preorder or not should not change the game you bought in any way. Anything they offer should be something separate. (Art book, soundtrack, another game, whatever).

I want to know what the first game was that offered something that affected the game as part of the preorder. They're to blame for the rise of this idiocy.

 

[Steve2911]

While I agree wholeheartedly with the overall sentiment, I completely disagree with the idea that the Alien cast were 'removed from an Alien game' to form this pre-order bonus. It's pretty clearly just a little bonus cameo thing. If the game was about Ripley's ordeal, but you couldn't see or interact with any of the original cast/characters without preordering, that would be insanity. But it's not.

Is the fact that they're taking this cool little extra and making it a pre-order bonus bad? Yes. Should it have been in the full game? Absolutely. But its importance is being exaggerated a huge amount here.

A better example would be the Javik missions that came with Mass Effect 3 pre-orders and collector's editions. That was a massively important part of the game's story, and to slice it off as DLC was sickening to the core.

 

[Vivi22]

Alien Isolation is about Amanda Ripley.

Goldeneye on the N64 was about the movie Goldeneye: still had the Moonraker and golden gun levels and Baron Samedi making an appearance. Turtles in Time was a game that had absolutely nothing to do with the second movie: still fought Super Shredder at the end. Spider-Man on the Playstation was it's own self-contained universe. Still got to unlock a shit ton of classic Spider-Man costumes. Same goes for the X-Men Legends games actually.

See, we used to live in a world where a few levels featuring some cool shout outs to other entries in a series were just in the game if they were ready at launch. You might have to beat the game to find them, or unlock them, or whatever else, but you didn't have to pay extra, or pre-order a game that you had no idea if it would suck or not. And considering the last Alien game not only sucked, but blatantly lied to customers about how it looked, played, and ran right up until the release day, having this sort of thing added in as a free bonus would have seriously helped them.

But now we live in a world where a few extra levels thrown in for nostalgia sake cost money. Where we're sold extra skins or weapons at dollars a piece and where few companies bother to give us the kind of value that used to be a no brainer inclusion, and charge more for proper expansions which dramatically added to or expanded the game.

Selling a DLC with the original Nostromo Crew (which are all but one, at the time Isolation takes place, are kinda, sorta... you know... dead?) telling a story we already know, then that's fine by me.

Yes, because the reason people would want to play as the original characters is to see the story of Alien. Look up and you'll probably see the point sailing by.

It's a bonus in every way.

It's a ham fisted attempt to separate customers from their money before the reviews are even in because the last Alien game was an unmitigated disaster, all while charging for a little bonus content that 7-8 years ago, no one in their right mind even considered charging for.

Now if the game would advertise itself as playable version of the original movie or a parallel story where you may run into the original cast, it would be a whole different case. But as it stands, it's not.

I hadn't even heard of this game until the DLC announcement was made, and the only marketing I've seen from them since is about pre-ordering to get it. That's not a sign of a game that is willing to stand on it's own merits. It's a sign of a game that knows this extra content is the only thing anyone will give a shit about. They may not be advertising it as actually being a complete game based on the first movie, but they're trying their damnedest to toe that line without crossing over into lawsuit territory.

 

[Catrixa]

Urgh, at this point, I preorder things I'd go to the store at midnight on the day it came out, buy it, take it home, and immediately start playing (if I didn't have work the next day and the store sold them like that). Or things that I want the giant statue/art book for. Or things that get me into the beta if I preorder, so I can pre-play the game to see if I like the idea of it (and get my money back if I don't, although I usually don't preorder things I suspect I wouldn't like, just for the beta). If none of those apply (it's a franchise that's new or I don't know), I'll wait until it's been proven fun by someone (either a video, descriptive review, or free weekend). Games are getting way too sketchy to bet on anymore...

 

[Elyxard]

Anytime a seemingly important piece of content is partitioned off for pre-order or day one DLC content, I realize how little the developers care about the cohesion or completeness of their own narrative.

EA, of course, is the worst offender with this. How can you sell a fantasy RPG with entire characters as partitioned off content? We saw it happen to Dragon Age and Mass Effect where they started designing party members that were meaningless to the overall plot due to the way they designed "content" to be dropped in and out at will. These practices hurt videogames more than people realize.

 

[Vivi22]

And more over... it's free content. I keep looking to see where you have to pay extra because I never pre-ordered before. Looking up the process, it seems like you put 5 dollars down to pre-order, and that five dollars is taken off of the final purchase? So, in a sense it would be like getting '400 Days' bundled with the Walking Dead Season 1 for really no extra money.

The thing about pre-ordering is you're committing to buy before you even know if the game is any good. They want you to get hyped and excited because people who are excited are more likely to put down their money sight unseen for a game that, for all they know, could be a complete and utter piece of shit. You won't know until the reviews come in. And if there's a review embargo until release day, you won't know until it's in your hands. If you're lucky, you'll get to see the reviews before picking up a physical copy in a store and they might let you cancel the pre-order at no cost to yourself. More likely, if you were excited enough to slap your money down on it before it's out, you might have it in your hands and pop it into a system before you know it's shit. Now that extra content isn't free because best case scenario you trade it in for half it's value. Worst case scenario, you pre-ordered a digital copy on the platform of your choice and you're out your full purchase price when it turns out the game is shit. That free content just cost you $60.

Pre-order bonuses exist for one reason: to get people to part with their money. In the case of bonuses for bad games, it's to get them to part with their money before they know any better and realize the game was a bad buy. The entire concept of pre-ordering a game before the reviews are out is idiotic and only benefits the company making the game. The idea of withholding the only content the majority of people will give a shit about and making it a pre-order bonus so you only get it if you do the stupid thing that benefits them is borderline unethical. I say borderline because anyone who lacks the intelligence to recognize the customer is being played probably won't do a very good job holding onto their money anyway.

 

[Sanunes]

I agree with several of the posts here indicating that "pre-order fever" has even gotten to indie development with "early access" for me that is worse then an AAA studio for you are pre-ordering and never even sure if you will get the finished project good or bad.

 

[Something Amyss]

If it takes the whole thing collapsing then so be it.

Assuming it would collapse, which is a pretty big assumption. We're not in the 80s anymore. That kind of crash is obscenely unlikely.

The next generation of developers and publishers will be forced to learn from that mistake or suffer the same fate.

Going back to the "takeaway" message, they might learn from their mistakes and institute other predatory processes which are more successful. Hell, this is why people are switching to the F2P model.

There are going to be more THQ's whether we like it or not.

THQ's demise came largely at the hands of overspeculation on niche, proprietary hardware and games based upon that. IT's actually kind of unlikely we'll see a lot of those, whether you like it or not. The only reason I can think to claim that is because you actually want it to happen, but wishful thinking isn't very pragmatic.

I'm sorry I'm not buying games that give me less content for more money than 10 years ago.

So, if I might be so bold as to ask, what was the last game you bought? Because that seems to apply to most of the game industry, indies included, unless you count sales. In which case, you could nullify the argument by a single Steam Sale.

 

[Sanunes]

Anytime a seemingly important piece of content is partitioned off for pre-order or day one DLC content, I realize how little the developers care about the cohesion or completeness of their own narrative.

EA, of course, is the worst offender with this. How can you sell a fantasy RPG with entire characters as partitioned off content? We saw it happen to Dragon Age and Mass Effect where they started designing party members that were meaningless to the overall plot due to the way they designed "content" to be dropped in and out at will. These practices hurt videogames more than people realize.

I disagree that EA is the worst offender, for I do believe if those characters weren't included as DLC we would never get them at all and I am of the opinion that would have been for the best if they just scrapped and never brought to the game.

The pre-order bonuses that are bothering me the most are the ones that are exclusive to a specific platform such as what Ubisoft is doing with Assassin's Creed where you have entire aspects of the game restricted to one of platforms that the game is one.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I think these days the only time I preorder anything is when the game in question has a collectors edition with a physical bonus I feel is worth the asking price.

Usually that just boils down to the next World of Warcraft expansion pack which usually comes with an art book and a copy of the sound track. These are things I like that, probably could be delivered in a DDL method but I rather prefer to have as physical copies.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

The thing about pre-ordering is you're committing to buy before you even know if the game is any good. They want you to get hyped and excited because people who are excited are more likely to put down their money sight unseen for a game that, for all they know, could be a complete and utter piece of shit. You won't know until the reviews come in. And if there's a review embargo until release day, you won't know until it's in your hands. If you're lucky, you'll get to see the reviews before picking up a physical copy in a store and they might let you cancel the pre-order at no cost to yourself. More likely, if you were excited enough to slap your money down on it before it's out, you might have it in your hands and pop it into a system before you know it's shit. Now that extra content isn't free because best case scenario you trade it in for half it's value. Worst case scenario, you pre-ordered a digital copy on the platform of your choice and you're out your full purchase price when it turns out the game is shit. That free content just cost you $60.

Pre-order bonuses exist for one reason: to get people to part with their money. In the case of bonuses for bad games, it's to get them to part with their money before they know any better and realize the game was a bad buy. The entire concept of pre-ordering a game before the reviews are out is idiotic and only benefits the company making the game. The idea of withholding the only content the majority of people will give a shit about and making it a pre-order bonus so you only get it if you do the stupid thing that benefits them is borderline unethical. I say borderline because anyone who lacks the intelligence to recognize the customer is being played probably won't do a very good job holding onto their money anyway.

But then it all becomes subjective, doesn't it? I paid full price for Titanfall, hearing the reviews... And I didn't like it. I just didn't like it. Reviews, let's plays, all that stuff can all be positive and you can play it and not like it. All content will cost. How it affects you as a customer is what means something.

I'm not lying when I say this, but there are some games I feel bad for getting on a Steam Sale. That there is so much and it means that much to me, I actually feel guilty that I got something I treasure at a discount. Like the Secret World. I've had so much fun with that game and so much love as been put into it I feel like a freaking thief. But then, I paid full for games like Titanfall and... simply wish I didn't. No matter how many game of the year awards it might pull down.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

The developers do care it's the publisher's who are c**t's,

The developers are keeping silent on the subject. Until Jim himself gets an email from an anonymous developer confessing his anger with the leash Sega has put on him, I'm going to assume the dev doesn't have a problem with how this is turning out.

Is that a pissy attitude to take? Yes. But disappointment after disappointment has hardened me. They have to EARN my trust.

 

[JimB]

Well that turned unexpectedly erotic there at the end, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who kept scrolling the timer back.

 

[lukesparow]

I've pre-ordered two games in my life.



NEVER AGAIN.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

Maybe it's just me but I think the Jimquisition could use a more positive episode. Less "These guys keep doing it wrong!" and more "Look at what an awesome job these guys are doing! Wouldn't the industry be more awesome if more companies were like that?"

Just a suggestion.

 

[jthwilliams]

Pre-orders are a nifty tool for distributors to distribute their games according to the demand of certain area's. They'd want their games to be available at all times, so pre-ordering can get them to ship additional copies with the core shipment. THAT is how pre-orders should be used. Instead, the games industry has taken it and warped it in to a hideous monstrosity to be used as performance ratings like they do with Meta-Critic and also allow stores like GameStop to take a monopoly on exclusive content so that they will draw in more buyers. It's a load of crock. The fact that they're withholding Alien content from an Aliens game only shows just how deep they've fallen in to the rabbit hole.

If this was the first video game every sold. You'd have a very strong point. However there is an extreme plethora of demographic information which is available to pretty much all distributors that give them a pretty darn good idea how many copies they need to send where to make sure it is available. I would be wiling to bet the problem behind pre-orders is bad KPI. Day one sales has somehow become the biggest indication of game success, more important than year one sales, more important that profitability, more important that consumer review, more important than critical review. Further Game journalists need to take partial credit for that. It is so easy to report on how many day one copies a game sold and then talk about how wonderful that game is. Reporting on overall game reception over the period of year takes time, diligence, and the ability to do some research. Somehow day one sales became the equivalent of opening weekend tickets for a movie.

There are games on GOG that have been selling copies for more than 10 years. Lets have more stories about that and make longevity the KPI that the studios want to hit and less of the "XYZ sold X million copies in 1 day" stories which abound on this website.

 

[zinho73]

And I can't even remotely agree with Jim here:
Alien Isolation is about Amanda Ripley. Selling a DLC with the original Nostromo Crew (which are all but one, at the time Isolation takes place, are kinda, sorta... you know... dead?) telling a story we already know, then that's fine by me. It's a bonus in every way.
Now if the game would advertise itself as playable version of the original movie or a parallel story where you may run into the original cast, it would be a whole different case. But as it stands, it's not. And if you don't want to pre-order or get the DLC later but still want to know about it... Alien is over 25 years old - get it and freaking watch it!

Im with this guy here. I kind of think that the dlc is both justified and makes a full purchase of the new game worth it. The only thing stingy here is that sega doesnt have my trust like cd project but perhaps this is there way of being sincere. Time will tell.


Plus someone pointed out how they are trying to "force it down your throat before gameplay is revealed. Well youl still be able to preorder right up until near the game comes out and we have a whole slew of gameplay videos to watch. So if someone wants to preorder now and risk getting dashconned in the process(OH! OH!!!!!! ) lmao Well thats on them.

If the content is appropriate or not to be a DLC is not the point, really. It is the fact that a huge investment in content is being made, before the game is even out, to coerce fans of the franchise. They don't know if the game they are making will be well received, but they know fans won't be able to pass the original cast in playable form.

I would totally be in favor of an expansion (or DLC) further down the road on those lines, to complement a game that have sold on its merits alone. But all this effort to get our money before the game is out will most often lead to a lack of focus in the game itself.

Jim, is right, a few years ago, this would be a cool unlockable in the game. It would contribute to make the game better. It is now being used as a marketing tool. IN terms of gameplay, value and consumer respect we are going backwards.

In any case, I do agree that this particular content is not being cut from the game itself and is mostly a bonus, but it is still our loss that it is not in the game. I don't know, maybe the game itself is full of content with incredible extras, great replayability, unlockables and nifty surprises along the way, but I somehow doubt it.

The point is: instead of worrying about making a great game, they are more worried about finding ways to make us buy it without seeing it.

 

[zinho73]

Anytime a seemingly important piece of content is partitioned off for pre-order or day one DLC content, I realize how little the developers care about the cohesion or completeness of their own narrative.

EA, of course, is the worst offender with this. How can you sell a fantasy RPG with entire characters as partitioned off content? We saw it happen to Dragon Age and Mass Effect where they started designing party members that were meaningless to the overall plot due to the way they designed "content" to be dropped in and out at will. These practices hurt videogames more than people realize.

I disagree that EA is the worst offender, for I do believe if those characters weren't included as DLC we would never get them at all and I am of the opinion that would have been for the best if they just scrapped and never brought to the game.

The pre-order bonuses that are bothering me the most are the ones that are exclusive to a specific platform such as what Ubisoft is doing with Assassin's Creed where you have entire aspects of the game restricted to one of platforms that the game is one.

Actually, in the case of Dragon Age 2 Sebastian was clearly cut from the main content to be used as DLC. There are several items in the game that you can't even use (unless you make yourself an archer ) without the character.