Poll: Are pre-orders for games these days ridiculous?

[DTH1337]

This is something I've been noticing a lot with retailers these days, but recently whenever a new game gets announced with something like a teaser trailer with no gameplay footage, they immediately get put up on retailers stores for pre-order. This has happened with upcoming games such as Defiance (haven't seen any gameplay at all), Destiny (no gameplay, and from what I understand the game isn't even being released this year), and most recently the Playstation 4 (console hasn't been revealed, only specs and the controller) and Battlefield 4 (while it did show gameplay footage, this has just been shown this week, why is it up for pre-order?).

So with all this pre-order madness going on that a lot more people are picking up on, my question to the community is do you think this is all ridiculous? Do you think that the game needs to have some gameplay footage shown to justify going on pre-order? Do you think it's right to put a console on for pre-order even though the console itself hasn't been revealed? And even when gameplay footage is shown, do you think that the game should be put on a pre-order list immediately?

Whatever your opinion, as always, leave your comments below and thanks for reading.

 

[DoPo]

Erm, nobody is forcing you to pre-order. Just because the option is there doesn't mean you have to use it, you know. I'd expect the people who actually pre-order with no idea what the gameplay is to have done their homework in other ways. If they didn't, and they were disappointed by the result, well, what can I say...MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE.

It's a supply and demand - both have to be present for this to be justified. People want to pre-order something with no indication what it is - let them. What's the worse that could happen? They would learn to put some thought into where their money goes? If that's the case, I'd encourage retailers to put even more pre-orders.

 

[Laughing Man]

Simple answer is yes.

In an ideal world the game would work out of the box and it would be exactly as the preview footage and release info had claimed but some big name titles of late have shown that developers are not above openly lying when it comes to showing us what they think we want to see only for the final game to be totally different (Aliens CM) or the game plain and simply doesn't work out of the box because of day one, two, three and maybe day four issues (Sim City and D3 I am looking at you.)

If you really want the game on the day of release you don't need to pre order, would you rather wait till the midnight release give it an hour or so and then read some of the early game play reviews, if the game is utter gash, a lie and totally not what the developer promised then you have saved yourself £35, if it is good then you jump over to your DD service of choice and within an hour you have it downloaded and ready to play. So perhaps you lose out on some of those 'lovely' day one or pre order DLCs that they like to throw in but given that most of those get released as paid DLC at a later point anyway, at a tiny price (a few quid) then would you rather pay £35 and get stuck with a rubbish game but have the day one free pre order DLC or would you rather wait and make sure you get a good game and then have to pay a few quid more a week or two down the line.

 

[BrotherRool]

Number of times games are unbuyable because they sell out (in the digital age) = almost zero. Number of times it's important that you didn't get to play on day one (with all the patches and server crashes) = 0

Number of times stores discount the product on day one anyway = always.


There is no reason to ever preorder. It's just a silly thing to do, even for games you really like. There is basically 0 advantage to it and it allows publishers to grab your money and run

 

[Bad Jim]

I'm one of those old fashioned people who thinks that gamers should wait for reviews and wait for others to try them out and watch gameplay footage on Youtube first, so companies get rewarded for games that are actually entertaining, rather than being rewarded for hyping games into the stratosphere.

Preorders are probably ruining the industry.

 

[Zhukov]

If people are paying for it then it clearly isn't ridiculous.

Nobody is forcing anyone to pre-order. If you think it's stupid or pointless then, y'know... don't.

 

[DoPo]

If people are paying for it then it clearly isn't ridiculous.

Nobody is forcing anyone to pre-order. If you think it's stupid or pointless then, y'know... don't.

You compressed the two paragraphs I wrote into two lines. Now I feel I wasted my effort. I HOPE YOU'RE PROUD!

 

[TehCookie]

If the game never comes out, that means free money for the retailer unless the person cancels it and not all of them give full refunds. I think people are silly for pre-ordering that early, but companies aren't for giving people the option.

 

[Zeckt]

Number of times games are unbuyable because they sell out (in the digital age) = almost zero. Number of times it's important that you didn't get to play on day one (with all the patches and server crashes) = 0

Number of times stores discount the product on day one anyway = always.


There is no reason to ever preorder. It's just a silly thing to do, even for games you really like. There is basically 0 advantage to it and it allows publishers to grab your money and run

I don't know about you, but I pre ordered Infinite and am having a TON of fun and got x-com for free. Looking at everything that goes on in this game I never once got the impression the developers were running away with my money. And once I'm finished with Infinite, I get to start X-com free of charge and I got the first bioshock to give to my friend to introduce to the series.

 

[BrotherRool]

Number of times games are unbuyable because they sell out (in the digital age) = almost zero. Number of times it's important that you didn't get to play on day one (with all the patches and server crashes) = 0

Number of times stores discount the product on day one anyway = always.


There is no reason to ever preorder. It's just a silly thing to do, even for games you really like. There is basically 0 advantage to it and it allows publishers to grab your money and run

I don't know about you, but I pre ordered Infinite and am having a TON of fun and got x-com for free. Looking at everything that goes on in this game I never once got the impression the developers were running away with my money. And once I'm finished with Infinite, I get to start X-com free of charge and I got the first bioshock to give to my friend to introduce to the series.

And you can roll dice and get sixes. EDIT: Was being a dick, sorry

REEDITED: Okay so we can apply maths to this. The point is that the people who preordered Aliens Colonial Marine thought they were getting a good game too, just like you did. Just yesterday someone was describing Activision as 'stealing' because they'd bought The Walking Dead Survival before reviews came out.

So first off, did you get the standard discount on your preorder or full price?

Assuming you got the discount, XCom: Enemy Unknown is worth ?30 at the moment and Bioshock Infinite is ?30 so providing you wanted XCom, you're almost getting XCom with a Bioshock free which seems like an excellent deal.


But did you buy before or after it was clear that the preorder were going to reach the correct level? If before then you were gambling on them reaching that level, else you were stuck with a game you'd preordered taking risk of loss with no advantage to preordering. Since that % is unknowable we can't crunch the maths to tell if you were gambling with the odss in your favour or against you.

If you preordered after, then that was an exceptionally good deal and probably the one time a preorder made sense. Even if Infinite sucked it wouldn't matter because they'd given you a free game that people knew didn't suck.

The maths doesn't normally work out like that though, most preorder bonuses are really only worth ?10 tops when take into account the standard day 1 20% discount which means you need to have the odds of preordering 4 games and having none of them suck before you even break even on that deal.

In general the companies know the companies have all the data and they wouldn't offer a deal that they didn't think made more money for them than their consumers so it's like any other form of gambling. Lots of people do it and lots of people can have pleasant experiences but the odds are always adjusted so the house collectively wins. In your case congratulations on an excellent deal

 

[Raikas]

I think it's silly when it's way in advance, but if its being offered at a discount becuase it's so far in advance then I can see how some people are attracted to that.

Personally I'm not a big fan of preorders in general - I think it makes more sense as a consumer to wait for reviews - but I have preordered games twice. Both times it was primarily because there was additional content for doing so, and they were part of franchises that I was comfortable assuming a certain level of product quality with. When there's no discount or bonus for it though I don't get it at all.

If the game never comes out, that means free money for the retailer unless the person cancels it and not all of them give full refunds.

To be fwir, a good number of retailers don't actually process the charge until the actual game release - in those cases the preorder is essentially just a contract, so if the game is never released, there's no charge that needs refunding.

 

[Phlakes]

Not even a little bit. If you don't want to preorder a game then don't. If someone else does, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to.

 

[JemothSkarii]

I will admit games like Destiny and Defiance are ridiculous for having preorders on offer recently. Plus with SimCity they had (effectively) skins on pre-order for $10 at EB Games so it is getting crazy.

That said, I've pre-ordered the Dark Arisen, and I plan on pre-ordering Ground Zeroes and The Phantom pain because Kojima is yet to disappoint me.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Fact of the matter is that nothing of advertising gets me to preorder a game. The sole reason I find myself preordering is continuing a series and/or playing a game I know I will enjoy based on previous experience with a franchise, i.e. Mass Effect 3 after I'd played ME2, Dragon Age Awakenings after I'd played Origins, Skyrim after playing Oblivion, Fallout NV after playing Fallout 3. I simply do not ever become convinced to preorder something based on anything but my previous experiences, that's just how it's been for me.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Well I don't have a problem with preordering inherently for people who would buy the game even if it was a piece of shit, which is sometimes the case, or are absolutely convinced of its quality. I know I'd do that for Armored Core, except that I also am happy to wait to buy it unconditionally for a reasonable price. There is also sometimes the issue of being able to get a copy at all. What I don't like is incentivising that behaviour (pre-order bonuses/DLC) and what I despise is making those incentives store-specific. Not only can one person now not own the entire content at once if they buy it after launch, they can't even do it by preordering unless they're buying 5 copies.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Pre-Orders are bad because there's a lot of idiots out there who will pre-order a game based off a flashy trailer or a name.

Hell, now Gameplay doesn't even matter. Aliens Colonial Marines, man the gameplay in that demo was soo much like the actual game people got. -sarcasm-

 

[Valkrex]

For me, it is the pre-order bonuses are getting ridiculous. God tier weapons right off the bat, finding extra cash in the game, cheaper items at stores, "exclusive" missions that give horribly unbalanced rewards... STOP MAKING MY GAME EASIER JUST BECAUSE I PRE-ORDERED! I'M LOOKING AT YOU DEAD SPACE 3!

 

[Vegosiux]

If people are paying for it then it clearly isn't ridiculous.

Aw, c'mon, that directly interferes with my cynical disposition ("Most people are idiots and would pre-order my cat's poo if I bothered to pay some advertising for it")

Or I'll borrow a Sam&Max quote for this one:

"Look, man, all I know is, I keep making up the most ridiculous price I can think of, and you keep paying it! So I ask you: who's the foo'?"

Nobody is forcing anyone to pre-order. If you think it's stupid or pointless then, y'know... don't.

Of course nobody is forcing us to preorder. The same way nobody's forcing the industry to inflate their budgets to the point where a game needs to sell several million copies just to break even.

Say, I wonder if the two are connected. My gut says yes, but might be just me.

Bottom line is, I think it is getting ridiculous. And while agree that force is not being used on anyone to pre-order, forms of coersion are there.