Pre-orders: What's the big deal?

[Bat Vader]

I mainly pre-order for collector's editions. I love the physical stuff they include and most times they also have the soundtrack included. I am angry at myself for being lazy and not pre-ordering the batmobile Arkham Knight CE when I had the chance. Now they are all reserved.

 

[doomrider7]

I preorder games all the time, but only ones I know I'm going to get anyway and it's mostly because it allows me to pay the games off in installments. Preorder bonuses are just a cherry to me if it's offered.

I mainly pre-order for collector's editions. I love the physical stuff they include and most times they also have the soundtrack included. I am angry at myself for being lazy and not pre-ordering the batmobile Arkham Knight CE when I had the chance. Now they are all reserved.

This as well. If pre-ordering nets me some nice physical swag or it's a CE then hell yeah I'll throw money at it instead of waiting to get price gouged online.

 

[RandV80]

Pre orders are something that can be fine on their own, if someone wants to gamble their money on paying for a game before it's even released that's there problem you can just stick to and do your own thing.


...Except now you can't really. Pre orders are a very lucrative business model for the big publishers, and it's the money they all want to chase. They chop small pieces of the game up withholding it from the regular purchase and instead dangling it on a string as a 'preorder bonus'. All the media & news about a game leading up to it's lunch is a hype machine focused towards selling preorders.

So even for those of us that avoid it there's no getting away from it's shadow, and that pisses some of us off. Not me personally, as I generally don't play the big hype games.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

Last one I did was Mass Effect 3.... and incidentally, that was the last time I do so.

I really don't know why other than its a hobby and therefore enthusiasts will put that much effort and see that much value to put fourth the extra money to buy those editions.

But for me... nope. Not when I see most of them sell along with their extra bonuses much cheaper within a month. You can get some surprising collections these days if you feel like it for sometimes 80% off what they were during their day 1.

What a coincidence, that was the last game I preordered too don't know if for the same reason.

 

[visiblenoise]

Go and preorder stuff if you like, just as long as you don't ever fool yourself into thinking that you're getting a steal, or doing something especially wise.

 

[Malpraxis]

I only preorder games I'm absolutely sure I'm gonna buy even if they are the next Ride to Hell.

And I only do digital preorders, because I hate boxes, and then I forget about the game until one day I find it in my dashboard and it's awesome.

With stuff I'm not really sure about, I wait for the reviews. If the reviews are good, I buy it. If not, I forget about it until I see it on sale.
The most recent example is Murdered: Soul Suspect. Didn't really convince me, mixed reviews, and then I saw it for 17 bucks on a sale and grabbed it. I think it's totally worth 17 bucks. If I had bought it full price, I'd probably had felt a little ripped off.

So basically, nope unless you're gonna get it anyway. Preorder bonuses don't affect my choice at all.

 

[brtt150]

I pre-order if it's from a developer I trust or a franchise I love. I don't pre-order for bonuses or any of that shit. Sometimes, I will pre-order a game because early impressions are good with the knowledge that I can either return it or trade/sell it if it turns out to be trash. Using this strategy, it is important to preorder physical of course.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Last one I did was Mass Effect 3.... and incidentally, that was the last time I do so.

I really don't know why other than its a hobby and therefore enthusiasts will put that much effort and see that much value to put fourth the extra money to buy those editions.

But for me... nope. Not when I see most of them sell along with their extra bonuses much cheaper within a month. You can get some surprising collections these days if you feel like it for sometimes 80% off what they were during their day 1.

What a coincidence, that was the last game I preordered too don't know if for the same reason.

lol -- if you imply because of the ending? No. Obviously I didn't know what the ending was before I pre-ordered it. I honestly believed it was going to be BioWare's greatest achievement from such a rich pool of characters and back story of ME2 but that's a totally different discussion.

When I got it, it was just mediocre. The extras that came within the game ( the useless robot dog, underpowered rifles that were quickly replaced) was just very lame. The small post-card like picture of the SR2 was meh. The art book was interesting but I thought it was going to be a nice art book. Something much larger than it was. Totally a bogus " bonus". I think they should have given away I don't know -- a pewter model or something. Only thing close to being redeeming was the black leather jacket during his off-duty time.

 

[Irick]

I pre-ordered the new Super Smash Brothers.
Because... I want it shipped to me on launch day.

And that's it.

I dislike the idea of in game benefits for doing it, because that just encourages this buy first or else you're going to be missing out mentality. If they allowed game reviews during the pre-order time, then that'd be fine, but they don't.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

The "gonna buy it anyway so might as well pre-order" mindset is absolutely poisonous and needs to go. If people are going to buy a game anyway, is it that hard to wait till AFTER release? The product isn't running away, neither is it running out.

You will be doing a huge favor to the game industry because developers will start realizing that people are waiting for release and marketing/hype will no longer be enough.
By choosing NOT to pre-order, people will indirectly increase the standard and quality of games coming out (even if slightly).

The conversation at EA headquarters may one day go something like this:

Bob: Jim, we're receiving almost no pre-orders!
Jim: Should we step out the marketing and hype even more?
Bob: No I don't think that'll work, we might actually have to start creating games that are NOT SHIT!
Jim: WHAT MADNESS DO YOU SPEAK?
Bob: I know it's crazy, but I'm being serious Jim!


Yeah, I can dream

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I have a feeling that it's a cycle with the whole sequels/franchise marketing hype thing, to get people to buy more impulsively thinking "I must have it, and by preordering I get it cheaper than when it comes out, and free stuff to boot". Well, not always cheaper, but they're counting on you wanting it enough anyway.

The only game I've ever preordered was Witcher 2, but that's mainly to show my support more than anything. Liked the first a hell of a lot so that was already reason enough, plus the promise of free DLC for life and no DRM just covered it for me. Unfortunately I haven't ordered Witcher 3 yet because even with the discount it's till a hefty amount of cash, and I'm not in that much of a rush anyway with the backlog of games I have. So I've always come from the "wait till the price cools off" camp. And games like CoD that just never go down in price well I tend to not be interested in.

So yeah, unless they promise something REALLY interesting or the game is the dog's balls, I can't really see myself ever preordering again. And that's where the sequel thing comes in, you have to be pretty darn confident that you want more of that.

 

[TheIceQueen]

I've been burned by pre-orders too many times before. Now, I wait for feedback and reviews to help inform me of whether or not a purchase is going to be worth it because even if I think I'm going to want something, that might quickly prove false.

 

[kilenem]

I think a physical good for a preorder is the best and digital content is kind of bullshit. Granted I'm preordering the next borderlands and I'm trying defend that with I've already put 400+ hours in Borderlands 2.

 

[Dalisclock]

I almost never do pre-orders anymore. There's no point. I'd rather see at least the first round of reviews before I buy it to see if it's worth plopping down $60 before launch day(which it often isn't).

I have to admit, I've been spoiled by steam, because I know that I can wait a year and get this same game for cheap, and I have plenty of time to kill between now and then because of my ever growing steam/gog backlog.

The last time I did pre-orders was with bioshock:infinite, and that was because I was really pumped for it, but also because steam was offering to throw in the new X-COM game with it(which I was planning on getting anyway). Either way, it was worth it.

Actually, for the most part I've stopped paying attention to upcoming games until the reviews come out. Even previews can be misleading, because there's no guarantee what's shown in the preview is actually going to show up in the full release. In some cases, it's little details, but in some cases, it's A:CM. Rarely there's the weird cases like BS:I where the released game and the previews were very, very different and I still enjoyed what I got.

 

[Dalisclock]

And games like CoD that just never go down in price well I tend to not be interested in.

Not to take away from what you've said, but COD does go down in price. I bought BLOPS II on steam sale for $20 a year later.
I've seen Ghosts for less then that several times....and I'm still not buying it. Maybe if it drops to $5 I'll consider it.

And this is from someone who pre-ordered MW2, BLOPS and MW3. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. Thanks, MW3.

 

[bug_of_war]

It's Greedy. Well the thing is.. it's not only greedy it makes as sense in today's world as a sheepgut condom.

I don't see how it's greedy when you're paying the same price as when it comes out, and when it comes to buying from retail if the price does drop the store (at least here in Australia all the ones have done this) has to give you back the difference. Also, for the newer consoles, it does make sense to pre order and secure a game you want, the new consoles are not old enough yet (heh) to require retail stores to order a large portion of new games (unless again this is an Australian only thing...).

You're looking at it through rose coloured glasses. Kudos to whatever marketing campaign put them on you. You see it as getting a bonus when what they're actually doing is carving out pieces that would normally be part of the full release and ransoming them off.

Actually I'm looking at it from a game to game basis. For example, Alien Isolation when it was first announced and had all the previews they only promised a new story set in the Alien universe. At no point was this supposed to be the original Alien film, it takes aspects of it yeah, but the game and story are an original idea. The pre-order DLC is an entirely new campaign that was never promised or hinted at when first revealed, so I don't see why this is a bad thing. "Hey you like Alien? Were you interested in Alien Isolation? Well if you pre order the game that you were already interested in you can have a small campaign involving the first films story", that's how I see it. If you weren't interested in buying the game, than no amount of DLC should make you, but if you are than what's wrong with paying the money you were gonna pay anyway?

Keep in mind I'm a PC gamer so more or less digital distribution removes the only real argument for pre-orders. Beyond that it's basically like they're trying to get money before people realize the game is shite.

Yeah, for PC games the idea of pre-ordering to secure a copy is not exactly required, but I feel as though people are being too cynical towards a majority of game companies. Yes, EA and Ubisoft have exploited it before, but I hear a lot of people condemning every company for practicing it. Yet CD Project seem to get away with almost everything...

 

[Shadow flame master]

Why do I pre-order? Why, for all of the free swag that I get from it! I'm talking figurines, art books, collector tins, the works.

That and I can continually pay money towards it since it is basically on layaway. Why would I pay $60 upfront when I could pay $10 over six weeks?

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

And games like CoD that just never go down in price well I tend to not be interested in.

Not to take away from what you've said, but COD does go down in price. I bought BLOPS II on steam sale for $20 a year later.
I've seen Ghosts for less then that several times....and I'm still not buying it. Maybe if it drops to $5 I'll consider it.

And this is from someone who pre-ordered MW2, BLOPS and MW3. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. Thanks, MW3.

Quite true, I haven't looked at Steam in a while (I cross-platform a lot and tend to get stuck in one) but I can see the prices have dropped. Maybe living in Australia the last few years made me used to prices that seem to stay high forever. Now on the Indonesian steam they seem more reasonable, so I'll take back what I said - if you're patient and willing everything goes on crazy sale sooner or later! Ghosts for $5....yeahhhhh I'll consider that one too. Truth be told though I haven't/don't see anything worthwhile pre-ordering for a long time.

 

[bug_of_war]

The problem with pre-orders comes hand in hand with the major remaining issue of digital distribution:

How do you recover from a bad purchase?

The reason people dislike preorders is because they are blatantly anti-consumer. They give no benefit to the customer and lock them into a purchase of an item that they have no way to know the quality of. You get shit like Colonial Marines, where millions of preorders went through, and the game was utter shit and the customer is left at the mercy of their store of choice whether or not they can get their money back. It's an atrocious business practice that actively punishes the consumer in order for the publisher to have a more solid bottom line.

I would disagree. I mean yes, PC wise it's waaay more a risk as you can't get your money back (unless you purchased through Origin) and trading in is non existent, but in general I don't see it as a bad thing. The benefit for consumers buying the disk is that they are guaranteed a copy on the day it comes out. If you really want the game, you don't have to worry about the store selling it running out before you get the chance to purchase it. As for the "You don't know the quality of the game argument", that's more a trust issue. Yes it'd be easy for a company to do a bait and switch, I'm not saying Colonial Marines doesn't exist, but what's the next best thing to do? Most "professional" reviews don't come out until a few days before or on the day itself that the game is released, and regular people still have to buy the game to then let other people know how the game is. So either you start putting trust into "professional" reviewers or you throw a few people under the bus so that you come out with the benefit.

I do understand that it can be used to fuck people over, trust me, I got fucked over by PAYDAY 2, I know that feeling of betrayal. However I don't see why I should condemn a practice for the minority of bad occurrences.

 

[bug_of_war]

But I don't speak for everyone these are really just the broad outlines, if you want more specifics I'd recommend these for proper incite, escapist's very own Jim Sterling I think explains it very well.

While I do enjoy his content, There are a few instances where I just can't agree with him. I understand his points, I really do, but I feel as though his view is a little too extreme. I believe he's fully on the side of the consumer, but I just don't always agree with his opinion.

The "gonna buy it anyway so might as well pre-order" mindset is absolutely poisonous

I agree but that's not exactly what I meant. What I meant by that was that for people invested in a series, for example Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Call of Duty, that's an instant buy. It doesn't matter what anyone says, that series just gets you, you love it, you trust it, you're gonna buy it. However, for new IPs, or games that are maybe a little way into the series and you've just taken notice of it and are kinda interested in it and are thinking you'll probably buy it, pre-ordering isn't really something that I think people are stupid not for doing. For example, I was interested in The Last Of Us and Watch Dogs but I didn't pre order them because it's not a game that I'm really sure I'd buy.