To those who pre-order games: why?

[Hazy992]

Sorry if this is a bit rambly, I've been wanting to make a thread asking this for a while and never got around to it. But after this bollocks:


I figured it was a good a time as any.

So pre-order culture is at an all time high, with publishers and retailers pushing them harder than ever before, and I can't for the life of me understand why people buy in to it.

I mean think about it, with pre-orders you're putting down money, sight unseen for a game you have almost no idea about. You have no clue as to how the game plays, looks or even performs. The game could blow chunks, or be a buggy piece of shit for all you know. It just causes escalation too; publishers see this and wonder how much more they can get away with.

Not only that but you're encouraging bullshit DLC practices, where publishers carve out chunks of the game that once upon a time would have just been a part of the game, and dividing it up between retailers. Arkham Knight had just been announced, and straight away we get 'pre-order now for the Harley Quinn DLC pack!' You haven't even shown us the gameplay yet but you're already showing off content that won't be in the base game? Oh we're off to a flying start here!

And don't even get me started on Steam pre-orders. The game's digital, it's not going anywhere! Why would you not wait until the game's out? At least now Steam makes it easy to get a refund, before that if a game came out and you didn't like it or it was buggy you were pretty much fucked[footnote]I know you COULD get a refund on Steam before but it was a pain in the ass[/footnote]. Remember Aliens: Colonial Marines?

There are two scenarios where pre-ordering might make sense:
1) You're interested in a game but it's going to have a limited run and will be difficult to find otherwise (no chance of that with a AAA game).
2)There's a really, really cool collectors edition of an established franchise. Like I can see why some people put down money for the MGSV collectors edition for example.

So if you do still pre-order, why? It just encourages shitty business practices and from where I'm standing there seems to be very little benefit to it.

 

[Hazy992]

Honestly at this point I do it solely to spite the people online who get their panties so fucking twisted at the idea of it, let alone at the fact that people do pre-order.

I also love how everyone brings up Colonial Marines. The game that people didn't even bother picking up because of reviews before playing the game. The game wasn't anywhere near as bad, yet people act like their family was raped and murdered before them.

I genuinely couldn't give less of a shit about gaming business practices. Gaming, whilst something I've been doing my whole life starting with the NES is still nothing more than a hobby. I kinda envy the people who take it so seriously. Is your life so stress free and full of so little problems that preorders is the kind of shit that makes your blood boil?

You know, to say that this is supposedly your hobby, you have very little interest in keeping it away from shoddy business practices that ruin the fun for everyone. And maybe you only see it as a hobby, but some of us happen to think gaming is capable of more than that, and it can't progress as an art form whilst games are treated as nothing more than cold, calculated products.

But hey, if you want to carry on supporting practices that screw you over and making gaming worse on the whole then go right ahead.

And no, just because I get annoyed at this does not mean my life is stress free. Don't be so ridiculous.

 

[Zhukov]

The couple of times I've pre-ordered it was because it was a game I was going to buy come hell or high water and they were offering a few miscellaneous goodies for people who pre-ordered.

I generally don't care about the extra bits and bobs, but if it's a question of paying the same price and getting a bit extra then I see no reason not to.

Oh, and then there was the time I pre-ordered Brink. Yeah... I'm gonna chalk that one up to temporary insanity.

 

[Evonisia]

Aliens: Colonial Marines is the exception to the rule. For every shitty release that's bug laden and unrepresentative there are dozens of releases that come out as planned and presented, but they never get mentioned because that information can't be used to crucify pre-orders.

I only pre-order if it's a game I know I'm going to get at launch anyway regardless of reviews, so why not just get a few nick-nacks like the original Hammerburst in Gears of War: Judgment or Nuketown 2025 on Black Ops II? It's no extra charge and if it becomes available to others like Nuketown did, nothing has been lost on my end.

 

[tippy2k2]

I ask myself the same question for any preorder; "Do the benefits I'm getting outweigh the risk?"

I don't preorder often since I don't buy at $60 often but when I do, it's because the preorder bonus was worth it. That is ALWAYS either a physical collectable (like an action figure or bobblehead; something I can use to mark my nerdom on my work desk) or straight up cash (Best Buy commonly gives $10 back when preordering, though I have had a bit of a falling out with them lately...). It also has to be a game that I am more than sure will be loved by me.

In game items do nothing for me; I need to be bribed with something real for me to risk it

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Because I know I will be getting the game anyway, irregardless of what reviewers and random people on the internet think about it, and I can afford to put down the money in advance for it. I know that I will want to play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Fallout 4, Uncharted 4 and many other games and I will want to play them as soon as they are released. So I might as well pre-order and get some minuscule freebie for it, since if I don't I'll go out and get the game on release day anyway.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I think the better question is why pre-order at near full price when 3 months down the line the game will be dirt cheap anyway?

 

[Andy Shandy]

I only end up doing it in cases of rarity and decent discounts. Otherwise there's no point. All those pre-order bonuses and inevitably bundled in with new copies of the game, and most of the time it is inconsequential nonsense anyway.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Honestly at this point I do it solely to spite the people online who get their panties so fucking twisted at the idea of it, let alone at the fact that people do pre-order.

I also love how everyone brings up Colonial Marines. The game that people didn't even bother picking up because of reviews before playing the game. The game wasn't anywhere near as bad, yet people act like their family was raped and murdered before them.

I genuinely couldn't give less of a shit about gaming business practices. Gaming, whilst something I've been doing my whole life starting with the NES is still nothing more than a hobby. I kinda envy the people who take it so seriously. Is your life so stress free and full of so little problems that preorders is the kind of shit that makes your blood boil?

You don't care about shitty business practices but obviously don't approve of consumer complaining about pre-orders and pre-order just to spite consumers.

You are part of the problem.

 

[ultrabiome]

I only pre-order physical products, usually just before launch, of games that I will play right away, and usually only games that retain their value significantly longer than the rest.

So what qualifies? First party Nintendo games. They drop so slowly in price unless the game is mediocre (and they rarely are) that the games retain near retail prices until well into the next console generation. Might as well buy Zelda or Mario when it comes out if I plan on playing them in the next 6 months because they won't drop in price.

Otherwise, I have enough games and there are enough good sales that I can wait for prices to drop or GOTY or complete versions have come out (and their prices have dropped).

Pre-ordering is for those with zero patience and money to burn, unless you really like the series and collectible, but most of the time it isn't, at least in my opinion.

 

[octafish]

I have only pre-ordered a couple of games, all were ordered immediately after a redundancy, when I thought I wanted those games, and I wasn't sure if I'd have the money when they actually launched. Turns out I did have the money, and also that I played those games into the ground. Worked for me. Oh I guess I kickstarted Wasteland 2, Broken Age, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Pillars of Eternity, and I pledged for Star Citizen, that's sort of a pre-order right. Should have kickstarted Shadowrun as well, paid full retail for that one.

 

[xWestie]

As a few have said above, I personally only pre-order if I KNOW I'm gonna get the game no matter what (like MGS V). May as well get some little freebies thrown in too.

 

[Hazy992]

Only when you get cool stuff with it and pretty sure the quality will be good, for example, Disgaea 5:

See I can totally understand this. If you're really into the Disgaea series then this is proabably a worthwhile investment.

 

[Elfgore]

If I'm gonna buy a game at full-price why not just pre-order and get a few extra goodies? I've never been screwed over by a pre-order, because I only buy games I know will be good. Also, I don't like people telling me how to spend my own money. I'm a rebel like that.

 

[Las7]

I've only preo-rdered the Witcher 3 and I've supported some games in Kickstarter(which is a preorder of sorts).
I don't see any reasons to pre-order unless you really trust the studio, want to support a studio or are filthy rich and buy things impulsively.

 

[COMaestro]

I will usually only pre-order games that are sequels to games I like, and I only do it through Best Buy because the games almost always come with a $10 certificate to be used in the future and I'm a member of the Gamers Club Unlocked, which gives 20% off new games. In addition, I will usually have some other certificates available, so by the time the game comes out, I will usually only owe somewhere in the $10 range of actual money, with the rest paid for by discounts or certificates.

So with a starting discount on new games down to $48, and getting a certificate for $10 after picking up a pre-order, tell me why pre-ordering is bad for me again?

 

[spartan231490]

The problem with your line of thinking is that people actually know a great deal about many of the games they pre-order. COD is one of the biggest pre-order franchises around, and everyone knows exactly what a COD game is going to be like. Not to mention sequels or games with early demos or early release gameplay footage. Usually, by the time a game comes out, you actually know quite a bit about it. Reviews are usually out too. I don't pre-order often, but the times I did I knew I was going to like the game long before it was released, and I pre-ordered to make sure I'd have a copy coming. I've seen games sell out far too often not to pre-order some of them.