News emerged this week that there was a ‘pre-order crisis’ in Britain and across much of Europe. A crisis, that is, for retailers, rather than us, the gamers. It seems the legions of dodgy launches, shady DLC plans, retailer-exclusive pre-order content, and savvy spenders has seen a turnaround in those willing to put their money where their mouth is before a game is out.
Pre-ordering has always been a thing, but it obviously served a far better purpose when stocks were genuinely limited and it was your only chance at getting your hands on a game. Nowadays every game store you walk in has copies of the latest AAA title stacked 40-deep, and any guarantees of launch day availability mean zilch in the grand scheme of things.
Perhaps even stranger is the growth of digital pre-orders. You can lay down money to guarantee a copy of a game which is in unlimited supply. Of course, pre-ordering digitally comes with its benefits. You can pre-load and be ready to go at midnight the moment it unlocks, but who actually bothers with that? I’d rather go to bed and wake up early to play it than sit there, bleary eyed, until the wee hours.
Up until recently Steam wouldn’t even refund you for pre-orders you no longer wanted. In the US you still can’t cancel PlayStation 4 game pre-orders. The game could end up total hogwash but you’re lumped with it because of a rash decision four months earlier.
Now, I know there are plenty of plus sides to pre-ordering. A lot of it comes down to feeling hyped, I like to pre-order a game and see it sat there, saying I’ve bought it. It feels one step closer to launch. But I also can't get over the whole system’s faults.
Now it’s over to you. Do you pre-order your games or do you think it’s not worth? Why?
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PC Specs
Preordering comes with benefits that oftentimes put regular customers at disadvantage - such as TES: Online's race selection.
PC Specs
I have fond memories of my son pre ordering PS3 games. We'd stand in line at Gamestop in freezing weather, so we could pick-up the latest game at 12:01am. It was always a long line, always in freezing cold, sometimes in rain/snow, never warm weather. Good times.
We both get our games from Steam now. Live and learn!!
PC Specs
why didn't you get the games from the PSN store?
PC Specs
PSN overprices things. It's cheaper with PS Plus but you pay $50 for that benefit.
PC Specs
don't you usually pay for it anyway, since the majoraty of people spent most of their time playing online games and for a ps4 you need it to play games online, of course in this case it's a PS3.
Still how much do they overprice them? I personally buy physical copies of games as much as possible, since I'm against digital distribution.
PC Specs
At that time, downloads took forever due to our internet service, plus my son preferred having a physical copy of his games. Also, we never would've been out standing in the cold and I wouldn't have those fond memories :-)
PC Specs
good memories
PC Specs
I don't play online on PS4 at this time and if I ever felt the need I have some PS Plus vouchers I can use. All of my PS4 games have singleplayer apart from f2p online games, which I don't need to pay for anyway.
PC Specs
CoD Ghosts and Watch Dogs were my last preorders, never preordered a game after these. They really taught me a good lesson. "Never preorder a game"
PC Specs
What do you think that will happen If you don't preorder? What you think they will never release that little bit of extra content ever again? If we stop falling for stupid deals companies would maybe start taking gamers seriously...maybe.
PC Specs
People are obviously suckers and so they preorder a game for which they know will have 300 bugs and be half unfinished and than they complain...I have no sympathy for those people..
PC Specs
If I can, I would check the game first using pirated version. Then I will buy it if it's good. I don't want to buy something without knowing the quality, like Raven's Cry I thank GOD for the pirated version. About pre-order thing I only buy something that I liked it very much, if it's bad I just bashed the developer.
PC Specs
or you can watch it's video on youtube rather than goin' dark
PC Specs
I wish all games had a free demo, so you could easily test the game without pirating it.
PC Specs
they think there's youtube,
it's fine watching video reviews but some times they can be overrated to (personal preferences_
maybe i don't like a lego game but it can be reviewed like it's a good game but it isn't good to me
atleast FoOTBALL games have demos
PC Specs
Witcher 3 and GTA V are the only games I pre-ordered this year, so far I am not dissapointed.
PC Specs
I didn't pay to pre-order the Witcher III, I got it bundled with my sweet graphics card totally free! I wouldn't have actually paid the full $60 for a pre-order, however. But hey, FREE GAME?! WHY NOT?! Totally pumped for May 19!
PC Specs
I'v not pre-ordered a game for a good few years and normally I wouldn't, but the offer for the witcher 3 on GOG was too good so i broke my no pre-order rule
PC Specs
Pre-ordering games in the digital era seems pointless to me.... yeah some games offer exclusive pre-order bonuses but very few are worth the commitment.
PC Specs
I don't like preordering because it seems like a cash grab and the game might not be meant to be what it was said to be not to mention they could steal your money and not release the game or delays etc. so in theory preordering is like having a VIP pass to be in first of the purchasing lane I never trusted preordering because you even can get scammed by this simple deal really.
PC Specs
yes but only for consoles. I usually get digital copy for pc. I only get physical copies for ps4, i like having a visible collection. So i pre order to guarantee i get the game i want on release. I only pre order games i really want.
PC Specs
Only if its a collector .-. Like the TW3 one, damn its beatifull :3
PC Specs
I haven't pre-ordered anything since Witcher 3 -2 years back, Given that most AAA games that are released aren't playable until a month or two after launch due to bugs and glitches, it's just not worth doing anymore.
PC Specs
Only preorder from Nintendo, Valve, maybe Rockstar and companies that you are 1000% sure you are going to get what you paid for!
PC Specs
Add Naughty Dog :)
PC Specs
As soon as I realized pre-ordering for digital goods became a thing, it was a bit disappointing. It seems to be another way for developers/publishers to force you into a game you already know little about with "bonuses" such as extra content that should have been included with the base game to begin with. I used to always pre-order when I was a console gamer. It made sense at the time. You couldn't always guarantee a copy on launch day if you didn't.
PC Specs
just like a character that should be in the main game
G O R O
PC Specs
Unless you're absolutely 100% certain that you're gonna buy the game regardless of quality, there's really no point in pre-ordering.
PC Specs
I never pre-order games. I always wait for them to be released and the price to drop before buying them.
PC Specs
"When you pre-order a game, you're just committing to paying for something that some assholes haven't even finished working on yet. You know what you get for pre-ordering a game? A big dick in your mouth."
Listen to Eric Cartman, everyone.
PC Specs
loool
PC Specs
LMAO!!! Oh my...
PC Specs
Pre-ordering games, especially months in advance, needs to stop. All it does is make devs rush out stuff early and possibly give less content in the main game, cause they know X amount of people are already gonna get it no matter.
PC Specs
Totally agree, no point handing over your cash months in advance for a product that isn't finished when everybody is guaranteed a digital copy on release anyway.
PC Specs
or rush the game before deadline
PC Specs
pre ordering is not a good idea almost all the time to often do people get burned by games that critic flop yes flop with critics but not financially due to the hype train CHOO CHOO and people sadly buy into it all the time one reason pre ordering is bad i think, is think about evolve all the dlc and season passes
PC Specs
right out of the gate they knew they were on borrowed time and needed the hype train to make money and sadly alot of people put alot of money into the game to be dissapointed i only pre ordered gta 5 otherwise i never pre order and i never buy on day 1 if a company is gonna do shady stuff i wanna see it first if they
PC Specs
do then they wont get my money i dont mind waiting a month til after release to get a game if its good i just wish people could not give into hype trains and buy the game before seeing reviews companies know people will do that so they release **** sometimes and still walk away with pure profit its a shame