Pre-ordering games

MetalSoup

MetalSoup

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I'm curious to know why people still pre-order games.

In my opinion, you almost never win by doing it. You hardly ever save a significant amount, and you risk being severely disappointed if the game is unplayable, not what you expected, or simply terrible. If you're lucky the best you can hope to get with your pre-order is some crappy free cosmetic bonus items, that often don't even fit into the game world.

To make matters even worse, in a couple of months you can buy a superior, more complete version of the game, often at a hugely reduced price.

Is it simply an ego thing? Do you have to to be the first to play a new game? Do think other people think you are cool if you play the game before them? Is it a fear of missing out?

So what upcoming games do you still have on pre-order? Do you trust the publishers to deliver what they promised?

I have mostly been pre-order free for last couple of months, with only one or two exceptions, but I don't think I will make any more exceptions in the future.

TLDR: Pre-ordering is bad. Stop doing it. Do you agree/disagree?
 
I'll probably order the Arkham Knight collector's edition - Rocksteady hasn't let me down yet.

Other than that, the Watch Dogs debacle has left me bitter.
 
I've only ever pre-ordered two games: Mass Effect 2 and 3. But only because I knew what to expect from them.

Pre-ordering is a huge risk and that has become so much more evident by reading this forum over the past 2 years.
 
James said:
Other than that, the Watch Dogs debacle has left me bitter.
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You and me both.

But it's always so tricky... Especially when pre-order incentives spare you R150-odd and you suspect you'll want to buy the game in the end anyway.

And it's nice to play the same games as everyone else so that you can bitch, moan and rant about them. Like now, it's loads of fun (certainly kept me occupied most of the day) :D

It's not really often that a AAA game lets me down this badly, so I feel a lot more rewarded for my investment when I pre-order them.

Oh, I dunno. Sucker for punishment, probably.
 
I'm pretty much only into pre-orders now for the CE so my next pre-order will be the AC5 CE. Otherwise I wait for reviews now and BT games still has 10% off for new releases.
 
Eugene said:
TLDR: Pre-ordering is bad. Stop doing it. Do you agree/disagree?
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It all depends. I guess it has become one big trial run these days to educate yourself as to which publishers are the ones you can trust.

For instance, I bought Kerbal Space Program in Alpha stage, for $20+. The game was not even fully developed yet, but it was an awesome game back when it came out, and it's even better now. And it's still in development, but it's not broken, and it rocks. A lot.

I haven't bought any other games from Activision since I pledged not to after COD FlOps. I will also not buy another Rockstar game ever in my life because they decided that PC gamers are worthless peasants non-deserving of a PC version of GTA 5.

Ubisoft utterly disappointing me with Watch Dogs this time around where I generally liked their previous games A LOT. I will not support them again until they get their shit together.

So there are a lot of factors to consider when asking yourself this question.
 
No more pre-ordering for me. Although, I have kickstarted a few things in the last few months. So I guess that technically counts, but at least it has a community-spirit appeal to it. What finally turned me off of pre-ordering was Diablo 3. I haven't pre-ordered a full game since*. I haven't looked back either. Here is a list of games that I have considered pre-ordering and been glad that I didn't:

- Battlefield 4
- Watch Dogs
- Thief

Here is a list of games that I didn't pre-order and was sorry that I didn't:

...

Yes, well I think that settles it for me.

*Disclaimer: this does not include pre-orders for expansions or GOTY versions, but considering that games that fall into those categories have already been tested in some form or another, I don't think they count.
 
My last preorder burn was MoH Doorfighter. Learned my lesson after that.

With the drove of bad AAA releases I don't feel an ounce of guilt over getting the bootleg version of games, and if it's good then voting with my wallet.

Although, there is a situation when I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. I preordered BF4, even though I didn't really want to, because my buddies organised a LAN weekend around BF4. Peer pressure? I think the same thing is gonna happen for Evolve.

Having said all that, I do have to admit that I have Sims4 on preorder :P The wife won't hear any arguments, she wants it and she wants it yesterday ;)
 
I preorder Pokemon and Nintendo games cause they always have nice bonuses and get sold out quickly on launch if I don't and the price usually goes up or stays the same plus the R50+ saving is worth it.

Also the bonus items sell for lots as collectors may want them a year or more down the line.
 
I only pre-order when I get an amazing deal.
EG:
Bought Watch Dogs for R225 (R360 originally, then refunded it and got it for even less)
Bought Tropico 5 4-pack for R290, got more than $80 in value with all the extras.

Oh and I pre-order Nintendo games because their quality is just off the charts.

Lycanthrope said:
It's not really often that a AAA game lets me down this badly, so I feel a lot more rewarded for my investment when I pre-order them.
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Really? Diablo III, Simcity, BF4?!
 
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I pre-order pretty much anything that I'm interested in and then only buy something if I still want it on release. I don't pay for my pre-orders ahead of time and only do so when I go to collect (order from BT) so I really don't see the problem with pre-ordering. If a game comes out and I decide I don't want it anymore then I just don't go pick up my pre-order. The order expires 7 days after the release anyway.
 
My only reason for pre-ordering is to be sure I get the game on release day, something which is otherwise rare in George if you try and find the game in shops. I've never been disappointed by my pre-orders, I can usually tell from the trailers/gameplay vids if I'll like it. I play mostly on consoles so thankfully haven't encountered any really issues that have put me off before. Can imagine the frustration though. But yeah, I'm still for pre-ordering and I love receiving my copy the same time as the rest of the world :)
 
I work for a store whose primary business is gaming, so if I want so get someting I know it's always available. No I don't pre-order anymore because I don't know if I am getting a completed product anymore, the last game I pre-ordered was Starcraft 2: HoTS. Beyond that I had no further desires to pre-order I simply wait to get it at a cheaper price or purchase it a day or two after launch so that I may gain some information from reviews.
 
Never saw the point. Then again I'm OK with playing games a little "late"...which has benefits in terms of both quality and price.
 
I have never pre-ordered a game. I can usually only afford it when it's cheaper"whistling: and I've got more than enough games to keep me busy in any case, so I don't need to get more games...

My brother does the pre-ordering thing; but he does it to get the figurines. It might be incredibly expensive, but it looks cool:cool:
 
Lycanthrope said:
Well, a AAA game that I've actually been interested in.

And Diablo III wasn't that bad!
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Oh yes it was. Error 37 or 39 or whatever took weeks to resolve. Then you had to play through normal (boring), then nightmare (almost fun), then hell (fun), then inferno (brick wall at first). Took almost 50 hours or something to get to inferno at which time I did not see chance to level another player through normal, nightmare, etc... There was no way to skip it.

Then it became apparent that the loot system was completely broken because of the RMAH. Not even mentioning the always-online lag spikes that resulted in a ton of deaths for my characters - especially every time I entered an area for the first time after starting the game.
 
HavocXphere said:
Never saw the point. Then again I'm OK with playing games a little "late"...which has benefits in terms of both quality and price.
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Exactly, I never bought Bioshock when everyone else was raving over it. I waited till December and bought it for R200 when it was still R500 at retailers. There is always a benefit to waiting.
 
These days I only pre-order special or collectors editions. And only if they have something in them that I want. Figurines normally. If it's just unlock codes for a weapon here or there, otherwise I'm not too interested.
 
Toxin said:
These days I only pre-order special or collectors editions. And only if they have something in them that I want. Figurines normally. If it's just unlock codes for a weapon here or there, otherwise I'm not too interested.
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Yeah can add this to my reasons too. SA usually gets very limited quantities of the awesome CE's that do make it to our stores so it's almost always necessary to pre-order and make sure you'll get one of them.
 
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