Do you still pre-order games? Activision says “not so much”

Despite Activision’s expectation for Destiny to be the most pre-ordered new IP in gaming history, the publisher says that pre-orders don’t mean as much as they used to.

Speaking about the Bungie-made game, Activision president and CEO Eric Hirshberg said the company was not putting as much focus on pre-orders as they did in the past.

“You guys can see the same thing we see industry-wide, which is that there’s been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to pre-orders,” he said. “It’s also important to sort of reset expectations as it relates to pre-orders overall.”

Hirshberg went on to give a few reasons as to why he thinks pre-orders are losing their desirability.

Increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles;
Titles being widely available on day one;
The decline overall for demand of software on the previous-gen consoles.

As a result, he said “purchase intent” and “awareness” had become more important than the number of pre-orders a game could rack up.

Hirshberg also discussed how this trend was affecting Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which was not immune to the small slump.

Despite this, he predicted that Advanced Warfare would lead the pre-order chart this year, and noted that “purchase intent” for the new CoD was well above last year’s Ghost iteration.

What do you think?

MyGaming’s comments and forum have held many a debate on pre-orders and the pros and cons – most recently with the not-so-smooth launch of Watch Dogs.

So, we ask you again: is it worth pre-ordering a game?

Would you rather have it on day one, or wait to see how is runs in the first week before making a decision?

Lastly, have you ordered Destiny or CoD: Advanced Warfare, or both?

Let us know in the comments and forum.