Poll: Do you still pre-order games?

[Yopaz]

I still do, but only for games I really want.

I know the whole line of reasoning about waiting for reviews and not trusting things on face value, but for those games I really care about I want to know as little as possible beforehand. I don't want to see that much of it before I play it and I don't want to have an idea of what I will like or not before I can see it for myself. If I am excited about a game these things will only make me less excited and make me enjoy the game less. If the game end up being great I will enjoy it more if I go in blind. Reviews and recommendations isn't a foolproof way anyway. I have been disappointed with a game after playing the demo, reading the reviews, getting recommendations from my friend and seeing what various game communities say. I have also greatly enjoyed games that have been receiving mediocre reviews, Saints Row 2 being my prime example. I do of course agree with some reviews and some reviews raise negative points about games I like which cause me to like them less afterwards because I hadn't noticed on my own.

I don't pre-order often, generally I get The Tales games day one because I love the series and they may sometimes be really hard to get after launch. I spent 7 months trying to get Tales of the Abyss because I wanted to wait a week. Now I order the limited edition as soon as I can simply because they have sold me so many games in that series and I have yet to be disappointed by them. For the most part I won't pre-order games simply because I have enough as it is.

 

[The_Lost_King]

If it is a game that I'm going to play for sure even if it is bad I pre-order. Anything I think, "hey that's kind of cool", I wait.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I do indeed. Truly, I am the anti-christ.

I like to pre-order when I know I need to try a game, regardless of what reviewers might say. This is primarily when I know a dev extremely well or it's in a series that I love.

The only real reason is to get whatever paltry pre-order bonus there might be as well as keep the hype train going in my mind.

 

[SoreWristed]

I voted yes for pre-ordering , but i feel i should point out that my local game store considers putting down $5 advance to reserve a copy of the order coming in also as preordering. I do this for games i feel are going to run out of copies on launch.

What's that Captcha? Feeding frenzy. Well said!

For the release of GTAV i had to preorder, and be in the line at the midnight launch to be able to get a copy. Because people with a preorder who showed up the next morning were mostly denied because they handed out too many copies the night before. Next expected shipment was not for another 2-3 weeks. So yes, it was a feeding frenzy.

Now i just pre-order games i would buy day one, just to get the small bonus content stuff. Last game i pre-ordered was Sherlock Holmes : Crimes and Punishment because i was eagerly awaiting that like the fanboy i am.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Can't remember the last time I pre ordered anything. Maybe Halo 2? But yeah, I don't like to parted from my money before I see reviews, gameplay from non biased sources, shit like that.

 

[Zydrate]

Ah, now I remember. I pre-ordered Far cry 4 and was not disappointed, though I haven't beaten it yet. It's still a solid game without any real issues.

I am however, trying to resist preordering Evolve. Looks great, Let's Plays of it are fun to watch, but I'm just not sure it's worth 60$. Yet.

 

[Naraku578]

I really only play Blizzard and Nintendo games (and steam) and I never really get the chance to preorder, I probably would for Nintendo because they never really drop the ball like EA or Ubisoft does.

 

[Bat Vader]

I will pre-order if the game sounds interesting or if the game has a Collector's Edition that I want.

 

[Cidward]

It's the patching that's the big issue for me. Even if it's from a good developer, every game has small and large problems that'll need to be fixed, and I'd rather not sink my money (more money than I'll spend by waiting a few months) into a product that still needs to have the kinks worked out. I think half the reason I enjoyed ME3 as much as I did is because I waited a year and change to play it.

I'm not big on multi-player, so this might be less of an issue, as I'm just holding out to do single-player run throughs, not co-ops with my friends.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

A PC gamer should be wary of per-purchasing AAA titles these days, they seem rank with bugs and you can always count on them to have a few weeks of " trouble shooting" --- sometimes a month after launch.

I pre-ordered Far Cry 4 and DA:I this time around. FC4 wasn't all that bad but DA:I was a bit of a b@#$@#$ch to work with, particularly with AMD gear. DA:I kept on crashing during fast travels and all kinds of messes.... it eventually became stable but not after a nice long back and fourth.

I'd say if its a game I am interested in and the per-downloads half the asking price versus the other mediums, then I'll be more inclined to buy.

 

[Hebby]

Only once did I pre-order (Skyrim) and I was drunk at the time. Luckily I didn't regret it. But as a general rule I never do such a thing.
Is like buying a car without at least getting to see or test drive it first.

 

[Alex Baas]

The last game i preordered was Xenoblade Chronicles, for the sole reason that EB Games in my city was only making it available through preorder. I do not regret a thing about that but I still wouldnt preorder anything save for this one case

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I pretty much only pre-order games these days. Sites like The Escapist provide me with enough info on a game during production that I've made up my mind whether or not to buy a game months before the release date. That being said, I don't buy many games compared to some of my friends - maybe only two or three a year so I can afford to speculate on them. Some of my friends spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds a year on games, and if I did that then I guess it would make sense to wait until the sales season hit rather than buying before release day.

 

[Sanunes]

It really depends on how you are going to define pre-order. For me if a developer/publisher allows for a review to be released before launch day and based on that information I know I would be buying it on launch day no matter what I will pre-order. I just pre-ordered Dragon Age: Inquisition, but it had a lot of things going for it to lead to a pre-order EA lifted the press embargo a week before release and if I bought the game through Origin I could return it for a full refund, so I wanted to play on launch day and it took me almost two days to download the game so with pre-ordering I could pre-load the game.

Now I will never pre-order a Bethesda or Ubisoft game for both companies have a track record of needing months to get their games to work after launch.

 

[Agent 26]

I only pre-order when the bonuses are enticing, and I see that the company/publisher is trustworthy/consistent in their past offerings.

 

[Dalisclock]

Nope. I did it very rarely before the recent spate of heavily hyped, brokeass crap and this has pretty much convinced me to always wait for the reviews. It'll still be there when I want to play it if it's good. Not to mention I see very few games anymore that are worth $60, when I could just as easily wait a few months and pay half the price for the same, sometimes a better package.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Only thing I ever pre-ordered was Witcher 2, and that didn't disappoint. The only case I would ever do so again is if the following criteria are followed, as with The Witcher 2:

1. Discounted price
2. NO DRM
3. No season pass (in the case of multiplayer)
4. All DLC free

Free DLC being on the last of the list because it's not a deal-breaker, depends how severe it is with the whole day-one DLC incentive and shit. Haven't pre-ordered The Witcher 3 yet though, mainly due to the fact that I don't think I'll even be able to play it launch unless my computer gets a decent upgrade and I have a huge backlog as it is.

 

[xaszatm]

As a Nintendo fan, I have to pre-order otherwise the things go poof. But that's the standard I use. If I think/know a game I'm interested in will have a limited release, I'll pre-order. If not, I'll wait until reviews come in.