Pre-orders: What's the big deal?

[bug_of_war]

A lot of people on this site seem to have it out for pretty much ALL types of pre-orders regardless if they offer content or not. I've heard a few of reasons such as:

The content should be in the base game
Pay to win
Paying for a game that you have no idea whether it will be good or not
It's greedy

But none of these ever seem right to me. Yeah, there have been a couple of games that I feel may have gotten pre-order bonuses that I would say one of the above statements for, but a majority of the time I just flat out disagree with. Most pre-order bonus content is additional content that I was never promised in the base game, content that may give you an advantage in single player is fine seeing as how I can choose not to use it and I'm not competing against anyone other than AI, regardless if I give the money away 3 months or 3 weeks after the game is released they still get my money, and it'd only be greedy if they asked for more money before the game came out and then dropped the price upon release.

So yeah, what's your deal with pre-orders? Or do you agree with me?

Captcha: multi pass
Captcha, you're screwing with me aren't ya?

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I can't see any point in pre-ordering anything that doesn't require manufacturing specifically for my wants and needs. Also, when it boils down to a company being sold off for failing it's the pre-order bunch of customers who tend to lose their money without any compensation. But all that can be avoided by buying the product when it's available *shrugs* some people will risk losing their cash for the promise of horse armour...it's natural selection

 

[Danbo Jambo]

The pre-order system has been abused by the likes of EA so I can understand why people are, IMO rightly, skeptical about using it (I personally never, ever have). Too many times it's been a case of a superb game creating a frenzied buzz for a sequel, which the gaming company then realize they don't have to put any real effort into to make money and push something out rushed and half-arsed ala Dragon Age 2.

That said if it floats your boat and you want the bonus' or like the idea of the game enough to take a chance on it then go for it. I think the real beef, certainly from my own POV, over the years has been the fact that gaming companies cared more about the hype than the game.

I think a lot have learned from this now, and with continued updates, I hope that these companies can see that a great game will re-sell many times (E.g. I bought Dragon Age:Origins, Dragon Age Enhanced Edition, and in 5-10 years time when it gets an update I'll buy that too)

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Last one I did was Mass Effect 3.... and incidentally, that was the last time I do so.

I really don't know why other than its a hobby and therefore enthusiasts will put that much effort and see that much value to put fourth the extra money to buy those editions.

But for me... nope. Not when I see most of them sell along with their extra bonuses much cheaper within a month. You can get some surprising collections these days if you feel like it for sometimes 80% off what they were during their day 1.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Can't say I would agree with the " its greedy!" part. I think that charge has become so generic, I doubt most whom use it so much wouldn't know what real Greed is.

No one puts a gun to your head to buy these things. You can just say no and wait.

If you do the research and find that your favorite game company is using pay-to-play, or that their DLC is really hidden files that only unlock when you do buy them....well... next time vote with your wallet and maybe those practices would discontinue.

The monster however become fed, fat, and happy when someone points out DLC gimmicks while there is another play whom can't wait to shout " TAKE MY MONEY NOW!" Ahem. Bioware/EA. You can sell DA2 to people and piss them off --- but Whoaahhhh! Look! DRAGON AGE 3! And the Pre-Order comes with x,y,z! And here we go again, another franchise that is able to use its PR campaign and promises to lure a good number of previously burnt consumers to do it all over again.

 

[Mezahmay]

I don't understand the intended discussion is since you readily acknowledge the big complaints with pre-orders and just say you don't get it. Listing implies understanding why they're perceived as a problem and you even agree that some pre-orders look that way. To offer a slightly different perspective, here's my take on pre-orders.

The last time I really pre-ordered a game was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Gamecube. You know, that one that bridged the gap between Wii and Gamecube and took like two years to come out after Nintendo stopped pushing the release date. There was a necessity to pre-order that game since I may not have been able to pick it up immediately if I didn't. I'm not saying that's why I did it at the time, but it turned out to be a pretty good reason after learning the Gamecube disc supply was fairly short.

There are so many game retail stores (not even mentioning digital stores) nowadays that games are not hard to get. There is no practical need for pre-orders outside of a physical collector's edition since those are in relatively short supply and not sold everywhere. To make up for that devs/publishers offer extra goodies for pre-ordering, which can also be interpreted as punishing players who don't pre-order their game. This encourages anti-consumer practices and gets into the reasons why you have trouble understanding the problems people have with pre-orders.

 

[Jon Jon]

From a consumer perspective it's really just down to trust and risk, why trust a company that has show it will take every step to lie to you, like the Ilk of Ubisoft and EA and in the cases where the company is trust worthy, say Valve or... Valve, why even risk it when you can watch an LP and read a review or two to double check after the fact.

Now from a business standpoint it's very much about long term viability and trust, again, less about should YOU pre-order on this one then should the COMPANY push so much with them. As industry experts have noted consumer trust in pre-orders and triple A in general is shrinking and pre-orders are the heart of untrustworthy practice. A company wanting to live longer should not be pushing pre-orders so much because it is eroding consumer trust in the triple A market and that will contribute to a harsh and abrupt crash.

But I don't speak for everyone these are really just the broad outlines, if you want more specifics I'd recommend these for proper incite, escapist's very own Jim Sterling I think explains it very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5Uj4XIT1Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4JCFONptk

 

[DoPo]

I can't see any point in pre-ordering anything that doesn't require manufacturing specifically for my wants and needs.

Seconded. I don't really have a problem with pre-orders but I just don't really see the point in them. Of the stated reasons, I suppose I'd agree with the last one the most - it's greedy, since people don't need to pre-order, yet they do so and they do so a lot. But it's a minor annoyance at best, not a crusade against pre-orders or anything of the sort.

 

[Fireaxe]

Well TS, I certainly hope you pre-ordered WATCH_DOGS. Of course, if you did, and still see no issues with pre-orders, then I think we need to have a serious discussion about your perception of value for money.

 

[ExiledCreature]

The real question is: Why would you pay money now for something you're only going to get later? Doesn't it make more sense to wait and see until it's available? That way you can even rethink your purchase if bad reviews come out. It's not like they're running out of Steam keys on launch day.

 

[LaoJim]

I've never really got the whole 'pre-order' culture. Perhaps its because I grew up in a village in the 1980s. If a good game came out the first we'd know of it was when it was reviewed in the monthly gaming magazine, we'd then have to save our pocketmoney and then wait a couple of weeks until our parents wanted to go into the local town. It could be weeks before anyone had the latest new thing and it really didn't matter too much. I can understand wanting a game so much that you have to have it on the day of release (although there are very few games I'd buy on release, nearly everything drops at least £10 within a month or two and I have a constant backlog in any case). But it seems like having a pre-order is a badge of pride for some people; not only am I cool enough to have brought this game, I was knowledgeable enough about it to have pre-ordered it months before it came out. Obviously companies are keen to promote this kind of behaviour. The problems with preorder bonuses is that if they are substantial then they end up pissing off customers who didn't preorder with 'blind-faith' or they are so small as to be irrelevent to all except the most hard core fans.

 

[Morgoth780]

The real question is: Why would you pay money now for something you're only going to get later? Doesn't it make more sense to wait and see until it's available? That way you can even rethink your purchase if bad reviews come out. It's not like they're running out of Steam keys on launch day.

Well there are the situations where it just doesn't matter whether the reviews are good or not. Take Witcher 3 for example. I love the first two games in the series, so I don't care if everyone on the internet says it's shit, I'm still going to buy it. Of course, unless you are getting a discount for the preorder, I would agree to just wait even if it is a 100% guaranteed purchase.

 

[ExiledCreature]

Well there are the situations where it just doesn't matter whether the reviews are good or not. Take Witcher 3 for example. I love the first two games in the series, so I don't care if everyone on the internet says it's shit, I'm still going to buy it. Of course, unless you are getting a discount for the preorder, I would agree to just wait even if it is a 100% guaranteed purchase.

Hm, I get the point of having to play a game yourself to see how good/bad it is if you're an invested fan of the series. Still it doesn't make sense to me to pay upfront.

 

[happyninja42]

Well, the reason I don't particularly care for pre-order is as follows:

1. I'm not terribly desperate to play any games that badly anymore, and can happily wait until they are discounted on some sale.

2. Most of the pre-order stuff you get, that I see anyway, is cosmetic bundles, or other relatively meaningless stuff. And I just don't care about having a "golden dildo longsword, authentically crafted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger's head" as my weapon to run around. They usually do nothing to the actual gameplay, or if they do something it's incredibly minor as to be almost non-existant. It's flair, and that's it, and I don't give a shit about flair. Very very rarely has the preorder stuff been something I actually wanted. The most recent I can think of was the glowy wings from Diablo 3 Lord of Death expansion. I thought they looked really cool on a Crusader, so I bought it. Now, if it's from a publisher that has had a consistent record of making quality product, then I'm less iffy about pre-orders. Like Blizzard. I think Blizz makes good stuff, the quality of their work is not amateur in my opinion, so if they want to pre-order something, I'm less worried about the end product being bad. But I still don't like spending full price for anything, so I do it very very rarely. In fact, that D3 preorder is probably the first time I've done that in a decade.

3. A lot of games coming out today have great marketing and trailers, but shit quality end product. So just because your trailer looks awesome, doesn't mean your game is actually awesome. So I'll just wait until your game is actually done and out, and let the consumer base decide if your game is worth my money or not. I don't have buckets of cash to toss around on every title that randomly interests me. I have a budget, and I'd rather not spend my minor free cash on games that suck, and are full price.

4. Pre-orders don't actually benefit me at all. I don't gain anything of substance by pre-ordering. Sure they toss swag at me, but it's mostly crap IMO. But the pre-orders do help the publisher, possibly help them make a profit on a piece of shit game before anyone can actually learn it's a piece of shit game. And honestly, with that model in mind, fuck them. It's not my job to help them sneak a lemon onto the gaming community, and make a profit off it. They want their game to do well? Then make a good game, and let it stand on it's own on release date and beyond. I bet you if pre-orders didn't exist, that Aliens piece of shit wouldn't have been as profitable as it was. Because the game would've come out, everyone under the son would've made videos (which they did) saying that it sucked, and a lot of people who did buy it, wouldn't have. But no, they could do pre-orders, so the game sold tons of copies before anyone could get their hands on it, and then the community was handed a pile of digital shit for their time and effort. While the company went to the bank with your cash. So yeah, screw pre-orders.

 

[crypticracer]

Alien Colonial Marines is the best reason not to trust pre orders I can think of.

I'm not against them in general. If I thought it was the only way I could be sure to get an upcoming Atlus game, I'd do it. But i'm pretty sure the last time I had to was Tactics Ogre on the GBA. Which I didn't preorder, and is now like $70.

Really, it just feels disengenuos on part of the publishers. It feels dishonest. Movie companies don't threaten withholding a part of the movie if you don't order your tickets early (in general. There are a few exceptions)

And let's not even get into each retailer having their own pre order bonus. I shouldn't have to buy the game 4 times to get the whole experience.

As pre-orders become more and more defunct, the publishers are gonna keep finding more and more incentive to to get people to do it. If they aren't removing things now to give as "bonuses" I can see them doing it in the future.

If the bonuses are swag then that's fine. That stuff takes room to ship and isn't available digitally. I like a good art book.

 

[the doom cannon]

Idk, I preoredered a few things and the last was bf3. I told myself I wouldn't preorder things anymore, but I bit the bullet and preordered civ: beyond earth because gmg was selling the preorder for $37.50. I figured I was going to buy it when it went on a steam sale anyway, and 25% off is pretty generous even if it was the steam winter sale.

 

[Agayek]

So yeah, what's your deal with pre-orders? Or do you agree with me?

The problem with pre-orders comes hand in hand with the major remaining issue of digital distribution:

How do you recover from a bad purchase?

The reason people dislike preorders is because they are blatantly anti-consumer. They give no benefit to the customer and lock them into a purchase of an item that they have no way to know the quality of. You get shit like Colonial Marines, where millions of preorders went through, and the game was utter shit and the customer is left at the mercy of their store of choice whether or not they can get their money back. It's an atrocious business practice that actively punishes the consumer in order for the publisher to have a more solid bottom line.

 

[laggyteabag]

I hate the idea of pre-order bonuses because it feels like they shaved content away from the game just to entice you into pre-ordering the game, this makes sense from a business standpoint (my friend likes to pre-order games because he likes to have something that other people don't.)

The only time I will ever pre-order a game is if I was planning on buying the game at launch anyway, but I will only ever pre-order a game from a pre-existing (game) franchise. I don't care if the game is from X developer,, or if the game just looks amazing, or if the game will offer X content for a pre-order, unless it is a sequel, I will not buy into it until the reviews are out. This method has yet to fail me so far.

Whilst I rarely pre-order anyway, I have pre-ordered 2 games this year - Borderlands: The Pre-sequel, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. I am a fan of both Borderlands games, and the Pre-sequel looks pretty fun, especially with my 3 other friends, and as someone who really loved both Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3, I have yet to be letdown by BioWare, so I have let Inquisition hype me up.