Weekend Open Forum: Do you ever pre-order video games?

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

open forum

I am a pretty avid and hardcore console gamer personally, but I have never once preordered a title. Even for the games that I literally can not wait to get my hands on, I still feel no need to preorder. 

As someone who mainly enjoys story driven, single player experiences - due largely to the fact that there's just something about a 12 year old, high on sugar water, screaming profane language in my ear that sort of breaks immersion - I simply don't want the extras the publishers offer up as incentive. Sure there are times when you get a good chunk of story missions or something substantial along those lines, but in almost all cases the extra goodies feel like stuff the devs have ripped out of the once complete product or in game items/weapons/costumes that I don't feel I've earned because they have just been given to me. I don't want a special rocket launcher to just appear in my inventory, I want to find that in game through exploration or something like that, not buy it at GameStop.

Last time I checked there were plenty of copies of any game I've ever wanted at a number of different stores, all in quite close proximity. So if you don't want the extra goodies handed to you and there is plenty of stock ready and waiting for your money, then why pre-order? Possibly showing support for smaller studio and indie releases (which happen to not be the games I personally favor), maybe for those that live in smaller towns where inventory might be an issue, early access to a beta release?

So for this week's open forum we want to know if you ever pre-order games. Does pre-ordering titles just feed into the idea of pulling content from the title that should have been in there in the first place? Or is it simply a way for hardcore fans to get every last bit of content and show their support for the developers and games they love the most?

Permalink to story.

 
If I recall correctly, the only game I ever pre-ordered was God of War III. I've seen too many high promising games and respected franchises fail to deliver to get sucked into the whole pre-order routine. There's also the fact that games are not the most important thing in the world. I can wait a day or a week or a month to play a good game. There is not a title in existence so masterfully composed as to warrant urgency.
 
Ha.... hahahaha.... hahahahahahaha wait wait I need to catch my breath omg... so funny.
Do you have a low IQ and admit to it ? Could be another way to phrase this question.
Pay somewhere like £50+ on a game riddled with bugs just to be like those *****s who post "First" on forums.
No game is worth more than £20 new in my opinion and even thats generous. I would rather pay under £10, £3.74. Ah Steam Sales prove where pricing should be constantly. But hey if you want that extra in game content, the hat, the armor, the weapon, the bragging rights... yeah its all not worth a damn.
 
I *think* I pre-ordered Starcraft II. After getting it and trying real hard to like it as much as I did Starcraft, I decided I'm just not into these things anymore. I've probably played less than 10 hours of PC games in the past year, maybe past 2 years.
 
I have not once preordered a game. Considered doing destiny, but I would have only done so had I a next gen console and I was more even more impressed with the beta.
 
I have never pre-ordered any game due to the fact that I once pre-ordered some hardware which never was delivered (fool me once...). Took almost a year to get my money back - after many failed promises.
 
Twice: Crysis 2 [regreted it completely] and XCOM: Bureau Declassified (it was worth it because it included my beloved XCOM: Enemy Unkwnon -400+ hours of playing it- and the collection of the classic XCOMs) -if it wasn't for it, I would have not or probably much later tried XCOM: EU.
 
Two or three times. Been burned once, so I really watch it. Just recently pre-ordered Far Cry 4 due to extra missions you get. Far Cry series has been rock solid so far - no reason to think this one will be a dog.
 
I pre-ordered games all the time although that's specifically only for jRPGs. I love the stuff that usually comes with pre-ordering them. For other types of games, I don't and generally wait for Steam sales to get them.
 
Very Very rarely if I do it's usually PC games in Beta that I have already played and enjoyed. The last game that I actually pre ordered from a store was Halo 2.
 
I pre-ordered BF3 (digital download), because I knew I was going to get it anyway, and I wanted to play the beta with my clan and have it ready the moment it went live. But after paying for all the expansions and realizing I had eventually spent over $100 on a game that I suddenly got tired of, I decided I will probably never pay full price ($50 or more) on a game again.
 
Ha.... hahahaha.... hahahahahahaha wait wait I need to catch my breath omg... so funny.
Do you have a low IQ and admit to it ? Could be another way to phrase this question.
Pay somewhere like £50+ on a game riddled with bugs just to be like those *****s who post "First" on forums.
No game is worth more than £20 new in my opinion and even thats generous. I would rather pay under £10, £3.74. Ah Steam Sales prove where pricing should be constantly. But hey if you want that extra in game content, the hat, the armor, the weapon, the bragging rights... yeah its all not worth a damn.

Hey look, one of the 12-yr olds showed up. I wonder who he's even talking to?

If you count Kickstarter I've pre-ordered once. The price was unbeatable for a AAA title.
 
Ha.... hahahaha.... hahahahahahaha wait wait I need to catch my breath omg... so funny.
Do you have a low IQ and admit to it ? Could be another way to phrase this question.
Pay somewhere like £50+ on a game riddled with bugs just to be like those *****s who post "First" on forums.
No game is worth more than £20 new in my opinion and even thats generous. I would rather pay under £10, £3.74. Ah Steam Sales prove where pricing should be constantly. But hey if you want that extra in game content, the hat, the armor, the weapon, the bragging rights... yeah its all not worth a damn.


I guess you don't mind getting paid next to nothing with that attitude. There is a lot that goes into Dev of a game or any other company for that matter.

Overhead
1) Devs
2.) Office crew
3.) Office supplies
4.) Electricity
5.) Lease
6.) Maintenance on building
7.) Computers
8.) Packaging
9.) Printing
10.) Publishing
11.) Lawyers
12.) Advertisement
13.) A bunch of stuff that I'm missing.
 
I bought skyrim on steam 4 hours before it came out just so I could preload it and play it at midnight, does that count? Aside from that, no, I have never and will never preorder a game.

Everyone in my guild pre ordered ESO. Everyone quit two weeks later. I knew it was going to be garbage because I was in the beta.
 
Got a couple Steam early access betas like Wasteland2 & Grim Dawn, think the only proper pre-orders I did were Borderlands 2 & Van Helsing 2. BL2, as much as I do enjoy it, pretty much killed off pre-orders for me.
 
Ha.... hahahaha.... hahahahahahaha wait wait I need to catch my breath omg... so funny.
Do you have a low IQ and admit to it ? Could be another way to phrase this question.
Pay somewhere like £50+ on a game riddled with bugs just to be like those *****s who post "First" on forums.
No game is worth more than £20 new in my opinion and even thats generous. I would rather pay under £10, £3.74. Ah Steam Sales prove where pricing should be constantly. But hey if you want that extra in game content, the hat, the armor, the weapon, the bragging rights... yeah its all not worth a damn.


I guess you don't mind getting paid next to nothing with that attitude. There is a lot that goes into Dev of a game or any other company for that matter.

Overhead
1) Devs
2.) Office crew
3.) Office supplies
4.) Electricity
5.) Lease
6.) Maintenance on building
7.) Computers
8.) Packaging
9.) Printing
10.) Publishing
11.) Lawyers
12.) Advertisement
13.) A bunch of stuff that I'm missing.

He's probably a millennial and therefore under the impression that modern games are either produced on custom modded versions of RPG Maker or assembled from kits. Don't try to reason with him.
 
Last preorder was FFXIII. That game was totally worth $60 to me but even still, never again. All the games I like are flops. Wait a year and pick it up for $20. I'm looking forward to Knack hopefully less then $20 when I get a ps4.
 
I have pre-ordered a few games, but if I do pre-order I will if they have a "sale" on pre-order. For BF4 because I had some Amazon gift-cards with it on sale.

BF4 was the last game I pre-ordered and most likely will not pre order again.
 
1 game - Saint's Row 4, which was a gift for a friend anyways. I doubt that counts as a personal pre-order, but to each their own on the tallies. I bought 1 other game but that's after launch, seen a review + gameplay so I knew what it was. That was Wolfenstein: The New Order. I refuse to consider buying a game, unless I see what the game is like.

It's just way too easy, to end up getting burned by a game. Just the whole "oooo, shinies!" aka pre-order items, etc doesn't appeal to me. You'll be so tempted by things, that you end up finding it's a pile of crap. Likely during that pre-order, you end up buying a season pass too. Look how much was wasted, only to find the game didn't even resemble what you expected.

It's not the fact of high hopes, it's the fact that they overhype things. Then throw in all these fancy pre-order items, or lock things behind pre-order / Day 1 DLC just to take more money. Between all the big sites hyping a game, only to watch it fall flat makes you really wonder. What's the point of getting on the hype train, when you seen so many AAA games just be absolute trash? They only want the hype for more sales, but once people catch wind it's going to sell a lot less.
 
Yup, but only when what I've seen gives me a sense of security that the game will be great (Skyrim was a good preorder), and usually if I want to support the developer/publisher (The Witcher 3 and CD Projekt RED's criticisms of DRM).
 
I preordered GTA IV but I'll won't preorder again. Not that I was sorry I did but I see no sense in spending money on a game that I can pick up a couple of months later for half of the release day price, maybe even more besides I'm not the keen gamer I used to be. If I buy two games a year it's a lot.
 
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