PSA: DON'T pre order video games

[Arashikage]

You all probably know this already, but please don't pre order games.  It does virtually nothing for you, but propagates the behavior that a company can put a game they haven't finished up for sale, and you'll give them your money anyway.  Game companies use this purchase which is sold on hype alone to gauge interest in their title, which nobody has played yet.  For example, at the time of this post, Scourge has given Gearbox 29.74 for a digital receipt saying he gave the company that amount, and the promise of the game when it comes out on February 25.  I get it.  Pre-ordering means you won't be out of luck on launch day when everyone scrambles to pick up a copy of the game.  But when you're talking about a digital distribution platform that buys tens of millions of keys for these games so that their 65 million players can have a fair chance at acquiring one of these keys, that point becomes moot.  The game will still be there when you go to buy it on launch day, or a bit after though.  

There's the chance that the new remastered Homeworld will not be as good as the original.  There's the chance that it will have messed up a ton of things that it promised the players it would deliver.  But if this happened, would anyone know?  Not until the game comes out.  What happens when the game comes out, though, and you already bought it a month ago?  Well, you can't return it, so it looks like you're stuck with it.  

Furthermore, we now have day 1 patches, because a release date is so pressed, the developers had to rush to make changes so last minute they wouldn't even make it onto the pre-load or disk.  So now, the game that's sitting in your queue to be downloaded isn't the newest version anymore, and you haven't even gotten to play it yet.  Not only that, but your game could still end up not working even with these crucial fixes.  You could end up with a game you haven't gotten to play, and still won't get to play until it's fixed, and you've already paid full price or almost full price for it.  Now all you have is a broken game and no chance of getting your money back for it.  Until it's fixed that is, hours or days later, and you realize that it didn't live up to the hype you'd had for it.  

It's saddening, how commonplace it is nowadays to pre order video games, or have them up for sale before they're released.  Did you know Sony will gladly take your money for Uncharted 4, despite it not having an actual release date aside from "2015"?  The games industry more than any other is determined to get you interested in a game and garner your support and interest as early as humanly possible.  They'll put out teasers, screenshots, maybe very short demos on rare occasions, but all in all, what you're seeing is far different than the actual game you're going to be buying(Or already bought).  Remember E3?  Where the trailers and "gameplay footage" were far better than that of the game they released afterwards?  There's a mass fear that's going on of "I don't wanna get left out, so I'd better spend as soon as I can, so that I don't miss out." when really, you're not missing out.  And if you are, it's on bullshit DLC that is literally just cosmetic tut you won't end up playing with later on in the game.  Or worse yet, you'll end up getting a god weapon that will break the game, or the ability to use cheat codes.  

 

Long story short, why would you pre order a game when it does literally nothing for you, and will be available no matter what anyway?

[CrypticQuery]

I generally agree, but especially when it comes to preordering digital versions that cannot go out of stock.

[StarFoxfan-FUR_ever]

I just don't understand how people in this day and age can still fall for the "pre order the game before (Date X) and get Exclusive add on content" line. I mean really, how many times do people need to find DLC content located on the disk and/or unlock this so called "pre-order exclusive", by simply playing the game, without actually pre ordering the game in order to learn not to pre order the game?

[Icy]

I pre-order games when they have cool promotions (physical and/or digital) that I would like.

I also pre-order just because it's a good thing to do for the devs/publisher if I am confident that the game is going to be good.

 

All that said, I rarely pre-order anything because I rarely buy games when they come out... beeeecause I rarely have any money.

[Scourge]

I'd like to point out that I have played the game in question, as it is an HD remaster of the original homeworld games

 

Nothing beyond small amounts of the UI, the voice-acting, the art assets, and the models have been changed.

 

and even an online-multiplayer has been added, which wasnt there before--

 

so.

 

(and that I actually didn't pay for it. T'was a birthday gift.)

[Drasiana]

I only preorder games I know I'm gonna 100%-no-doubt enjoy (so...Dragon Age) or Nintendo games because I always buy hardcopies and it's a nightmare to try and get them without preordering. But yeah I really don't like the publisher pressure to release stuff like this, it puts a lot of stress on the devs and often leaves the customers unhappy. Not a good system.

[LazerMaster5]

There were only 2 games I pre-ordered in 2014, SSB4 3DS and The Crew. SSB4 wasn't really a pre-order, more like having a $50 eShop card preloaded on my 3DS. the Crew was a big disappointment, and the pre-order bonuses were Street spec cars that had no higher spec cars available, so you ended up buying the normal vehicles anyway so you can have better specs. Example: 2005 Dodge Ram SRT. A street spec was available as a pre-order bonus, but I still had to buy the regular version of the truck to get raid spec. So yeah, I have to agree with you guys that pre-ordering is no longer a great idea.

[Xidphel]

But...

But...

[Fureox]

I was going to post but then I saw Xidphel's post and started drooling and remembering that I really want to get those games asap.

 

 

Preordering isn't all that harmful. It's a play on the game's hype a lot of times, but that's not all that evil. Even with preordering digital (while it is kind of dumb) a lot of times it lets you pre-download the game so that you can play as SOON as it releases. Hey, if you're that excited to play, then have at it.

[Dr. Orange]

I am professional gamer. I preorder games for the TFTWO items like 3l1ET GAMR!

 

No really though. Pre-ordering games has it's ups and downs. There are those events that end up bad such has some of these newer games. I know I have been a victim of the rushing of developers but I've also ordered games that came out perfectly fine and completed. It's all about doing your own research into what has been done and what appears to be needing a touch up. Go with the flo' and either pre-order or don't.

 

There's no conspiracy. 

[Who Knows]

Well i don't Preorder games anymore and if Blazblue CP and Destiny have taught me anything it is to wait a few days watch some Gameplay and if i enjoy it i will buy it on a sale or wait for the ultimate premium GOTY etc.edition

[Vy'drach]

Honestly, if you get burned on a bad game now-a-days it's your own fault, what with the countless resources available before the game is released. If a developer isn't releasing early copies to high end testers or having the reviews held and what not, it's shady as fuck. There are dozens of people playing the game before release, if it's a AAA title, generally, that are unofficial and have no qualms about telling you if the game is bad. If you don't do a lick of research and pre-order, then get burned, that's on you, entirely. But people are so bloody salty about pre-ordering, and especially about early access (oh how I love the early access salt).

 

Also, the Colonial Marines thing is an extreme example because what Gearbox did was outright illegal. It's still your fault if it burned you, but none-the-less, they did a few illegal things and are being sued by SEGA over it, namely they took pre-rendered footage and said it was gameplay footage, and they took funds given to them by SEGA for the game and instead used them for Borderlands 2.

[Fureox]

 they did a few illegal things and are being sued by SEGA over it, namely they took pre-rendered footage and said it was gameplay footage, and they took funds given to them by SEGA for the game and instead used them for Borderlands 2.

I didn't know that. That's some juicy drama right there, I blew a hard air out of my nose.

[StarFoxfan-FUR_ever]

they took pre-rendered footage and said it was gameplay footage

 

Why hasn't EA been sued yet for this practice? Seriously can someone tell me why they are immune to this?

 

EDIT: To stay OT, let me also add that if there seems to be a lack of gameplay footage, odds are something is up. Refer to my earlier topic where I ranted, and ranted....and ranted about EA deliberately hiding info about one of it's yearly release games until the last month.

[Drasiana]

There's no conspiracy. 

 

It's not a conspiracy, just bad business decisions by mooks in suits who have no idea how video games actually work. It's less insidious intent and more just incompetence. 

 

Obviously you should do your own research before dropping a shitton of money on a video game, preorder or no. We could still do with a bit of a system overhaul though.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Is this phenomena replicated in any other industry, like music?

[Vulvokunvrii]

Yeah pre-odering stinks; one its unfair what those people get compared to the rest of us, you're forking your money away at an outrageous price, and yeah they may have not worked out the kinks yet so you might be soured by the game and its not even "finished" yet.

[Xortberg]

Yeah pre-odering stinks; one its unfair what those people get compared to the rest of us

Yeah okay I'ma stop you right there because that?

 

That's how money works

 

People exchange money for goods and services. Not everyone will get the same goods and/or services even if they all want them because some people will have more money to exchange. So, people who throw 100 extra bucks into a preorder for an artbook/OST/figurine/whateverthefuckelse they include in the preorder bundle get those things, whereas someone who buys a game used for 20 bucks from Gamestop or whatever does not get those things.

 

I'm no economics buff but I'm pretty sure this is basically just capitalism in action.

[Drasiana]

Is this phenomena replicated in any other industry, like music?

 

Music has a bunch of similar-but-different issues when it comes to stuff like this. It's a bit long and storied and I honestly don't know too much of the nitty gritty. If I remember I'll try to wrangle up some articles on it because the colossal marketing fuckups in various creative industries are weirdly interesting.

 

But yeah the fucked-up thing about the gaming industry's obsession with pre-ordering isn't "people who pay more get more content" it's "companies devour the money you bleed before you even have tangible proof of the game's worth, essentially telling them that you'll buy whatever they shit out so they can wash themselves of responsibility and strap the devs to the front of the hype train careening top-speed towards impossible delivery dates that usually end in tragic disappointment".

[LazerMaster5]

More games need demos representative of the end product, like when musicians put out a single or a teaser for their new album, or movies have special "sneak peeks" that show a certain scene from the movie so people know what it is like. That way, it is easier to figure out which games we will like, and which ones are a waste of money.

[Arashikage]

The music industry has a different problem really. There are similarities however. In games, you can get different content based on the store you pre-order from. So you can get a new bazooka or something from best buy, but game stop gives you a new pink jumpsuit. Now you are missing out on content no matter how insignificant the content is just because you preordered from a different store. Some albums bands release come with bonus tracks you can only get from certain stores, which sucks because some of said tracks are pretty good. This could lead to people finding the track online and not paying for it, which is the opposite of what these record labels want. So they label these people pirates, and take legal action because these people bought the album at Wal Mart and wanted the Target exclusive track from that same album, but didn't want to pay for a whole new album.

[LazerMaster5]

Meh, the quality of bonus tracks vary from time to time. While some are covers or songs that were cut, a large portion of them are demo and live cuts of songs already on the album. Besides, most albums I own with bonus tracks are pretty universal, whether it be Sabaton, Dragonforce, Avenged Sevenfold, or Megadeth.

[Drasiana]

You having a good luck run of albums doesn't mean that the entire concept of a bonus track wasn't propagated by producers specifically for marketing reasons. We're seeing less of it now because the way we've come to buy music has changed rather drastically over the last few years--it's on the downswing of "stupid market trend", while the gaming industry is on the upswing. Bonus tracks being used as a dumb way to hoop buyers into buying from a specific retailer, or buy the same album twice, isn't really anything new: Edguy specifically wrote a song making fun of the whole thing and I doubt they're the only ones.

[Arashikage]

In addition, however, bonus tracks are being added to get people to buy digitally now instead of physically, because now if you buy a digital album, it's still around 10 dollars, but the company doesn't have to pay for the materials to make a CD, so they make more money.  Now, you have iTunes bonus tracks and shit. 

[Vy'drach]

Talkin' shit 'bout bonus track quality when one of the godliest Nightwish songs is a bonus track that I don't own on a CD that I do own, and I had to buy it separately on iTunes.

 

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

 

And don't even get me started on finding Ever Dream...