Preorder Hell

I know it's bad for me. I know it's expensive. I'm not addicted. I don't have a problem. I can stop anytime I want to.

I'm talking, of course, about pre-ordering video games.

In the course of my gaming career I've fallen into the pre-order trap maybe a dozen times. It's almost never gone well. I can name, maybe, two games that I've pre-ordered that lived up to my expectations. One of them was Saints Row The Third. I'll let you guess what the other one was. (It starts with a D and rhymes with Mook Rookum schmore-schnever.)

The rest of them have been resounding disappointments. Patapon was an interesting concept that devolved into a combination of everything I hate about strategy games and everything I hate about rhythm games. To this day I want to have liked that game, and to this day I like everything about it except playing it. 3D Dot Game Heroes was another disappointment. My wife and I were so excited to play a new game in the style of Zelda, only to find a game that included everything about the Zelda experience except the part where it was an enjoyable.

The ending of the first Darksiders literally gave me goosebumps of anticipation, but I never expected the game to get a sequel. When Darksiders 2 was announced, my wife and I did the dance of joy and pre-ordered it on the spot. Then it came out.

The most frustrating part? It wasn't even bad enough to hate. About halfway through it, we just got bored and stopped. You'd think a game featuring Death as envisioned by the dude who paints fantasy murals on conversion vans from the late 1980's would be more exciting.

My inability to stop buying disappointing games prior to launch has many causes that are completely tangled up and root-bound like a child's FFA project left to grow too long in a Dixie cup. Untangling it will take patience, perseverance, and the willingness to kill whatever is still able to grow in that tiny, tiny pot.

The first pre-order initiator is fear. Over the past few decades, the videogame industry has conditioned me to live in fear that the game I want will be impossible to actually get. GameStop is notorious for fanning these flames into a wild brush-fear that consumes all reason and frugality. Their stock is determined by pre-orders, so if I don't pre-order a game then my odds of actually laying hands on a copy of the game drop through the floor. This is especially true of the sort of bizarre little niche titles that I have favored my entire life, where GameStop is my only real, viable option for grabbing a copy of the sort of game that broader retailers like Best Buy or Walmart are unlikely to carry. Most recently this was driven home by Farming Simulator 15, a game which shipped all of four copies to every GameStop within a twenty minute drive of me, and of those I got the last copy. On launch day. At the second GameStop I tried.

Oh, how the clerk chuckled at the look on my face when I asked for the copy I had called to reserve and he told me they just sold it.

Ha ha, just kidding. Here it was behind the register the whole time. Har har har. Very funny. Ho ho. Aren't we being funny? Har har har. Of course I didn't insert a used SkyLanders figure up his nose. That would have been uncalled for.

It was an Amiibo.

Spending life In fear and regret, however, is no way to live. I can't buy every game I'm ever likely to want. That way lies financial ruin, and anyway, who's got that kind of time anymore?

So I try to compromise, and look to the second thing that gets my wallet warmed up: excitement.

I like to think of myself as a person who knows, er, myself. Knowing that I'm a contrary, grumpy bastard doesn't change the fact that I will bounce up and down like a poorly tuned suspension in Rhode Island when a launch trailer tickles my fancy just right. I'm a geek. I like geeking out.

At this point I'd like to pause and remark on how this is different from falling prey to hype, or wishing to be "part of the conversation." Hype is artificial excitement created by marketing people with a little knowledge of psychology. Hype alone may entice me to buy a game, but it won't get me to pre-order it. I know myself well enough to recognize when I'm excited about something rather than just juiced up on flashy marketing. One has me speculating about playing the game, while the other is merely a compulsion to own it.

As for "being part of the conversation," well, I like Twilight and Duke Nukem Forever. I don't get to have conversations; I get to have arguments.

No, when I talk about getting excited about a game, I mean I'm entirely dedicated to playing it as soon as possible. The idea of the game is so strong in my head that the only way to check my own enthusiasm before injuring myself is to put some money down on that bad boy. The pre-order receipt in my pocket is my golden ticket, baby! In TBD 2015, I'm going to have some real fun! See if I don't!

So I pre-order only the games I'm truly excited by. The games I want to play day-one. The games I'd be really sad if I couldn't get. I temper my fear with excitement – or perhaps the other way around.

The problem is that there will never be a game released that can deal with that sort of emotional cocktail. Think about it. How would you like to be the one making a game that a user is not just excited to play, but is actually frightened of not playing it because it will be so awesome? That's a lot of pressure to put on one game. It's like if you offered to make pancakes for your significant other, who then stipulated that he or she would leave you if they weren't the best pancakes he or she had ever eaten. Could you even touch the griddle under that kind of constraint?

Nope. There's clearly only one rational, reasonable course of action here: Don't pre-order games. Ever. Period.

I can do that. The game will be there. Probably. And even if it's not, there will be a hundred other ones out to try. In fact, if I'm willing to be very reasonable, I can hold out for the Game of the Year Edition, which will be the same price as the plain vanilla version is right now but will have twice as much content, and some bug fixes. All I have to do is wait a year or two, in a very reasonable way.

The fact that I did just that with Borderlands 2 and was largely disappointed is meaningless. How many times could that happen, right?

So no more pre-orders. I mean, look at my backlog, for crying out loud! Over three hundred fifty Steam games, and I've finished three of them. I shouldn't even be shopping for games, let alone pre-ordering them!

Wait. Fallout 4 is coming? In November, you say?

Okay. I'm being strong!

No more pre-orders.

After Fallout 4.

And this time I mean it!

Comments

It's been a while since I bought a game in-store at an EB Games (Canada's GameStop) and not digitally, but I remember the exchange like it was yesterday.

"Do you want to preorder [insert game title here that I can't remember, so clearly I don't actually remember the exchange like it was yesterday]?"

"Naw, I'll just pick it up on release day if I decide that I want it."

"Just so you know, the number of copies that we get depends on pre-orders. If you don't preorder it, we may not have a copy for you."

"Oh? Then I guess I'd go pick it up at Best Buy. Or Future Shop. Or the Source. Or any of the independent game stores within the neighbourhood. Or Wal-Mart. Or freakin' Amazon. Your corporation's inability to anticipate demand well enough to properly manage inventory is not, in fact, an incentive for me to give you extra money now."

Having been an RPG fan since the original Playstation era, and seeing a lot of limited pressings become impossible to find, feeling the need to preorder has been hard to shake. I blame Suikoden II and Valkyrie Profile for several hundreds of dollars of gratuitous pre-orders over the years. Contemporary "limited editions" have upped the stakes; the Ni No Kuni "Wizard's Edition" oversold in preorders and still goes for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market. I mean, what if I really really like the new Assassin's Creed and just NEED to have that big plastic statue?

Of course, as one of the folks who haunts the "pile" threads, managing excessive pre-orders of games (that you sometimes never get around to playing!) is a topic of much thought and discussion for me.

Anyway, as always, you brought a humorous personal spin to the subject... always a pleasure to read your articles.

I'm surprised you don't get more of your games digitally, Doubting. No pre-order "rats, I didn't preorder and now they're sold out" there!

What I've noticed is that, with the rise of so many physical outlets, like what Feegle mentions, and robust digital distribution, the incentive to pre-order seems to rely on bonus content. Probably not so much an issue with the games you play, Doubting, but most of the big ones.

In fact, there's now a competitive market for pre-order bonus content. Pre-Order Arkham knight from Gamestop, and you'll get a, b, and c! Pre-Order from Sony, and you'll get a, g, and h! We've become so overrun with pre-order outlets, and, as a society we've bought into the pre-order hype so much that they have to turn the act of pre-ordering into a battle.

Having said all that, I did pre-order Fallout 4. But that's for the entirely rational reason that I've enjoyed every Fallout and Elder Scrolls game I've played, so enjoying Fallout 4 is pretty much guaranteed.

There's clearly only one rational, reasonable course of action here: Don't pre-order games. Ever. Period.

The truest statement of the article.

Great piece, doubting.

This is simple for me.

If the game is something I would be willing to -
A. Pay full price
B. Is being released by a developer and/or publisher with a solid release record
C. Is something I know I will start playing right away. Pre-order.

Example -
Fallout 4
A. Yes
B. Yes, though I expect it to be buggy at launch
C. Oh hell yes
PRE-ORDER!

Star Wars: Battlefront
A. Yes
B. No, screw you guys. You have destroyed some of my favorite franchises.
C. You bet!
No pre-order.

It's that simple. For extra bonus points I ONLY pre-order on Amazon. Sure, I may not be able to play it that day but it's a no hassle situation. It gets delivered in the evening, I don't have to go anywhere, and if the price drops since the time I pre-ordered they will refund me the difference of the order price vs. the lowest price before release.

Winning all around.

Then when the Gamestop clerk asks me if there is anything they can pre-order for me I can answer honestly "No. I already have everything I'm interested in on pre-order." I just don't add it is with their competitor and I haven't pre-ordered anything from them since they screwed up the Halo 2 launch.

I'm still confused by my own buying habits.. especially digital.. why do I pre-order a digital product that will be released to me the exact same time it's released to someone who buys it the day its unlocked.

TheGameguru wrote:

I'm still confused by my own buying habits.. especially digital.. why do I pre-order a digital product that will be released to me the exact same time it's released to someone who buys it the day its unlocked.

Pre-loading, so you can play it right at the exact moment it unlocks while you are at work instead of waiting the 10-20 minutes it will take to actually download when you get home from work and can actually play it.

I don't do pre-orders. My game buying creed is to only buy games I want to play right now. A game that has not been released means I can't play it right now which means I don't buy it. The corollary to this is that I will happily buy early access games.

I'm generally in the 'don't preorder' camp. I've made exceptions a few times, maybe 5 or 6 in total and as far as I recall I've never been disappointed. I only do it with properties I know I like from developers I trust implicitly to meet or exceed my expectations.

For me, the most recent combination of:

  • I'm so excited for this game, I want to play it immediately when it launches;
  • I want a physical copy of this game.

...was Starcraft 2, back in 2010.

These days, I just buy stuff digitally (all iOS stuff obviously; Steam for PC games), or from Amazon (new console and 3DS games), or from eBay (old 3DS games -- no need to worry about getting a scratched disc).

"Pre-order our game now, and get this piece of digital flim-flammery for the low-low price of twice as much as 6 months after release."

My Steam pile has broken the concept of pre-ordering.

Everyone else might know this, but I just found this out. If you are an Amazon Prime member, some pre-orders will have a percent off their price. You have to put it in your shopping cart and go to the checkout to see what the discount is. For example, you can save $10 off the Fallout 4 price, and I think $5 for Battlefront. If there's money off, the game description will have a "Save with Prime" graphic close to the bottom.

tampaillini wrote:

Everyone else might know this, but I just found this out. If you are an Amazon Prime member, some pre-orders will have a percent off their price. You have to put it in your shopping cart and go to the checkout to see what the discount is. For example, you can save $10 off the Fallout 4 price, and I think $5 for Battlefront. If there's money off, the game description will have a "Save with Prime" graphic close to the bottom.

OK, I'm intrigued now.

Crazed Java wrote:

This is simple for me.

If the game is something I would be willing to -
A. Pay full price
B. Is being released by a developer and/or publisher with a solid release record
C. Is something I know I will start playing right away. Pre-order.

For me, it's
A. Same
B. Same
C. It's a developer or series that I want to stick around and support.
D. The number of copies that will be in distribution is low enough that the price might go up rather than down.
E. I'll play it within a reasonable amount of time.

So, the games I've preordered this year includes Fallout 4, Dragon Quest Heroes, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Disgaea 5, and Danganronpa: Another Chapter. All of these meet the above criteria. I used to preorder more, but have less disposable income now.

One important thing to note is that most places will let you cancel your preorder... I also waited so long on one of my preorders that the price dropped before I picked it up, and they still gave it to me at the lower price. (Duke Nukem Forever, actually.)

The last game I pre-ordered was Forza Horizon in 2012, at Best Buy, and they allegedly didn't receive the codes for the pre-order bonus cars, and they tried to give me a regular edition even though my pre-order was for the so-called collector's edition, meaning I had to surrender every ounce of my dignity as an adult human being and say out loud, "I believe I pre-ordered the collector's edition."

Thankfully the limitless supply and pants-less shopping of digital distribution mean I never have to pre-order again, let alone sink that low.

Taharka wrote:

In fact, there's now a competitive market for pre-order bonus content. Pre-Order Arkham knight from Gamestop, and you'll get a, b, and c! Pre-Order from Sony, and you'll get a, g, and h! We've become so overrun with pre-order outlets, and, as a society we've bought into the pre-order hype so much that they have to turn the act of pre-ordering into a battle.

It's a last-ditch effort to keep full-price (or more!) games attractive, in the face of digital distribution and online sales. And it's insane—this serves no one but the publishers and retailers:

IMAGE(http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/dpdn0e55cblef6hremg1.jpg)

Fig. 1. Watch_Dogs pre-order lunacy.

I think you mean after X-COM 2!

I've never pre-ordered.

Except the Pip-Boy Edition.

We'll see how that plays out.

Man, sucks to be you, my pre-orders always work out great!

It's probably not something that would happen anymore, considering I keep buying anime vita fighting games on a whim, but for one game, gamestop disappointed me and I found my salvation at Best Buy.

I buy all of my games digitally(except for Wii U games for some reason), and I pre-order almost every major game. I watch tons of videos and read a ton of articles about games before I pre-order. If I'm even a little iffy about a game I wait and use past experiences with genres to know whether or not I'll like the gameplay of a new franchise or not(in theory).

Honestly paying at the time of pre-order is important to me because it lets me stagger my purchases for heavy times(like next week when Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Starcraft 2 release). I know I'm going to play them all, I get discounts from sites like GMG(usually 20-25%) and get pre-order incentives on xbox live through the rewards program.

But I'm also not someone that has any sort of problem with my 'pile'. Video games are my sole hobby, so I play games until I'm done or something else distracts me. If I liked it enough I'll go back to it and if not then as long as I enjoyed my time with it no harm no foul.

I totes understand you... most of my pre-orders have turned out to be good ones, but I really need to stop. Promised myself Xenoblade Chronicles is my last one, this year at least, and am in the grueling process talking myself out of a PS4 this xmas, which purchase would only lead to even more pre-orders.

Preordering feels like the same kind of impulse purchasing as Steam sales, but without the discount.

*Legion* wrote:

Preordering feels like the same kind of impulse purchasing as Steam sales, but without the discount.

Or the instant gratification.

*Legion* wrote:

Preordering feels like the same kind of impulse purchasing as Steam sales, but without the discount.

One reason I do occasionally pre purchase, especially from online retailers, is there's often a discount. No discount no and there's no incentive.

After going for years without preordering anything, and in fact only paying full price for 1 game in the last couple of years (AC: Black Flag), I find myself in the curious position to have 2 games on preorder: Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront.

Hey - I'm part of the conversation!

OldMud wrote:

I find myself in the curious position to have 2 games on preorder: Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront.

Hey - I'm part of the problem!

FTFY IMAGE(http://www.skype-emoticons.com/images/emoticon-00110-tongueout.png)

Ha! - Perhaps, but I take some small comfort in getting the discount through Prime (and not crossing the threshold of a GameStop).

OldMud wrote:

not crossing the threshold of a GameStop

Pre-order or not, that is always a wise choice.

Pre-orders are evil. This pip-boy has been bought as a gift and I hope it's as cool as it sounds/looks. Everything else I've ever seen is "get in-game rifle that has more bullets!" etc. It's at the very least nice we're getting something outside of the game's programming and it has already been admitted you don't even need the pip-boy to utilize it, just the app on a phone. (Which are both on Android & iOS!)

MrDeVil909 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Preordering feels like the same kind of impulse purchasing as Steam sales, but without the discount.

One reason I do occasionally pre purchase, especially from online retailers, is there's often a discount. No discount no and there's no incentive.

Without the drastic discounts, I should say. I do see games on Steam marked down 10% for pre-order sometimes. I do understand that purchase if it's a game you already had pegged as a day 1 buy.

I guess when I think of "pre-order", I think of the ones done ridiculously far in advance.

I preorder almost every major game and then use reviews/consensus to determine whether or not I actually go down to Best Buy and pick it up. The primary reasons are:
1. I have too much disposable income and therefore buy too many games.
2. Best Buy often gives you a $10 gift certificate on top of my 20% discount which makes new releases "sort of" $38.

Never preorder anything ever. That is a general rule of life.