Over the past several years, pre-orders have become a big part of the video game business. Extra eager players who just can’t wait to plunk their money down are encouraged, maybe now more than ever, to do so with special incentives. Where these incentives were once tangible items like t-shirts and figurines, they’re now more likely to take the form of free downloadable content or early access to other games in beta.
Pre-orders are a bit of a gamble. Sure, it might just be five or ten dollars here and there, but it’s still money down the drain if early reviews of the game are crappy enough that you don’t want to pick up the copy you “pre-ordered.”
I used to be extremely conservative with my game purchases. I’d never pre-order anything, and wouldn’t pick up a game until all the reviews were in. Now, I’m finally pre-ordering stuff. I pre-ordered a copy of “Aliens: Colonial Marines” at New York Comic Con. I didn’t plan on it, but they had cool t-shirts as an incentive and day-one access to playable original characters from the movie ALIENS. It only cost $5, but I still felt kind of foolish. I guess time will tell. Now, I’m probably going to do it again for Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Why? I want early access to the Zero Dark Thirty maps. It’s the most rank form of consumerism – playing shoot em’ up games based on the compound where Bin Laden was capped – but at least I’m honest, I guess. Still, will the money down be worth it? It’s only $5, but it’s another little bit of money that will be wasted if the game turns out to be dismal.
I guess I’ve made my decision: Gamble on the hope that the games are worth picking up (and thus the DLC has some kind of value), but be prepared to eat my investment if not. However, I’m curious about your own thoughts. Do you pre-order games? Are there only certain times that you do so? Do you skip it entirely? Let me know in the comments below.
I will not pre-order. My main reason is that I do not want a developer to get lazy. I want the developers of games to feel like they have to strive to get my money and support. I want them to push themselves to make every game perfect. I do not ever want them to think that they have me in the bag and I will buy any piece of trash that they will put out. Also if a developer feels they have set a firm date, and taken pre-orders they will skip (for me at least) the most important part of the development cycle; finding and fixing as many bugs as possible. When ever I have pre-ordered a game I felt like I was forcing a developer to put out an incomplete product. I used to be a tester for EA Tiburon, they make Madden, this is a game that would sell millions of copies if they released a milestones build. Madden’s biggest problem, the one that keeps it from ever being as good as the NFL2k games, is that EA knows that they do not need to strive for perfection, that what ever they put out will be good enough.
I just feel like a developer should never feel comfortable, should never feel like they will succeed no matter what. So I make them work for my money.