One on the unquestioned traditions for gamers is preordering. No one asks if you preordered something but where you preordered it. What bonuses did you get, etc… Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy and even Steam will routinely shower gamers with gifts in order to secure those advance sales. Some of the bonuses, like early access to a shotgun, are dumb extras that aren’t worth the effort. Others, like a free copy of a related game, are enough to make you question your own intelligence if you DON’T preorder the game.
But after the disappointment of Assassin’s Creed 3 and the still-ongoing disaster that is SimCity, my question to you is this: why do you preorder? What drives you to spend money before you can use the item that you bought? Is it the aforementioned bonuses? Is it simply a habit now, ingrained in our buying rituals so much that we don’t even question why we are forking over money before we can confirm the game is actually worth it?
It’s not as if scarcity is an issue anymore, with a few exceptions. And since many (though not all) games are sold digitally, such as SimCity, that reason doesn’t really hold water there, either. I used to preorder games for the bonuses, such as Amazon giving you credit back for buying it through their store, but they have slowed down the number of those kinds of deals, so I don’t do it as often. Even the idea of getting something on release day isn’t a great reason, as GameStop usually has copies anyway and you can be sure Best Buy or Wal-mart or Target does.
I’m not trying to say preordering is bad; it certainly has its uses when you are certain you are going to love a game. But we should start being more discerning with our money and start questioning our own habits. So I present to you the question: Why do you preorder?
Sometimes its the sheer excitement for the games other times it would be the physical bonus you get, but as of most recent with AoE2HD It was cause the pre order was cheaper.
I used to pre order every game I was excited for back when I worked at GameStop, since it helped out the store and my fellow employees when we get more pre-orders. Now that I don’t work there, however, I find myself only pre-ordering if I get one of two things: a soundtrack download or a discount (promotional credit towards next purchase counts). I really couldn’t care less about some skin or weapon, and honestly if I wanted it I could call up one of my GameStop buddies and tell them to just print me off a code and text it to me. There’s really no reason for me to put down money on something until its time to buy it and who knows? Maybe I’ll get busy with another game or something will come up where I don’t have time to play said pre-ordered game at launch. If that’s the case, I’d rather wait to buy it until I’m ready (and then it might be cheaper) rather than buying it on release day at full price, and watching it collect dust.
I only pre-order a game if I want to play it first and finish it before I get spoiled on the story. The last game I preordered was BioShock Infinite, but as a broke college student, sometimes I just have to miss out on games, so I don’t pre-order much if at all.
Although, I did pre-order Rayman Legends on Steam because it came bundled with Rayman 2. It’s hard to pass up on one of the greatest platformers of all time.
These days I really only pre-order for ridiculous promo deals (i.e. Bioshock Infinite). Used to be I also pre-ordered with the idea of influencing the overall reception for a developer or title, but I’ve long since given up on the idea of trying to use a retail purchase (or lack thereof) to communicate such things. Unless you count Kickstarter…
WAIT Trogador, It came bundled with RAYMAN 2? WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME!
To shut the guy behind the counter up.
I do it to surprise my future self. It’s either a happy surprise, or a “What the hell was I thinking?!” surprise.