Pre-Ordering games is a waste of time

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Techx

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Completely true article.. I never preorder games.. game systems maybe, but never games unless it's a special/collectors edition...
 
I normally agree, but there are times when it can be beneficial, I preorderd Guild Wars way back when so I could play in its beta events, loved every minute of it and got my 10 dollars worth. Next one I preorderd was The Orange Box and playing TF2 early and helping balance that was a good time as well. Unless you get access to stuff like that and the price is right then yes I agree its a waste of time and money since I have not seen quantity shortages on games in a really long time :eek:
 
Like ripskin said, unless I'm getting early access or some nice extra stuff, I don't bother.

I think the only game I've preordered was Orange Box.
 
Yeah I don't reserve games unless there's some kind of bonus incentive involved, like a t-shirt or something. I remember everyone worrying about Halo 3 shortages, the day came and there was more than enough copies for everyone.
 
But places like Gamestop depend on pre-orders, at least their employees do. The problem is that the system has developed now that if you don't pre-order, you get treated like crap.
Out of stock? "Well, you should have pre-ordered".
Pre-ordered and out of stock? "Well, when we get a shipment you are on the list with everyone else who pre-ordered".
Steam of course is throwing all of this on its head, and I think the system is going to change pretty quickly for PC users. Console people are still at the mercy of the little gaming shops for the moment.
 
Totally agree. For big games, there is NOT going to be a shortage...so I don't view that as a good reason to preorder. I've preordered once or twice because of similar reasons as other people.

And I'll never buy from Gamestop period.
 
I only pre order physical games if I get something of some benefit, with electronic distribution of games like HL2 Ep1/Ep2 and Bioshock I pre loaded to avoid possibly download delays on release day.

Pre ordering in stores just to ensure you get a copy first is usualy a bad idea
 
the only preorder i have ever received was for GTA-IV SE, and even that was done by the gf for my birthday.

the way i look at it is i am usually busy with one or two games as it is and really don't need new releases the day they come out.
 
I'll never pre-order a game. That's just giving the mall store an interest free loan, and telling them that it's okay for them to only get a few copies of something.
 
only time I have ever pre ordered somthing was quake 4 at quakecon so I could get a free t-shirt and figurine
 
jsu718 said:
But places like Gamestop depend on pre-orders, at least their employees do. The problem is that the system has developed now that if you don't pre-order, you get treated like crap.
Out of stock? "Well, you should have pre-ordered".
Pre-ordered and out of stock? "Well, when we get a shipment you are on the list with everyone else who pre-ordered".
Click to expand...

Ahh, i remember my last gamestop trip. Tried to pickup the world ends with you. Of course, nobody pre-ordered it so they didnt even bother to order any. I headed over to best buy, lo and behold, dozens of copies. i dont even bother with gamestop anymore.
 
I'll preorder only if it offers some kind of serious bonus compared to buying it normally.
 
tskiller said:
they didnt even bother to order any.
Click to expand...

Individual stores do not order their own games. They have no say in how many copies they receive. They are allotted a certain amount partially based on their pre-orders by people and computers who probably aren't even in the same state.

Sometimes certain games will sell out and it is a good idea to pre-order them. Orange Box was actually a really good pre-order, assuming you wanted a physical copy (which I did). It was sold out around here in every Gamestop, BestBuy, etc. very fast and generally stayed that way for a while. Brawl was also a good pre-order. Mario Party DS was an insanely good pre-order; that crap was so hard to find during the holiday season. CoD4 was not; Midway was prepared (and boy did it pay off for them). Neither was Halo 3, as Gamestops still have their initial Legendary editions.

It's kind of hit or miss.

Some are no-brainers, like Metal Gear IV may not be sold out, but there's a good chance it will be AND you get MGO beta access.

But generally, if you have things to do in your life, you will never have to pre-order anything as you can always simply wait a week to get a copy. Does anyone REALLY need to get a game the day it gets released?
 
I walked into a Gamestop a couple days after GTA IV came out. I asked the clerk if they had any PS3's in stock to which he said they did. I then asked if they had any GTA IV's in stock for PS3 to which he said they only had pre orders. So, I walked out and bought both from another store down the street.
 
I put a deposit for half life 2, then decided to buy from steam to make sure i got dod source. When i went to apply my deposit towards another game, they said its not showing up. I argued with them for a few minutes, then said screw it its 5 bucks, but Ill never preorder again unless like the others said there is something worthwhile. Ive never seen a game i can remember sold out, area wide, At gamestop sometimes they dont have it, but they dont even get all the new titles around here unless its a big name. Best Buy and Circuit City have a bigger selection of PC games than the 3 gamestops in the area. Hell target might even have a bigger selection. Console games they seem to have every damn one in spades. I buy half my games if not more online anyway, since usually Ill wait for a price drop. The one or two titles im dying to play ill pay that initial price on and the rest can wait.
 
This article hit it dead on.

Also, if you look around, you can find a place that sells big games the day of release with a sale or promotion at larger retailers.

That's what I've been doing if I really want to play the game when it comes out and it works great.
 
i remember all the hype and preorders of team fortress two back in 1999 , man did people get hosed, there had to be at least 500k people who preordered it
 
Pre-ordering made sense back when games came on cartridges and there were sure to be shortages. Now when they can slap a disc together in about .5 seconds it makes no sense at all unless there's an incentive by doing so.
 
I do remember on older systems where preordering was a good deal, but that has not been the case in such a long time.

I have only been into a Gamestop or other like store twice, both times in different cities just to browes around while the wife looked at boring crap next door :D Only took about 30 seconds to realize the boring crap was more interesting next door. Dumb employees most of the time and not a great selection

The last PC game I bought in a store was Supreme Commander, that consisted of (launch day) walking into work (Circuit City at the time) going to the PC department, picking it up and buying one of 8 copies. Not a super big release so not a lot of copies. Other releases like Halo 2 that were "going to be huge" for the PC we had tons of copies laying around and sold very few lol.

The last few console games I have been after, SSBB and Mario Kart Wii, walked in on launch day to CC around 1 - 2pm (after shoping at Target for food seeing their 20 - 30 copies), asked the people up front for a copy, they rang me up, I collect reward points and walked out about 2 minutes later. Friend of mine picked his up at BB halfway across the country same deal, late afternoon plenty of copies. He went by to get GTA4 and had no problems, he went in on his way to work in the late morning and walked out with his copy.

The smaller retailers just have not modefied their system enough to move with the times and while it sucks for them, why bother with the headache? If I cant get it on Steam ill go buy a copy and have yet to find myself without one (whatever it is) come launch day. Thankfully the good preorders that give you something you deem worthy are usually attainable online so again...
 
Yeah there is no point... I don´t understand why people offer to pay for beta testing. If anything if you help with beta testing you should be able to buy the game for less or get it free if you are active with your bug testing. Otherwise how fun is it to play a buggy version and then replay it again...

That is not a reason for me to preorder. It would be only if it would be cheaper but no never is. Collectors edition I do buy them sometimes but they are mostly useless...
 
Ha, I just preordered my second game ever :) It's not something I normally do, but I just put in a big order for a new build and some games, so I preordered GRID right along with it since it comes out in a couple of weeks and I won't have to try and remember it. Seem sto me like preordering is not a big deal. If you want to do it, fine, but there's nothing really right or wrong about it.
 
There is a Gamestop that is on the way home from work. I went there on the release day of GTA IV straight afterwork, around 5:30 p.m., to buy it for my PS3.

I walk in and go straight to the counter, there is only one person in line ahead of me. Of course he wants to buy the PS3 version of GTA IV. After they check his ID (which was probably a fake because he looked 10 years old), they told me that was the last PS3 copy.

My first thought was to beat the crap outta this kid and take it from him in the parking lot, to prove to him that GTA in real life isn't fun. I didn't feel like driving to Circuit City, and instead rented it from Blockbuster, who suprisingly had more copies in stock than gamestop.
 
Im pretty sure this writer never saw the bonus you were getting by preordering Castlevania: portrait of ruin.

all those freebies were AWESOME!

But i still agree , preordering is a waste of time for big games.
 
I only preorder if I can get something out of it that I wouldn't else wise. If Im in the store, sure, I preorder, but it is not worth driving out to the store just to preorder.
 
Sounds like a solid way to increase sales. Naysay all you want, but it's a smart business move.
 
I agree from a business standpoint that pre-orders are a great idea. I never pre order, even if there's something special about it. If there's a game I really want, then my buddy is already holding me a copy on release day for nothing.
 
Depends where you live. When I lived in the larger cities there wasn't any point. But after moving back up to the hinterlands (13k population town) for some reason we never get new games fast at all. Gamestop seems only get what was preordered and Walmart and Target the next largest places in town to get games.. well.. I think they finally received shipments of Bubble Bobble for the NES last week...

I /usually/ know ahead of time what games I'm going to buy, don't do the impulse thing that much - so I end up preordering them. Every time I don't it's several weeks before anyone has a copy.
 
The only time a pre-order is a smart idea is if you're in a small town with limited stores that will carry a game. I grew up in a small to medium sized town in Alabama and you pretty much had 2-3 store options, with one of them being Wal-Mart, which was notorious for getting games in late.
Gamestop/Software Etc./Babbages/Etc. were pretty much the only real option for getting games on release day, and they also pretty much always under-ordered any game that didn't have a movie tie-in. If you live in a place like that - it's not always a terrible idea. You'll get a game like GTA or Halo, but a medium-level release might be pretty hard to get. With gaming becoming more and more popular, my friends that are still there DO tend to have to struggle to get some games, hence a pre-order isn't always terrible.
The only real knock on that is that your pre-order paperwork makes no mention of when you'll get something in most cases. For the Wii/360/PS3 they simply promised an eventual copy.
One the plus side, as Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City have started popping up everywhere, this isn't as big of a deal as it once was.
If you live in a town with those 3 stores, you no longer need a pre-order for any games. They don't have the intentional supply shortages that the mall shops have.
 
The only game I ever pre-ordered was The Orange Box, over Steam. And that was only to take advantage of the 10% discount. I suppose pre-ordering might make a bit of sense if you get a discount or some extra freebies, but I've never run into supply problem in my town.
 
I'm fairly sure you can go in and cancel your pre-order and get a refund if you change your mind.
I've pre-ordered games before and they ran out of stock, ran to another store in the mall and just picked it up off the shelf. The only thing I've ever had good experiences with are consoles, having a PS2 in time for christmas was pretty sweet.
 
hell, didn't read everything but digital downloads is the bomb. No more cd/dvd's needed to install or to keep in the drive. Install from HD to HD. Love it. Pre-downloads/Pre-Orders, I'll do--but only if I'm sure I'll play. Some games u know, some u don't.
 
One of our local stores did a preorder. I never have and never will preorder.
I walked in the day after GTA IV released and asked for a copy. They asked me if I preordered, I said no.
As he was collecting the game from a box with probably 300-400 copies, I asked what the deal was with the preorder. He said they got the SE package at SE price, but the actual preorder added another $10 or $15 and you got a hat and guide.
I said that was kinda lame and he gave me the guide and the hat for free.

preorder is for the weak.
 
what i find amazing is that as much as people hate gamestop, it's one of the most profitable businesses right now. for all the complaints and problems people pine over here, they're still one of the companies thriving in our current economic slump.

i wonder, then, if it's not actually the people here who stand out; if the people here are the minority with all their problems and service issues. i guess most of the rest of gamestop shoppers (myself included) don't have a problem w/ them.
 
An amazingly shallow article. There are many more points for both sides of the coin that should be brought into the equation, like the freebie pre-order items (some of which are really good), and the fact that you're pre-paying the company their profit margin, and then some, before the game even comes out.

Then, all it comes down it is... it depends. If a game is a hot item with a mass appeal, and you want to immediately start playing with your friends, then it's no a bad decision to pre-order. But, if it's a game you just want to pick up and play whenever, there's nothing wrong with just waiting a week and getting it on your own schedule.
 
diablerie said:
The only game I ever pre-ordered was The Orange Box, over Steam. And that was only to take advantage of the 10% discount. I suppose pre-ordering might make a bit of sense if you get a discount or some extra freebies, but I've never run into supply problem in my town.
Click to expand...

Yes, that was the last thing I preordered as well, I forgot about that. I wanted tf2 from the minute the 2 week beta was available so preordering to get the discount was a no-brainer for me, but it was through steam and I paid full price up front
 
the only thing I have ever pre-ordered (from B&M stores) was the Burning Crusade expansion for WoW. Which was great because most of the gamestops/EB games in my metro area were having a midnight special opening that was only for people who pre-ordered. That was great fun. The following day it snowed hard and I couldn't safely get to work :)

Planning on doing the same for Wrath, I hope they do another midnight release.

I have pre-ordered a few things on steam because it was a couple $ cheaper or you got early access to the game.
 
I don't really think a Steam "pre-order" counts as they're actually giving you the content early, but just unlocking it later. Plus, it's not like there's an alternative source. Even the boxed retail ones have to go through Steam eventually.

The main thing pre-ordering does for the mall stores is that it not only locks people in to buying from them rather than a Best Buy or Circuit City, but it also gives them revenue for essentially "nothing" as they've only sold you an IOU.
 
I'm a rehabilitated addict of pre-ordering AND premium game packages. For years I pre-ordered every game months in advance. All that guarantees is that you'll pay the highest price the game will ever have. Waiting a few weeks or months inevitably saves as much as $30 over the release price. I only buy the most basic version of a game after waiting a minimum of 3-4 weeks after release.The best deal of 2007 was a Black Friday sale of the Orange Box for $24.95 the weekend after Thanksgiving. I scored on that one. Of course, another benefit of waiting is that others act as peer reviewers before you spend any money.

I think the bigger screw-jobs are those $59 - $89 uber-mega-platinum-deluxe game packages that include these and other "I can't survive even one more day without" items:

- posters signed by the development team
- soundtrack CDs
- figurines
- "collector's edition" boxes (my personal favorite rip-off item)

I learned my lesson after dropping $79 on HL2's top package in 2004. One of my biggest wastes of $$ since owning a computer.
 
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