In the age of digital distribution, pre-ordering buys you nothing.
We’re seeing studios allow you to access the game one or two days early, and maybe get some cosmetics. That’s a poor trade for risking your money on a bad product
But I gotta get that preorder bonus frfr
If I don’t have the gold coated cape and hat I’ll look like everyone else!
What I was originally sold on made sense: physical games sometimes have shortages and if you want to avoid that you can pay up front to reserve a copy. I pre ordered Skyrim and it shipped to me almost a week after all my friends got theirs who didn’t preorder. The physical copy of Skyrim was meaningless since it was tied to steam anyway. That was my first and last experience with preordering
Realized pre orders were a scam in 99 when I pre-ordered ff8 from Toys r us and when I went to pick it up they told me they don’t have any copies left
My Diablo 3 was your FF8. Also D3 sucked ass.
“I like to preorder my groceries. I know they’re going to have what I want, they always do, but I just give them a few hundred in advance to make sure they’ll still have some when I get there.”
Same logic.
Let me introduce you to the concept of a supermarket Christmas savings club. You basically pre-order Christmas groceries with them.
https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/18/supermarket-christmas-saving-schemes-tesco-asda-19514484/
Of course the joke is that, when pre-ordering games, they don’t usually deliver what they promise. With pre-ordering Christmas groceries, Tesco will.
Tesco probably will but plenty of Christmas club companies have gone bust and left people without their order. Even companies as big as Tesco can get in a mess, it’s not like they hold the stock for you in advance.
I “pre-ordered” Mass Effect Andromeda like 10 min before the real release, since pre-orders got a discount and the offer was still active.
This is the way.
I usually pre order a day before IF there have been reviews and such. At that point I still have plenty of time for a steam refund and the reviews have given me some level of confidence.
I pre-ordered one (1) game ever and that was Watch_Dogs in 2013 for the PS3. Was enough to teach me to never do that again
Aww poor watch dogs, I saw your potential.
The only games I preorder are Zelda and Square’s 2D-HD CE titles. Both have been 10/10 for me in all modern era releases.
I pre-ordered TotK from GameStop so I could get a sleeve and a wooden Zelda board thing.
90% of gamers do not stop pre-ordering games.
Me buying Space Marine 2.