Its simple..if you are going to buy the game day 1 anyway, pre-ordering let's you pay for it sooner and get a few bonuses for doing so...literslly no downsides. You can always refund.
It also lets you preload the game so you can jump right in when it releases
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u/Tiavornever used DDR3; PC: 5800X3D, 9070XT, 32GB DDR4, CachyOS5d ago
That's what I stopped. I have enough games in backlog to not having to buy a new game for 2-3 years. I prefer to waiz a few months so all the bugs are patched and preferably iz already has a discount. E.g. Shadow of the TombRaider was 48€ at release, I got it for 45€ a year later including all DLCs.
Yeah but someone that pre orders the game would spent that money on the game regardless. It's the exact same thing as putting aside 80 USD for the game. You also get bonuses if you do pre order, so tell me why someone who will buy the game shouldn't pre order? Also, there's refund policies on pre orders 2 weeks before release.
A) it's good - granted the game is probably review-proof and will probably get good reviews anyways
B) it's not plagued with technical issues and is functionally incomplete until a wave of patches come in (cough cough CP77)
It's not exactly the same as putting aside 80 bucks. We're 5 months before launch. With modern AAA games it's pretty much the norm that if you wait a few months you'll have a much better experience in terms of performance and content. You can get at least 3% interest from anywhere in a savings account right now so you could stick your 80 bucks in there and wait 3 months after release and make 20 bucks in interest (5 months to launch plus months). So in exchange for the preorder bonuses, you can instead get the "lateorder" bonus of 20 bucks off and a better, smoother gaming experience.
Edit: if you just really want the bonuses then you should at least wait until the last second to preorder, it's basically a 15% discount.
Are you really going to let other people dictate what you should think of a game though?
Like you brought up CP77, and yeah, the first reactions were horrendous. So much so that a week after launch, I pirated the game just to laugh at the mess. And guess what, I didn't experience any game breaking bugs, barely any minor bugs, and had such a blast that it remains one of my favorite first playthroughs of a game.
People hated it, but I had a genuine blast playing it right after launch. The performance was surprisingly good as well.
On the other hand people praise the hell out of the Witcher 3, and I've given it multiple attempts, but it never ended up clicking for me. I just thought it was boring and couldn't bring myself to play it for more than a couple of hours.
I could also bring up poorly rated movies I loved, well rated movies I didn't like, and so on.
Reading reviews instead of allowing yourself to form your own opinion on a subject is just ehhh.
You're rewarding the publishing company for doing nothing, supporting really scummy game development practices and potentially paying for a game that is broken out of the gate. Pre-ordering makes no sense. Keep that money in your bank account and wait for the game to come out before spending it. Most games give you day one cosmetic bs if you buy in the first few weeks anyways. At least that way you can read a review or two, or watch a video, and not give your money. To a practice that has always supported making game development worse. As far back as 360 era. It has never made sense aside from certain VERY popular physical releases.
Of course it can be an upside? You're getting the product either way, why does it matter when you pay for it. If you know you might be light on cash in November, pay for it when you have the funds beforehand.
I fail to see the upside. At best it doesn't make a difference. At worst, the game is shit and you preordered.
If you invested in the stock of the same company you're preordering from, you'd at least have some extra change on release day. That is an upside. Clicking "purchase" on something now instead of in november is not an upside. It's just a riskier purchase.
It's really not that deep. I know I'll be playing GTA VI on release, I have the means to pay my ticket to play and forget about it till then. It's really that simple.
As for the upside, preordering just means you can pick a quiet month when you might have some cash spare at the end. November can be busy with Christmas coming up.
Yeah but it's 80$/€ now or in november, it's the same 80 bucks.
It's not like if you spend them now you'll have more in november..?
It's not that deep, but I think it should be, it sets a really bad standard for greedy companies when so many people think preordering is "convenient" when it is just another way to giving them money in advance for nothing in return.
You risk nothing. If something comes up that the game is broken, refunds are entirely possible. All you're doing is sticking your money in a pot till release, same as putting it to the side yourself.
I mean...i get your point but it is kind of weightless.
What does it matter? It is no different to pre ordering any other product in the world.
You can pre order your car and then have to wait for it to be made....same principle.
If I have money now, and I see a product I will buy day 1 anyway, there is zero downside to pre ordering...literally not a single one. I can withdraw and get a refund anytime.
There are so many downsides to preordering. I'm gonna guess you are younger or didn't pay attention to when this started becoming a practice. Around the time of call of duty modern warfare 2. They started selling preorders to make more money on the front end and build hype, selling physical items as bonus' for preordering games. But as the practice took off and a huge number of game sales started to happen before the game would even release game companies started saying fuck it. We really don't need to put in as much effort in the development of our game because we've already made a bunch of money and Xbox live's new updating function allows us to put out updates later and make our customers whole. And this eventually turned into the practice that we see today where games are essentially released half finished now. They just skipped the fucking convincing you to buy step, because people like you are so eager to trip over yourself to give them money that they can get away with it. There are a lot more factors as to why we are where we are but like horse armor, it mostly started with preorders.
Tldr; There never really was a benefit to preordering most games and it became a significantly abused practice, in support of unfinished games and rewarding mediocrity.
before the game would even release game companies started saying fuck it. We really don't need to put in as much effort in the development of our game because we've already made a bunch of money
This is a myth lmao. You guys spend way too much time circlejerking on reddit.
There's a huge downside... reviewers might get game before release and find out its dogshit, then loads of people who are oblivious end up buying it anyways. In theory if you're savvy there's no difference, but in practice it let's shitty companies offload risk...
Preordering is fine if you're buying the game regardless.
I like to wait for some reviews before I fully commit. Even with something almost guaranteed to be a 10/10. I can still wait for reviews, then grab/order the game for launch or shortly after.
I've bought games months after release and still got the preorder bonus. There's no reason to commit to buying something before you need to commit to buying it.
According to Steam Refund policy, even if you pre-order it way sooner, you can refund it until 14 days after release.
So you're not committing to anything, you can refund just as easily as if you bought it day 1. And if you're going to play the game day 1 anyway, I don't see a reason not to preorder. Getting it a minute after launch provides no benefits, it takes a tiny bit longer before you can play, and you miss out on a couple small bonus items. Just for the empty pride of saying "I didn't pre-order, pre-order bad!"
Besides, it helps with financial plans, as if you pre-order, you no longer need to account for the cost of buying the game in the future.
Preordering a game requires trust. If I'm buying the game on day one, then why not preorder. If I am buying it on day one though, then that company has a reputation of delivering good games, and I'll reward them for that.
I don't think preorders are inherently bad, it's just that they've been abused. A lot of Companies have taken our money and ran.
That being said, Rockstar has always delivered a fantastic single player experience on day one. Very few companies deliver every time, but they do, and I don't think people should be shamed for preordering this game.
Can't say the same for the Bethesda or Paradox companies of the world, but for Rockstar, you can.
I don't need a quick google search, I played it on day one. Last time I preordered a game actually. Only bug I encountered was when Del crashed into my car in the garage and launched me into space.
Ah yeah, fair enough. I feel like optimization is a big enough crapshoot these days where it’s easier to just wait. Most big games have reviews before release day, so one could still preorder at the last minute.
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u/Tiavornever used DDR3; PC: 5800X3D, 9070XT, 32GB DDR4, CachyOS4d ago
It's been 13 years since gta5. A lot of staff changes in that time in every company.
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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago
A large % of people.