Some pretty compelling reasons NOT to pre-order :ugh: : [video=youtube;mf5Uj4XIT1Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5Uj4XIT1Y[/video] This guy certainly lays out the industry's dirty laundry.
It seems a lot of what he is talking about is the online pre-ordering versus in store pre-orders. At least in Canada, you can pre-order at EBGames/Gamestop and cancel the pre-order and get your money back. The only time you can't get money back is if the money was the result of a trade. His biggest beef is more biased towards Steam not pre-orders in general. Mind you I'm typing this while only about half way through the video.
I only preorder games I know I'm going to spend a good amount of free time on though. But yeah, it's scummy stuff going on with a lot of titles. Those embargos and demos are shitty. Most if not all demos for games are not even close to the final/retail builds. They are usually several patches/builds behind.
Recalling once years ago, when my kids were small and Ralph was a lot dumber about these things; I was standing on line one midnight, waiting for the release of some forgettable title that the kids just absolutely 'needed' to have. This hysteria is what drives the games industry; the desire and want to immediately have the latest. What kills me thus, is that many times, there's more vapor than real substance. The games that we pre-order, pre-pay, or put in bids before the thing has even completed beta, often turns out to be irrational gamer exuberance. Thus, from my experience and perspective, I now find it prudent to patiently wait until I see a trail of walkthroughs on public sites like youtube, before I would considering reaching for my wallet. This allows me to fully appreciate how a game really is before I put my money down. Pre-order, IMHO, is the domain for fools. What? Do we assume that they will run out of supply and one will risk the chance to actually buy a game unless it's pre-ordered? Hardly.
The only games I preorder is sports game. You can sometimes make the arguement that its the same game every year, and sometimes it's true. But $70 (aftertax) for 9-12 months of fun is worth it imo. There are some bad bugs/glitches within the game, but there are other aspects that I love. I know what I'm getting from a sports game so I'm not afraid to preorder one.
I take a couple things into consideration when I decide if I want to pre-order. 1) Is the title from a reputable developer? 2) Is there good gameplay footage? 3) Do I want to play this right away? 4) Is it a good deal? The fourth one is the most important. I won't even consider a pre-order if it's only 10% off, which is most steam pre-order sales. Bioshock Infinite is a good example, it satisfied all four of my conditions and I pre-ordered it. I got 3 free games with it, one of them was BioShock 1. The other 2 free games I thoroughly enjoy, which I expected because the genres fit my tastes. I have only ever pre-ordered 3 games. The first was Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition, which I regretted after I completed the game. After that purchase I became a lot more resistant to pre-orders. It's perfectly fine to pre-order games if you're smart about it.
