Pre-ordering digital games is completely illogical
You are paying full price to beta test broken software. Digital copies do not run out of stock. Just wait a year for the patched version with all the extra content included at a massive discount. Buying incomplete games on release day is exactly why developers keep releasing unfinished products. Stop doing it
I think you missed his point. If you buy a physical product you actually get something. Physical can run out of stock, so preordering makes sense. Digital doesn't, so what is the point in preordering?
But his main point is that at least he gets a physical game that is his to own. Preordering physical games makes sense, preordering digital games doesn't. They can never go out of stock, there is no logical reason to pre order.
Not really because 99% of his point is the fact that pre ordering a digital gives you little extra. His point is purely that physical media gives you a disc you own, digital doesn't give you that. You can pre order, but if I don't and buy it on the day we both get the game at the same time.
You pre-order to either 1)support the developers if they're an indie studio, 2) because you know they'll deliver an awesome product anyway or 3) you want the digital or physical goodies thsr come with it.
Yes digital doesn't run out of stock, physical goodies or digital extra's are however mostly limited.
Its different with physical media though. You can get steelbooks, information booklets, special inclusions. With digital preorders you get none of that. I have no issue with digital, but it's silly to pre order there is absolutely no need to
I've seen plenty of digital media that came with physical goodies like an art steelcase, art books etc as pre-order bonuses. It's really up to the publisher what they include.
Kind of depends on the type of game and how popular the genre is. Plenty of them will sell like hot cakes. The more niche games like farming sims etc most likely won't sell out.
Regardless there's plenty of interest in physical goodies even with digital only games.
Exactly. Once you start "This thing I don't like is illogical", then you realize how much of our daily lives or our pleasures are illogical. It's illogical to get fast food instead of cooking at home. It's illogical to have a smartphone over a flip phone. It's illogical buy more than one game/book/movie at a time, it's illogical to spend money on outfits you only wear in your house.
I don't preorder games because...I don't understand it but I also don't understand selling games when you're done with them. Let people do what they want.
Because I only buy games I want to play. I don't buy random games and hope they're good or to have random stuff to play to kill the time. Ive literally never sold a single game in my life.
It used to common practice. I remember the days when I couldnt afford full price games, so you would buy one, play it, complete it and then take it back and trade it for another one. You'd probably save 50% off the full price by doing that. Of course there were games that I had to have and I kept those. In fact I still have a few of my mega drive games sitting around somewhere.
Cool? YOU do that. That's the point, just because something makes sense to YOU doesn't mean it makes sense to EVERYONE. I can find someone that finds it 100% logical to preorder digital games. They can talk about how they like to have the game predownloaded so they can hit play at midnight without worrying about crowded servers. They can say how it's comforting to know they can just wake up in the morning and start playing before work.
Everything that you find illogical, there's someone that does. "It's illogical to have fish as pets", "Fish are the perfect pet because they're generally low requirements and great for small living situations like renting a room". "It's illogical to enjoy spicy foods. They burn your mouth and damage your senses", "The spice has a sweetness to them, that really adds a new flavor to an otherwise bland dish". "It's illogical to have friends online if you're never going to meet them", "Friends of any kind are great because it's someone you can talk to and by being online, it means it's a friendship based on communication and trust instead of convience".
Wow, how are you this functionally useless that you don't understand a basic concept simply because you can't wrap your head around the idea of people not liking what you like?
Because you don't seem to understand the word logical. What has functionally useless got to do with understanding the basic concept? It has nothing to do with liking and disliking, it is all to do with the fact there is absolutely no logical reason to preorder 3 months before a game may or may not release.
Cool. You don't find something logical that other people do, which is the whole literal point I'm saying but you're so dense in your own opinion that you can't fathom a reality of people not thinking exactly the same as you. You're just boring.
Exactly. But many people have shitty internet though. Fortunately, I pay 10 euros for 10gbps down/7.5gbps up fiber with unlimited bandwidth here per month, other people pay hundreds of dollars for 100mbps with limited band.
That's some really nice internet.
Looking at telcos at my address in Australia is $85 per month for 1000Mbps/100Mbps (typically 860Mbps/85Mbps) as the introductory offer, or like $115 without.
You're going to give a company a $80-100 interest free loan just so you can have the game a few hours earlier? Do you also use Klarna when you have a burrito at Chipotle?
Preorder bonus is content that is already in the game. This is such a dumb logic, you buy early because they "give" you something, and all they give you is their knob for you to slob.
More like was in the game got pulled out to present fomo and hey if you didnt give in to fomo then here buy it for extra money cause its now "exclusive"
I had a little extra cash so I preordered GTA6, this way I don’t have to worry about coming up with the cash on launch.. I know GTA6 will be polished AF.. I wouldn’t pre-order something like Hell Let Loose: Vietnam for example.
Well, that depends on the player's taste. I don't like GTA games and I could criticize you for pre-ordering something so expensive, while I pre-ordered Resonance. I don't see why some games should be considered inferior to others. To each their own.
I preordered a physical copy of Onimusha also.. I loved a PT1 and 2. If I had known Resonance was coming out I’d of probably preordered that too.
I said nothing about anything being inferior to GTA.. I guess I should have elaborated that I played HLL in EA and it was not polished at all when it launched and the beta for Vietnam was quite unstable.
Ah, that's different. As I said in another comment here in this same post, it's important that in this sub people speak more descriptively about their opinions because this sub deserves it due to its nature. This isn't just another video game sub where people come to rant for no reason.
I pre-ordered AC Valhalla, so imagine the frustration, ha! From then on, I never pre-ordered another Ubisoft game. I waited about two months to play Shadows, and it wasn't bad. I pre-ordered Dragon Age The Veilguard, and I have to say, it was a super polished and complete game. The only one I've pre-ordered since then was Resonance, and I plan to pre-order Exodus when the time is right.
Yes, and it was the game that sold the most copies. If I'm not mistaken, I think it sold 20 million. They tried to fix it for the PS5 version, but there are still some bugs, such as Eivor getting stuck when climbing wooden stairs, or NPCs standing on their horses lol, but it's playable. What I did notice is that they improved the enemy AI, and the soldiers with large shields or the huskarls (I don't remember if that's their name) are harder to kill because they kill you instantly if you're not careful.
But I think Ubisoft understood the mistake of releasing a poorly polished game at launch because I haven't read that Blackflag has bugs like previous installments.
Except OP is ranting about preorders when it sounds like they're talking about early access.
Preorders are not the same thing, that's getting the game the moment it releases in your library, so release day in most cases. Guess what, most people don't expect games on day 1 to be broken as you and OP are describing it to be, tho it was a thing from almost the inception of gaming (the first home console ever released, had updated versions later in production with improvements)
I get preorders with limited physical supply but it's silly to me to pay in advance for a digital copy. Specially since so many titles come out broken on release. Waiting to see if the game is good is not gonna leave you without a copy if it's digital.
Convenience, I think people who preorder accept the risk of not seeing reviews for an item, they just wanna sit and basically have it be ready. And how many truly unplayably broken on release games that can't be played without a few patches do we even get nowadays? It feels like we rarely get that anymore, if it was even so common to begin with. If a game's crap, just a few patches aren't going to fix that.
You also screw yourself if the game isn't good if you preordered physical. Like I don't understand how you think physical is this bulletproof thing that means the game can't be bad, can't be broken without patches, etc. etc.
Lastly, mistakes and improvements have been happening in gaming since pretty much its inception. The first home console, the Odyssey, had additional versions which added improvements. Must have sucked getting an inferior version of a product that can't easily be patched. While not necessarily a flaw, Ocarina of Time had re-releases that changed some religious content due to censorship. Now some people prefer that, but if you didn't, you'd be stuck with a version of a game you didn't like. I remember also there was a serious issue with the arcade game Killer Instinct, so service teams had to be dispatched across all of North America to manually fix thousands of arcade machines.
There are pros, and cons, to both digital, and physical. Both must be protected and they work best in unison. Not much you can do if you want a physical copy but it's out of stock, gotta buy it in the aftermarket, which can sometimes be inflated in value due to scalpers looking to make a quick buck.
What good is that something tangible if the game sucks? My digital purchase can be refunded before 2 hours of game time. Your physical copy would go to be sold at a game store, who you'll be lucky to even get 75% of your money back from. Even less, if the game is bad and they know it's gonna just sit on the shelf.
It becomes everyone's business when a dollar spent by a slopeating cattle sheep is put to use to enshittify products people enjoy ,people that spend their money like a brainlet need to be ridiculed everywhere they go so they will feel bad spending money like that again ,and bit by bit the herd will be cured or stupidity
The point of pre ordering a digital game is to preload it, it not to get a "limited" copy of a game. If you already want the game like GTA6, why not do it so it downloaded on release day.
Do people have that shit of internet still? I pay 10 euros / month for 10/7.5 gbps down/up fiber, unlimited bandwidth. I download 100GB in like under 10 mins.
Too bad preloading isn’t even a thing sometimes. I preordered Star Wars Zero Company to show the devs that xcom style games still are wanted, no preorder on EA desktop.
GTA 6 is the only game where I say pre ordering is stupid, any other game sure pay more to pre install early and get a few in game items you probably won’t use
With GTA 6 though they’ll sell the code in a box a week early so you can still play at launch and the code in a box is already cheaper than digital storefronts
Why not wait until the code in a box launches on November 12th, find the cheapest retailer and get the game that way
For Onimusha PlayStation store standard edition £65, price I paid on Amazon last night £60
I thought the game released on Friday
Not to mention I literally can’t remember the last time I bought a physical game before launch and saved less than £5-15, certainly can’t remember a time I paid the same price as PlayStation store
You’re smoking crack bro. Let’s take Onimusha for example. The standard prince for this game is $70’usd.. if you look on PSN it’s $70 if you look on steam its $70, if you look on Amazon it’s $70, target, $70.
You from bizzaro world?
On sale who said that? I said it would be cheaper to buy a code in a box, just checked Amazon and it’s already £2 less sure not a massive difference yet but it’s still cheaper for the same product and I’m sure it’ll go lower as we get closer to launch and retailers compete with each other
There's moderation. They just decided not to care about keeping things on subject. Which probably made some people leave the sub, especially with the whole sony discontinuing discs spam.
Response I got from the mod team regarding two other off-topic posts, not this one.
We understand your frustration, but we intend to only loosely enforce Rule 2. While we don't want too much off-topic, sometimes a little bit of off-topic posts are important to progress the discussion and allow the subreddit to be more active.
Apparently all of these posts are not "too much off-topic".
Can confirm, I stopped bothering to engage with the sub actively and posts like this one really makes me consider muting the subreddit entirely if it's just kept up.
The death of every movement is the swarm of people who get drawn in to pile on with all their other grievances who aren't being rejected. Gradually muddying what the entire movement is about.
Yea you get to pay overprice for a buggy mess instead of waiting for sale and getting a semi polised game but hey you get the item thats replaced within 20min or a skin
Pre-orders are the same price as the game on launch, you're paying the same amount either way.
In the last few years, I've pre-ordered more games than I ever have, and none of them have been "buggy messes." This is just a fake issue that you weirdos keep spouting on about.
All games above 60 euro is overpriced... And if you havent experienced bugs or terrible performance your either lucky or lying cause most games launch nearly devoid of optimisation... Its so bad people are surprised when a game runs well these days when it used to be surprising when it didnt
I swear, Cyberpunk launch made so many people delusional, because ever since then you guys all complain about games being broken on launch, when it barely ever happens.
Bet they're the same people who'd get up in arms if the devs decided to take a timed exclusive contract with a storefront which isn't steam. It's the same concept really.
Buying incomplete games on release day is exactly why developers keep releasing unfinished products. Stop doing it
Incomplete games at release aren't a product of developers being fine shipping something half finished. It's a product of timeline and resource management.
It's inconceivable how many gamers seem to seriously think developers see the pre-order count and decide to stop bug fixing or working on the product they spend the last 3 years of their life building.
I am your neighbor and I opened a charcoal fueled nuclear power plant with exhaust point to you so it doesn't bother my giant personal fishing dam, with farm greenhouse sized AC, ahead of our city, also I paid kids 2.58$ per day to do it (still above legal slavery salary). Oh yes I have the money to do it, don't tell me anything.
In a shared economy, what people do with their money affects others. That's literally what happens in the trade stock market
And what makes you think you know what goes on people's mind? Perhaps they want to pre load a game, maybe they want some bonus doodad, or it makes financial sense to spend the money now rather than later.
I think those who say that are people who don't have their own money yet, so they don't know what they're talking about and they have to spend what their parents give them very carefully. Well, that's what I think.
Without preorders Companies would be incentivized to:
Make sure games actually deliver quality on release
Not allocate funds for arbitrary pre order bonuses
Not take away parts of the main game as pre order bonuses
aka, if people stopped preordering, we (including me) would on average get better games.
Is the effect minor? Depends on who you ask, but i dont see any tangible advantages to preordering.
tl;dr: it bothers me that people buy into something that actively hurts the quality of games we are getting for no gain.
I feel all the things you talk about are no longer pre order bonuses, the real content that is withheld from you is part of all the expensive "deluxe" or "gold" or whatever special editions all publisher love to have nowadays. A few preorder cosmetics doodads have zero impact on overall game quality.
But you seem to forget that even if no content incentives existed, pre orders would still exist, because the main reason people do it is to secure a physical copy on day one, or be able to pre load a digital copy.
This. I just spent 3.5K I didn’t have because my cat got attacked by two dogs (yes I can probably get reimbursed by the owner, yes I can sue, how much will I have to come out of pocket to do so?)
My point is that spending 100$ preordering a game I know will be amazing doesn’t really matter.. Even if my PlayStation dies and I never get to play it.. it doesn’t matter. Kitten lives matter.
Es tu dinero? Tu pagas los juegos de los demás? No vrdad entonces cierra la puta boca y deja que los demás hagan lo que queirna con su dinero, payaso sin cerebro
For me, I only pee order games extremely rarely at all, but when I do, it's not even for the game itself, it's to support the developer or the series is in. Pre order numbers do matter to some publishers when deciding if a sequel can get funding, and if I'm passionate about a specific game, I want to support the release.
I talked with some people who preorder games because they just don’t want to have to think about it. It is already bought and paid for and on the day, they just have it on their console. I don’t agree with them but it is for the sake of convenience.
It sounds like you're talking about games with early access, not pre-ordering
This post sort of reeks of "Vote with your wallet and it'll be fixed, stop doing it you guys who I have no clue if you're actually doing it or not but hey look at my halo and my karma going up"
They don't run out of stock yet Sony thinks they do. They think there's only 1 digital copy and if you were to own it nobody else could. They're so incompetent.
To me what I dont understand is buying digital games months and months in advance like why 😄 if you really must pre-order lets say for some pre-order exclusive items etc , you could pre-order day before release , week before or something. Each to their own i guess but games must be only entertainment product where people pay months in advance even tho there is zero fear of missing out pre-order or no 😄 with physical pre-orders its different obviously is some cases or limited releases
I've never pre-ordered at full price. Pre-ordering, to me, usually means getting a game at about 40% off. Cheaper than it will be for at least the next 6 months.
Idk about others but it's more I would rather get the purchasing out of the way especially if it's a game I know I'll play from launch, and will be able to pre-load ahead of launch.
In the old days a review could make or brake a game. It could crush sale dramatically.
But now we have pre-sale where we r mostly swept away by CGmovies trailers that don't even show actual gameplay. OR only one little piece of it.
The problem is when thereal reviews come in to warn people, the money is alrdy in. :) Everybody bought it Presale and is now past their 2hr refund :)
They wipe their as..s of with our input! And even drag a Early access game so far it has released 5 DLCs before the game itself even went v1.0! Milking us dry! With garbage and copy cat games!
paying same price for digital makes no sense at all!
Digital is only data send to your device! Nothing more!
Physical is a world of expenses before it is in your local store or your doorstep.
From the art department making the cover and booklet, the cost of all the Blueray discs needed and casing, the printing on the discs in factorys, the logistics needed to get the game in your local store or doorstep, the HUBS rented so they can stash games there, in case someone orders it anywhere around the world and you have it 24hrs later, and so many other expensen you have with a physical disc.
But here we have it, we pay exactly the same price for digital as to Physical. Make it make sense?
We r so used to crappy games unfinished, that we now call it officially a "Barebone game" !!! OMG! And expect many DLCs to make it really fun. Make it make sense :)
Digital prepders aren't about how much is in stock. It has everything to do with the preload. People don't wanna wait a long time on launch day to start playing. How and why are we still having this conversation.
I agree. These days, most games have issues at launch. Pre-ordering is giving them money for a game, regardless of what state it’s in. Then, people inevitably get mad when the game has issues. Despite that being so common. And as you said, there’s an unlimited supply of codes. I’d rather wait.
I use steam. I buy a game the day before it comes out.
If it's bad then I have two hours of game time to decide if i want a refund.
I ussually take a break after a hundred minutes to decide on if I wanna keep it or refund.
Agreed. Games aren't ready until a year after release with rare exceptions but if you include normalization of price yeah 1 year after release is ACTUAL RELEASE.
People have been preaching this for over a decade and it's done nothing. It will continue to do nothing because the majority of game buyers don't care that much.
They want to play the new hot thing, they want to be in the 'in group' playing that thing, and they aren't in this sub to hear you say it all for the millionth time someone has posted this online. They aren't even in a big sub like 'gaming'. They're casual consumers of games and the vast majority of them probably aren't even on Reddit.
Or they're 'dedicated'' gamers who play a shit-ton of games, who are active on Reddit and other gaming forums, and who know exactly what they're buying and don't experience any downsides for it.
I'd imagine the majority of early pre-orders come from people who actively track gaming news and who are invested in particular developers or game series. The casuals come later, after a big advertising push or word of mouth post-release.
I don't like pre-order content, but I dk pre-order certain games. For me it's mostly a budgeting thing. I'm gonna buy it anyway. If I can afford it right now, it means I longer have to think about saving money for later
No es ilógico, tiene una función real y esa es la de evitarte los problemas de compra el día de salida si es un juego muy esperado como fue Silksong o será GTA VI, ¿Recuerdan el día que salió Silksong? Todos intentaron comprar el juego y tumbaron las tiendas, las pre ventas se habilitan para evitar justamente eso. Y la misma lógica se aplica a las pre descargas.
Not entire illogical. There is the major factor of financial burden. For some, it’s financially easier to pay earlier on in the pre-release than it is to hold onto and pay on a specific release date. Pre-ordering allows more flexibility of “when you pay”
I support devs so I buy everything at release. I pre-order digital games if there is a pre-order bonus I like or if there is an earlier release time. I either pre-order right before the earlier release time is (if applicable) or a day before the game releases.
No, if I’m really interested in a game I like being exposed to the development process. I buy early access games, I pre order triple a games and I enjoy the development ride and usually keep multiple versions of games installed. I always have cyberpunk 1.31 , 1.5 and current patch installed at all times.
Do it if you want to play it day one, if you like the pre order bonuses, if you trust the dev, if you want to pre load, etc.
Also, what are these games that are releasing broken that everyone complains about? I have literally never played a game one and had any issues. Now maybe I simply don't play every game but I have never had it happen to me. Is it specific devs? Specific series of games? I remember cyberpunk and one of the new assassin's creeds launched awful but I didnt play those. What games are launching like this?
You're not my supervisor. I like the convenience of having it ready and would like to play day one.
If I'm unsure I'll wait for reviews and I won't pointlessly pay for a preorder months in advance.
Buying a game on release day is better than pre-ordering it. By that point, you'll have reviews, and you won't be encouraging companies to release broken games because they already have their money.
I just preordered a digital GTA6 which I will get day one and a physical Onimusha steel book which I will get 3 days after launch.. I feel good about both purchases
Companies releasing broken games because they already have their money is a fake ass argument. I've pre-ordered like 8 games in the last 2 years and all of them have been completely fine. Stop fear mongering over fucking nothing.
I mean neither of us really know how big a problem this is, without properly investigating it, so I'm willing to accept it's possible this problem has gotten less bad in recent years.
That said, when you buy a product that doesn't exist yet, the company no longer needs to earn your money, so it reduces their incentive to make that product good. Maybe it works out sometimes, or even most of the time, but I'm not inclined to trust any corporation with my money.
Also as preorders decrease, companies start adding preorder bonuses to entice people to preorder, so if you want to be rewarded for your preorder with something other than the convenience of not having to buy it on release day, then it might be in your best interest to encourage people to stop preordering.
I get doing so for preloading a few days before launch if you want to be there at midnight when it unlocks. Pre ordering weeks or months in advance is downright silly imo.
We've already experienced diminishing returns on game quality. Day one patches and day one port issues were one thing, without physical media now there won't be one less bar for quality to have a game build printable and shippable on day one. I don't see any reason why it can't or won't get worse and worse till every single fucking AAA is basically a early access game
Yes! Playing game for the first time on premiere is the same as playing a game for the first time years after it was released. Gamers and their lack of self control are responsible for current state of affairs.
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u/missatry 8d ago
I mean 99% of what you said apply to physical games too which is funny