Do you feel differently about Early Access vs traditional preordering?
If you are open to the idea in specific circumstances, what are those?
How do you decide if a game qualifies?
I’m interested in the community thoughts on preordering and I’d love to have a thoughtful discussion on the matter.
Personally, I’m against preordering, except in specific situations where I want to actively support the development of a game.
I have been thinking about this because there is a game I’m considering preordering from a medium sized studio, but the reason I want to preorder is for the IP, rather than the game and it goes against my typical stance on this. The game is based on my favorite book series and part of me wants to encourage more games be made based on this series. At the same time, the book series has found commercial success and as a whole does not need my help.
I did name the specifics here because I’m hoping to encourage discussion on preordering as a whole, rather than my example, but if you want to know, I’ll drop a comment and we can have a discussion in the comment thread. :)
EDIT: thank you all for the thoughtful discussion on this! I expected most people to slam preordering, but there was some very thoughtful dialogue here and that is why I appreciate you, Lemmy!
THE ONLY REASON TO PREORDER IS TO ENSURE YOU HAVE A COPY ON LAUNCH.
Do you think they will run out of digital copies of you to download? (Just in case someone doesn’t know, that’s not how digital downloads work)
It’s that fucking simple. Pre-order bonuses are almost never worth it on their own, and even for those that are, you’re enabling and supporting a predatory/anti-consumer practice.
Why would anyone still be preordering? It’s a complete gamble with no payoff. Preordering made sense when games were on physical media, but there isn’t any stock limit on digital goods.
I very very rarely pre-order but if reviews are out and you’re already planning on buying it, it could be worth it. Some stores provide a discount for pre-ordering games, I got Elden Ring for 15% off before it even released which is nice.
Me personally, I’ll never pre-order a game. Pre ordering is different from early access because i actually get the game even in a unfinished state.
All that said, it depends on the game. Timberborn has been the only early access game I felt has been worth it. The Devs are still putting out regular updates and have vastly improved the game since i bought it. Its been very fun to play from the beginning and has only gotten better.
Compare that to something like cyberpunk, yea I’m good. Couldn’t imagine how that must of felt to preorder that and get that mess on release. I think the main difference is the studio. AAA games I rarely buy anymore. Indie games though? Thats where I’m at.
Preorder, no. I don’t usually buy brand new games. FF Tactics remake was the most recent and I needed to see a few days of reviews to build the trust to buy it. Maybe if Fromsoft releases another one-player game I’ll consider that. I’m not sure the types of developers I usually buy games from tend to even do preorder, it seems to be bigger studios from what I have seen.
Early access, yes for a few select indie developers that I want to support. ATLYSS because it’s priced low and looks great. Into the Unwell will be a day 1 purchase once it reaches early access, since I have played the closed beta and know I want it. Trinity 64 will be another one I’m excited for if it gets an EA release. I’m ok with EA for these because they’re the types of games I yearn for and I want more of them, and I know my contribution makes an impact to the devs.
It’s a rare breed of game that gets me pre-ordering these days. It has to be something I know I will want, from a dev/publisher with a proven track record of making good shit and not being exploitative to customers, and be more about multiplayer than single.
I haven’t pre-ordered for any other reason since they stopped giving you physical swag for doing so (and it only was $5 down and could be cancelled for a refund while still keeping the swag and digital distribution wasn’t even a thing, so they actually could run out of copies).
I never pre-order nor pay for early access. Examples are plenty, but a couple that spring to mind are New World and Ashes of Creation. (Even excluding the infinite early access of PUBG, and whatever the hell Star Citizen is).
For the former, their “beta test” was “yeah, it runs: ship it” and ZERO feedback was noted or actioned. The release day was The Single Worst game release I’ve ever seen, and 4 years later when Amazon decided to kill it, ALL of the beta bugs were still there. To be fair, it was a “pay once” game. With MTX, of course.
For the latter, people started by paying $300+ for “alpha access” and more recently $100 for the same thing. And it’s clearly 2-4 years away from being remotely ready for release. Those people are paying to do QA. And it will be pay-per-month on release, as if it was 2010.
If your FOMO overrides your other faculties, and you’re willing to put up with all of that, then fine. You do you. 👍🏻
Every pre-order bonus I’ve seen is a skin, title or other tat that doesn’t have any value beyond signalling that you pre-ordered the game.
Me? I’m done playing these financial games with video games. Until a game is released/GA, it’s vapourware and non-existent. But again: you do you.
Seriously, don’t reward this kind of anti-consumer bullshit.
The only acceptable justification I can see is if it’s an indie dev who has really, truly earned the trust of their players and proven that they will work tirelessly to deliver the product people want. And even then I’d be very, very unlikely to. I’m crazy excited for both of Owlcats upcoming games and I still haven’t pre-ordered them, for example.
Pre-orders encourage bad, buggy, incomplete or deceptively marketed releases by juicing day one numbers without any need for the dev / publisher to actually release a worthy product.
Never. I hate the preorder exclusive bonuses; it’s anti-consumer bullshit, especially in an age where every game is available as a digital download, even the physical copies usually require downloads. Publishers are enticing customers to pay while hype is high, before the product is actually available, before quality has been proven and before reviews are published.
I hate gift cards for the same reason, you’re giving money to corporations before they’ve provided anything to you.
Hold on to your money, wait for reviews, then pay them for the finished product if you still want it.
I also think the rising launch prices of AAA games is bullshit, especially for singleplayer games. I’ll usually wait for a decent discount.
Wtf. Of a physical copy? You got screwed more than most people in the comment section. You’re the only one to get screwed by a physical preorder, that I saw
I had this happen with the switch originally. Pre-ordered the lets go pikachu&eevee switch, they ended up receiving far less than the company expected. Employees were the first on the chopping block since they worked there. Absolute bullshit.
They did end up getting me one, I had first pick from the next shipment, but it made my blood boil.
It didn’t really mean much to have a confirmed next shipment, as I worked in the department selling them, and fully intended to go on an early lunch to buy one that shipment anyway since they can’t dictate what I did off the clock.
I can’t specifically remember what games, but this definitely happened to me at toys r us several times. Back in the physical copy days you had to pre-order big releases most of the time and the pre-order was usually held but they often oversold because the distributor didn’t send all the copies they’d ordered.
It was toys r us for me too, I was able to get a copy a week later but there’s no point to preordering if they don’t honor the reservation & when you’re a kid that week feels like forever so it sticks pretty brightly in memory
I used to more when things were more disc based from stores, but it’s rare that I do now.
Occasionally I still may if I have the money and it’s a game I know I want and will highly likely enjoy, if only for the pre-load capability. But it’s far rarer now. Sometimes they throw in some pre-order dlc, and if I know I’m going to buy it at launch anyways I may as well just technically pre-order it. But again, I do it much rarer now than I did a few console gens ago.
Early access is a bit of a different story, and I will sometimes buy an early access game if I like where it’s going and want to support it. But those are also pretty rare for me.
Early access is misleading, there are games which are “released” and would barely count as early access and vice-versa, so I just treat them equally.
The criteria for me is that based on reviews or some gameplay footage it seems like I can get £1/hour worth of enjoyment out of it. I tend to look for how many hours do people have when they leave reviews and how many have they played since, rather than just what they say. If I’m unsure if I’ll like it and there is not enough videos or reviews to give me certainty, i may take a risk on £10 and below games depending on how bored I am at the time.
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THE ONLY REASON TO PREORDER IS TO ENSURE YOU HAVE A COPY ON LAUNCH.
Do you think they will run out of digital copies of you to download? (Just in case someone doesn’t know, that’s not how digital downloads work)
It’s that fucking simple. Pre-order bonuses are almost never worth it on their own, and even for those that are, you’re enabling and supporting a predatory/anti-consumer practice.
Why would anyone still be preordering? It’s a complete gamble with no payoff. Preordering made sense when games were on physical media, but there isn’t any stock limit on digital goods.
I very very rarely pre-order but if reviews are out and you’re already planning on buying it, it could be worth it. Some stores provide a discount for pre-ordering games, I got Elden Ring for 15% off before it even released which is nice.
Me personally, I’ll never pre-order a game. Pre ordering is different from early access because i actually get the game even in a unfinished state.
All that said, it depends on the game. Timberborn has been the only early access game I felt has been worth it. The Devs are still putting out regular updates and have vastly improved the game since i bought it. Its been very fun to play from the beginning and has only gotten better.
Compare that to something like cyberpunk, yea I’m good. Couldn’t imagine how that must of felt to preorder that and get that mess on release. I think the main difference is the studio. AAA games I rarely buy anymore. Indie games though? Thats where I’m at.
no i wait until they’re at least 50% off. no exceptions. unless someone buys it for me.
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Preorder, no. I don’t usually buy brand new games. FF Tactics remake was the most recent and I needed to see a few days of reviews to build the trust to buy it. Maybe if Fromsoft releases another one-player game I’ll consider that. I’m not sure the types of developers I usually buy games from tend to even do preorder, it seems to be bigger studios from what I have seen.
Early access, yes for a few select indie developers that I want to support. ATLYSS because it’s priced low and looks great. Into the Unwell will be a day 1 purchase once it reaches early access, since I have played the closed beta and know I want it. Trinity 64 will be another one I’m excited for if it gets an EA release. I’m ok with EA for these because they’re the types of games I yearn for and I want more of them, and I know my contribution makes an impact to the devs.
It’s a rare breed of game that gets me pre-ordering these days. It has to be something I know I will want, from a dev/publisher with a proven track record of making good shit and not being exploitative to customers, and be more about multiplayer than single.
I haven’t pre-ordered for any other reason since they stopped giving you physical swag for doing so (and it only was $5 down and could be cancelled for a refund while still keeping the swag and digital distribution wasn’t even a thing, so they actually could run out of copies).
I never pre-order nor pay for early access. Examples are plenty, but a couple that spring to mind are New World and Ashes of Creation. (Even excluding the infinite early access of PUBG, and whatever the hell Star Citizen is).
For the former, their “beta test” was “yeah, it runs: ship it” and ZERO feedback was noted or actioned. The release day was The Single Worst game release I’ve ever seen, and 4 years later when Amazon decided to kill it, ALL of the beta bugs were still there. To be fair, it was a “pay once” game. With MTX, of course.
For the latter, people started by paying $300+ for “alpha access” and more recently $100 for the same thing. And it’s clearly 2-4 years away from being remotely ready for release. Those people are paying to do QA. And it will be pay-per-month on release, as if it was 2010.
If your FOMO overrides your other faculties, and you’re willing to put up with all of that, then fine. You do you. 👍🏻
Every pre-order bonus I’ve seen is a skin, title or other tat that doesn’t have any value beyond signalling that you pre-ordered the game.
Me? I’m done playing these financial games with video games. Until a game is released/GA, it’s vapourware and non-existent. But again: you do you.
We Do Not Preorder
Seriously, don’t reward this kind of anti-consumer bullshit.
The only acceptable justification I can see is if it’s an indie dev who has really, truly earned the trust of their players and proven that they will work tirelessly to deliver the product people want. And even then I’d be very, very unlikely to. I’m crazy excited for both of Owlcats upcoming games and I still haven’t pre-ordered them, for example.
Pre-orders encourage bad, buggy, incomplete or deceptively marketed releases by juicing day one numbers without any need for the dev / publisher to actually release a worthy product.
Never. I hate the preorder exclusive bonuses; it’s anti-consumer bullshit, especially in an age where every game is available as a digital download, even the physical copies usually require downloads. Publishers are enticing customers to pay while hype is high, before the product is actually available, before quality has been proven and before reviews are published.
I hate gift cards for the same reason, you’re giving money to corporations before they’ve provided anything to you.
Hold on to your money, wait for reviews, then pay them for the finished product if you still want it.
I also think the rising launch prices of AAA games is bullshit, especially for singleplayer games. I’ll usually wait for a decent discount.
I pre-ordered ff8, they ran out anyways. Lesson learned.
Wtf. Of a physical copy? You got screwed more than most people in the comment section. You’re the only one to get screwed by a physical preorder, that I saw
I had this happen with the switch originally. Pre-ordered the lets go pikachu&eevee switch, they ended up receiving far less than the company expected. Employees were the first on the chopping block since they worked there. Absolute bullshit.
They did end up getting me one, I had first pick from the next shipment, but it made my blood boil.
It didn’t really mean much to have a confirmed next shipment, as I worked in the department selling them, and fully intended to go on an early lunch to buy one that shipment anyway since they can’t dictate what I did off the clock.
I can’t specifically remember what games, but this definitely happened to me at toys r us several times. Back in the physical copy days you had to pre-order big releases most of the time and the pre-order was usually held but they often oversold because the distributor didn’t send all the copies they’d ordered.
It was toys r us for me too, I was able to get a copy a week later but there’s no point to preordering if they don’t honor the reservation & when you’re a kid that week feels like forever so it sticks pretty brightly in memory
I used to more when things were more disc based from stores, but it’s rare that I do now.
Occasionally I still may if I have the money and it’s a game I know I want and will highly likely enjoy, if only for the pre-load capability. But it’s far rarer now. Sometimes they throw in some pre-order dlc, and if I know I’m going to buy it at launch anyways I may as well just technically pre-order it. But again, I do it much rarer now than I did a few console gens ago.
Early access is a bit of a different story, and I will sometimes buy an early access game if I like where it’s going and want to support it. But those are also pretty rare for me.
I preorder Indie games, because even if they turn out to be crap I want them to make another one and get better at it !
I relentlessly fuck over AAA publishers by buying keys on resellers, and I have no remorse about it.
I never pre-order, there is no benefit.
Early access is misleading, there are games which are “released” and would barely count as early access and vice-versa, so I just treat them equally.
The criteria for me is that based on reviews or some gameplay footage it seems like I can get £1/hour worth of enjoyment out of it. I tend to look for how many hours do people have when they leave reviews and how many have they played since, rather than just what they say. If I’m unsure if I’ll like it and there is not enough videos or reviews to give me certainty, i may take a risk on £10 and below games depending on how bored I am at the time.
deleted by creator
Nope. Only game I EVER preordered was fallout76, because I’ve been a fallout fanboy forever.
I learned.