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Oh yeah? Well what about the new thing to do that's even better than pre-ordering. Take Starfield for example. Wanna play it earlier than everyone else? Well their early access option is the one for you.
"Anyone can dive in then if they're willing to pay the price - it's only available to those who buy the expensive Constellation Edition of the game (for roughly £250/$300) or the Premium Edition (for about £100/$100)"
Edit: deleted comment was additional edit, realised I could just edit original comment
Early access is different tho...
Because you know what you're getting, others who already have it are able to post reviews.
A preorder is just giving them money early for zero reason.
For example, I knew I was getting BG3 no matter what. And I know I habitually restart act 1 of RPGs multiple times before picking what I want. So having a chance to run thru (a limited) act 1 a bunch over a year before release was worth it to me.
But there's no way I'd have just pre-ordered it, there'd be no reason to pay before I got the product.
I wanna talk about DLC. I bought a physical copy of Fire Emblem Engage. I also bought the DLC. I had to go out to take someone somewhere and wait, so I brought my Switch. The game was running before I left home. Had to connect to the internet to resume the game while I was waiting for the person.
I don't bother pre-ordering anymore. Can't afford to. Most AAA games are £60-£70 on release (up to £90 if you want the Upgraded Super Deluxe Gold version). I wait until a game goes on sale before I buy it. By then all the bugs have been patched and most of the DLC has been released so you get a better experience.
I don't often preorder, but when I do it's because I know I won't regret my purchase, and I know I want a physical copy to arrive on day 1. Of course I know there's some risk, but if I felt a game really was that risky then I would wait, I just buy the ones I feel are safe bets.
I know what developers and series I like, and if one of my favorite games is getting a sequel I know I'm playing it. Even if the sequel isn't quite as good as the prior game I liked, they're never bad enough for me to not want to play them at all.
I suppose it helps that my tastes lie far enough outside the kinds of mainstream AAA games that are prone to totally botched launches that I've never been truly burned.
every game has a built in trial these days. trial the game for up to 2 hours in the first 2 weeks of buying it, and if you don't like it, steam refund it.
I heard that if you "overuse" it though, steam will lock you out of that feature. With cases of using it 10 times / month being seen as overuse. Not sure how real that is though, or if these 10 times were exception.
I just played the trial for Pikmin 4, then pre-ordered the game
Nintendo may be shit sometimes, but for the rest of the time it's almost guaranteed quality
Their games are great. Their lawyers can go skinny-dipping on Pluto.
I pretty much don't even buy a game after it's been launched now and I wait a couple of months to see what happens. They haven't bought out a game since Halo that I've cared enough about to even buy on day 1 and it's not like I don't have a fat library of other games I already enjoy.
We used to demand trials before buying before
We did? When exactly? Not when I was buying games for my consoles on the flea market and not when I got Rollercoaster Tycoon from a cereal box.
In the mid to late 90s and the early 2000s. PC gaming magazines and PlayStation magazines used to give away demo discs for you to trial new games.
I stopped preordering awhile ago but honestly I just stopped buying games in general. I already have enough games to last me a lifetime and there is just so much trash getting released that I skip it all together.
I generally don't preorder games because I like to be able to watch streamers play a bit of the game to get an idea of what the game is like and if it's any good. However, I will preorder Nintendo games since their first party games are almost always good. I think the only first party Nintendo game I've ever played that I was disappointed with in the past 20 years was Skyward Sword.
I only preorder games that have a demo.
I played the Lies of P demo for almost 6 hours. First pre-order in years.
Last game I pre-ordered before was Cyberpunk 2077, of course that turned out to be a huge lesson. I no longer pre-order anything, Lies of P was the exception because their push for people to try the game themselves along with their reaction to feedback was reassuring. Plus with early access to the game at a date that is perfect for me to dive in based on my schedule, seemed like a good time to show some appreciation.
I usually only pre order when I'm 99% sure I'm gonna love the game and it's made by a company with a good reputation of having games be good at launch Ex: Zelda tears of the kingdom
But... why? What benefit does it give you?
I was 99% sure totk was gonna be amazing but I still pirated that shit and gave it a test run... I obviously loved it and went out and purchased a copy... I'm so jaded with games even nintendo is not safe in my book
I am going to keep pre-ordering games on solid platforms like Steam. The pros of pre-ordering tend to outweigh the cons. But people here, and on Reddit, love to exaggerate the cons of pre-ordering. As long as I can painlessly return a game if it turns out to be a stinker, it's not a big deal.
What are the pros of per-ordering? I can't think of any other than promotional DLC that is normally worthless.