Osiris Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I don't see why its a crisis, its not as if the games aren't being purchased just means they can't use pre-ordering as a mechanism to gauge popularity and sales figures. The main benefit or drawcard of pre-ordering is either the early access (popular with mmos) or the early download, which depending on your internet speed can be a great thing. With the increase of digital downloads though this is likely to bring pre-ordering back to popularity eventually. I don't think the decline in pre-ordering will do anything change the day one quality, I would say the realisation that the gaming journalists are like congressmen has a larger part to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Which would be fine but pre-ordering has been exploited and it is no longer worth that slight convenience. It obviously is to me. I'm about to preorder Witcher 3 and just did for Dying Light not too long ago. Hell the only title I've had major issues with in the last couple years is Dead Rising 3 PC, and my CPU doesn't even meet required spec so *shrug*. Multiplayer gamers seem to be having more issues than the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BinaryData Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Definitely makes sense, looking through the forums on Neowin, there are usually issues with day-one purchases. Hopefully this will force developers and publishers to release a complete product. No, it won't. I can say that for a fact. People will always buy it if they want it bad enough, regardless of known problems. I hold off 3 - 4 months before I buy something. I weigh the pros and cons, I review how the company handle the crisis, etc. Let's take EVE Online for example. Few years ago, they released an expansion with boot.ini in the folder. Any computer person can instantly know the trouble this would cause. It overwrote your computers boot.ini, and caused a massive problem. Funny as hell to me and a few others, but not to the thousands with the broken PC. Morale of the story, CCP Games, Creators of EVE Online, took leaps and bounds to help fix the problem. It was noticed by other major game creation companies too. Anyways, some companies do learn, while others just don't blatantly care, i.e. Blizzard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted April 25, 2015 Author Subscriber² Share Posted April 25, 2015 It obviously is to me. I'm about to preorder Witcher 3 and just did for Dying Light not too long ago. Hell the only title I've had major issues with in the last couple years is Dead Rising 3 PC, and my CPU doesn't even meet required spec so *shrug*. Multiplayer gamers seem to be having more issues than the rest of us. Even SP games are getting infused with online connected content and world's these days. But it's not just broken games cheesing gamers off, it's the pre-order culture publishers try to force everyone into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkMan Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Wait you mean people don't spend money to give content to people who haven't paid for it? shocking If by content you mean useless encrypted data that has to be bought to be usable... yes. and as I said. some companies do allow non pre-orders to pre-load because they know this is more likely to lead to sales and because people don't pre-load if they're not going to buy. it's just about being decent. pre orders shouldn't be a thing unless you're in a very small local brick and mortar store in a very small town where the store can't afford to have their shelves stocked with games that drop to half price in a month and they bought it for 90% of the original sale price to start with (games have horrible or no profit, which is why electronics stores outside of large cities have universally stopped selling them. you just can't make money on them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian M. Veteran Posted April 25, 2015 Veteran Share Posted April 25, 2015 I haven't pre-ordered a game for ages. More often than not, my pre-orders have not arrived on launch day itself (normally a day late). Then, what with the bugs we've seen lately, I at least want to see reviews before I spend cash. Then, for a couple of launches it's been much cheaper to buy from Amazon a couple of days after launch. I'm not paying an extra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Anarkii Subscriber² Posted April 25, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted April 25, 2015 I will only continue to pre-order games from only a select handful of developers. Rockstar Games is the one company I can count on to release a game that is 'complete'. Their games have never let me down at all. Naughty Dog are the same. The other company was Blizzard but lately, their games haven't exactly been great. (WoW Dranor was really disappointing) Since Francis made that video about preordering I think it actually struck a nerve with alot of gamers, sick and tired of half finished games and day 1 patches to fix game ending bugs. Well done UK for making the start of a hopefully good trend in which developers finally get the message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnnDunn Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 To me, the need for preordering has lessened significantly with digital distribution and remote downloading. I work 9-5, and I go to bed at 11pm, so there is no real way I will be able to midnight-release a game. Instead, I'll read the reviews on release day and check the overall buzz. If I decide to buy, I'll make the purchase on my phone at work, and the game will be downloaded and ready for me to play when I get home. In many cases, pre-order incentives are made available for at least a week after release, so I don't miss out on those either. These days, I'll only pre-order if I want the super-premium Collector's Edition with the artbook and the statue, etc. But I only buy those to collect them, not to play them. If I want to play it, I'll but the digital download. All that said, this trend isn't really going to change publisher behavior much. They are still going to emphasize budgets and deadlines over quality, and they're still going to extend a game's revenue-generating potential as long as possible with DLC and Season Passes. That's really the only way they can make money while still holding retail prices at $60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 It obviously is to me. I'm about to preorder Witcher 3 and just did for Dying Light not too long ago. Hell the only title I've had major issues with in the last couple years is Dead Rising 3 PC, and my CPU doesn't even meet required spec so *shrug*. Multiplayer gamers seem to be having more issues than the rest of us. Preording a couple of days before launch might be OK. You can only usually pre-load cloase to release date anyway. There is no need to order it months in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Preording a couple of days before launch might be OK. You can only usually pre-load cloase to release date anyway. There is no need to order it months in advance. Yeah, that's what I do. I'm avoiding Early Access as well because it's rarely worth it (I have done that a few times and gotten pretty dang little out of it. Clockwork Empires and Seven Days To Die are really tempting, but....no.) I don't think it's a huge problem to wait either, it just depends on the game. I think the last thing I had major problems at launch was SimCity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetor Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 i never pre-ordered a game nor i understand the need to pre order a game that normally a couple of days later after launch is going to be more cheaper. For me is just wasting money, tbh. but there is a problem with having no pre-orders: that is the budget a game has; the more pre-orders the more funds a developers has available to build a top quality game; unfortunately this compromise has been so broken by the devs itselfs that i'm afraid there's going to be a lack of high funded games (even from the top publishers) in the next years if the pre-orders go south. And it's all their fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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