Industry-wide Pre-order Decline

Source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/06 ... r-decline/

According to Activision, there has been a decrease in the demand for video game pre-orders across the industry. Things like digital distribution and readily available physical copies for a game's release are causing it to happen.

It seems that there is less demand for it now, and it doesn't surprise me. Companies can only try to include so many pre-order DLC bonuses before it starts to get stale, and quite honestly, I think it also has to do with people not wanting to drop full price on a game that they can pick up down the road for cheaper.

I have not pre-ordered a game in years, and I see no reason to in the future. So what do you think of this shift? Do you pre-order games? If so, what was the last game you pre-ordered?

The last game I pre-ordered was Halo 3, and to this day I still have not got around to playing it.

I can't remember when I last pre-ordered something...what does that say? The DLC with preorders stuff bothers me, it seems to be the last-ditch attempt to keep preorders going. I really see no point anymore, especially with digital distribution.

I see it decreasing more in the future too. Now that most of the Pre-order bonuses are in-game content and add-ons, it seems less exciting to pre-order games. It's still a good idea for companies to offer bonus items for first day buyers, but I like the days when it was game soundtracks, art books, or something else that is tangible. Now you only see those kind of bonus items with collector's editions which cost even more money.

In fact, Nintendo just recently switched their Club Nintendo rewards program to all digital game bonuses this year, and there are a lot gamers that are mad about this.

I used to buy collector's editions of games, but I don't bother now, it's just not worth it anymore. I stick with the regular versions of games.

I've never preordered any games and never will. The entire concept makes no sense to me, so I'm not especially surprised to hear it is finally on the decline. Nearly every time I read about someone preordering a game it sounds like a major hassle, especially if the game gets canceled or such, so I think the whole process has gained a bit of a bad reputation. The bonuses usually aren't worth it either, especially if it's just early access to content made available otherwise. I can wait a month after the release to download your extra levels pack. I can do the task in game to unlock the hidden characters.

I think there's no need play the stressful "pay and pray you get a game" game. Most games, especially the big releases, aren't that hard to find in stores like Wal-Mart or Kmart for a few months after release. Bah, I've even found preorder bundles for an Xbox 360 game on the shelf in Wal-Mart years after release. I like to actually receive my product when I pay for it, not hope it comes out in a few months, so this is fine for me.

The only time I have problems finding a game is usually when I it hear about it a few years after release or it has a very limited release (hello jRPGs!). Even then, there are plenty of ways to buy a physical copy online now - eBay, Amazon, Best Buy, etc. Heck, even Wal-Mart will often do with their free ship to store thing.

Even beyond what has actually been cited, there have been at least a couple of really high-profile recent cases of people getting burned on pre-orders for games that didn't deliver their promised features and/or were marketed and sold on outright falsehoods, most notably Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Oh, believe you me, R-90-2, Colonial Marines has one hell of a backstory behind just how it managed to suck so much! Long story short: Gearbox Software was given a lot of money by Sega to make the game in 2006, Gearbox allegedly used the money to fund development on Duke Nukem Forever and Borderlands, Gearbox subcontracted the game out to Timegate in 2010 so Gearbox could work on Borderlands 2, 2012 rolls around and Timegate still isn't done, Timegate complains that Gearbox sent them very little in-game assets and what they had didn't work, Timegate also complains that they have to keep reworking the game because the script wasn't finalized, Sega threatens to sue Gearbox for breach of contract, Gearbox throws together Aliens: Colonial Marines in nine months, nobody likes it, Sega and Gearbox mutually decide to cancel the Wii U port in utero.

Anyway! Last game I ever preordered was Star Trek Online back in 2010, and this is of interest because there were about thirty different preorder bonuses depending on what store you preordered it from. In my case, I got it from GameStop, and my bonus was I got to start the game with the Original Series Constitution-class starship as my Lieutenant Tier ship (it's tougher than the Miranda-class you start with normally, but the Miranda turns better.) Wal-Mart shoppers were lucky, because they started the game with 500 free experience points (besides being a marker of when you level up, STO had you use your experience points to train up your captain and bridge crew skills. Think of it as working like Vampire: The Masquerade, where you could have, say, 800 experience points and you spent 600 on skills. You still have as far as the game is concerned 800 XP.)