My brother just shared this video, by Francis, with me on Facebook - it’s kind of old, but it’s still relevant, I think, and wanted to share it with you guys here in case you haven’t yet seen it either in order to promote a discussion on this very topic. So, what’s your take on pre-ordering games in general? Do you think it’s good? Bad? Can you afford it? Why or why not? Also, since it’s his video, what’s your take on Francis (please keep this aspect of the discussion down to a minimum, though, as I don’t want to get too side-tracked)?
As a console gamer, generally preorders mean I get a working game. Arkham knight and MKX are great examples of games that work fine on console, but had some crazy issues at launch on PC, as such I can imagine PC gamers are taking a bigger risk with a preorder, and would tend to say they’re bad.
I’m fine with preorders if your going to get the game anyway, or you’ve played a demo/beta of the game. I can imagine if I was a PC player (like boogie) I may feel differently, but I see no problem with it, as long as you aren’t spending too much.
As for boogie, he’s always a great, funny guy, in and out of his Francis character.
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Yeah, I’m right there with this guy. I’m glad he made the point about the olden-days of being incentivized to beat or perform well within the game.
I preordered Borderlands:TPS+SP, and didn’t regret it until I completed it and realized that it was less than half of it’s predecessor, DLC’s included. The game as whole felt like a sort of plus-sized expansion to BL2 - one that had been discussed by fans and devs alike on the Gearbox forums as a WIP “moonbase DLC” a few years earlier. Don’t get me wrong, I love TPS, it’s great fun. But it is TINY in comparison to it’s pricetag and left me feeling burnt. So I decided that Gearbox and 2K weren’t getting preorder money from me in the future.
I’m not a huge gamer of multiple games, by the way. I usually buy like 2-6 a year between myself, Madam, and son. Even then, I rarely preorder.
The next preorder was SFV+SP. This one is a current hot-topic, and I don’t want it’s mention to derail this thread. Suffice it to say that that was my last preorder, of any game, full stop.
Well, I did buy KI:S3 on launch day. That’s not a preorder, nor do I regret it, but it is definitely an exception.
Guy in the video is right on point. Preordering just incentives the industry to deliver unfinished products because they don’t have to finish to profit. I miss the good ol’ days, before DLC and Season Passes. When you were entitled to your extras by virtue of completion or success, not by purchase alone, and we were all good with that. Now companies get to profit on stuff the players may not even play, but bought anyway, and too few consumers even think twice about it.
The only games I’ve ever Pre-Ordered was The Division and Overwatch.
I’ve pre-ordered my fair share of games over the years and have had some great purchases, along with some that I regret. I have noticed that games have become “slimmer” as of late, even with big-budget titles. For example, Halo 5 came with campaign, arena multiplayer, and theater mode - and that was it, for its release (if I recall correctly). Since then, they’ve added more customization content, both the firefight and forge modes, and more. While they’re not charging for most of that, or offering it up as day-1 content, it makes me wonder if they’re using it as a means of getting games out to the consumers more quickly than they otherwise would by relying on said pre-orders (and future purchases) to continue working and improving on the game over time. This, I think is actually a good thing in contrast to what Francis was saying, because even though you get less, it incentivizes you to play your games for longer, as more features are added over time. Also, it helps the developers make more money, so that they can offer you more over time. We’re getting games in some franchises every year now instead of say, every 2 or 3 years. That’s a good thing, I think.
Pre-Ordering is never a good idea, especially in the era we live in where there is digital distribution (aka no lack of supply). Pre-Ordering makes no sense. It used to be you get some special artwork, now devs just gate content right off the bat which is ridiculous. MKX for example if you pre-ordered you got goro for free. What pre-ordering does for you the consumer is gives you a skin there, maybe some other minor asset from the game. What it does for the Dev is it allows them to gate content, and release an unfinished product because they’ve already hit their quota in sales before the game even touched the shelves, both of which are bad for the consumer.
What other industry do so many people fork over money for a product unseen and untested?
Similarly bad to pre-ordering is purchasing season pass’s for games. This again is tipping your waiter before you’ve been served which ultimately does not insure that your service will be great.
Unfortunately these practices are not going away anytime soon. The marketing machine for pre-ordering and the season passes is too strong. They build the hype and people eat them up despite being burned so many times in the past.
These days you buy a COD season pass so you can get skins, and maps at premium prices. These costs never used to exist because they wouldn’t work, games were developed with console access and dedicated servers, so mods could be created by the community. Maps could be created by the community, skins etc. Now that has been gated off in the name of piracy.
As for Francis. I think he’s a really nice human being. His heart is usually in the right place and I think he knows his audience well and does a good job with the character he depicts. I do however wish he was in better health.
I’ve only ever pre-ordered games from the Souls series and KI. Never had a bad experience, but I can understand why it’s considered a bad practice for consumers.
old but ok
The VERY 1st game that I have ever pre-ordered was Mortal Kombat X on the Xbox One which included Goro as a free playable character along with the 1st Kombat Pack aka Kombat Pack 1
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I have a general rule for Pre-Orders, that is, I only do it with games I know I am very fond of. I don’t mean games I just simply like because they end up being like MKX.
Games I have been actively following through development and constructive discussions. I do that with few games and feel like I am okay with that. Fallout, Gears, etc.
I generally don’t mind pre-orders considering I am now more thoughtful of my purchases and they are rarer.
Also, just a side-note, the guy in the video is Boogie, Francis is just his nerdy rage gamer persona that is used to exaggerate valid points.
I’ve pre-ordered only three times in my life: Two of them back on 2004; The Sims 2 and Halo 2 Collector’s Edition.
The other one was this year, with the Special Edition of Skyrim. So this makes two sequels and one remaster, but I wouldn’t pre-order a game from a total new franchise, 'cause you obviously never know how good or bad that product will be at launch.
I pre-order games from series I really like but then again I don’t buy games often either. I pre-ordered MKX, SFV, Ratchet And Clank, KI:DE and ill be pre-ordering Yooka Laylie and any other game I actually want enough to buy, it’s not like I get charged extra and I usually get something out of it and so do the companies that work on the games I like.
I only pre-order games that I know FOR SURE are going to deliver at launch. MKXL was money well-spent.
I pre-order everything simply because of how cheap games are with a gamers club memebership at best buy that I can exploit it to make money. I don’t redeem the pre-order bonus and if I don’t like the game I just sell it on craigslist with the pre-order bonus included for less than retail, but still more than I paid for it. The end result is if I don’t like the game, I make profit. If I do like the game, I just redeem the pre-order bonuses and enjoy.
Why wouldn’t I pre-order? It’s called “doing your homework”. If you like a game, it 's near launch. Google is your friend. Can help you find many answers. When in doubt look it up yourself. And I will pre order as much as I like. If you don’t like it…cancel the pre-order. That simple. That and know what you’re getting into.
[quote=“oTigerSpirit, post:10, topic:15140”]
I have a general rule for Pre-Orders, that is, I only do it with games I know I am very fond of. I don’t mean games I just simply like because they end up being like MKX.
[/quote]I actually follow this same line of thinking myself, but I’m still upset on occasion. For example, I love both Mortal Kombat and Battlefield but regret getting both X and Hardline, respectively.
I am fully aware of who he actually is, but for me, Francis was the easier name to remember.
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you remind me of the fox from Zootopia and his popsicle con where he would buy elephant-sized popsicles, melt them down into liquid, then poor them into tiny ice molds to freeze them, and sell them to gerbils at a premium for massive profit. After that, he would collect the sticks from the popsickles that were thrown away and then sell those back to a lumber company as “red” wood for another premium.
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