We all know the feeling of seeing a game come up for pre-order online. One that you’ve been itching to play. Sometimes we’ve ordered it before we’ve even thought twice about the details. Now imagine that the game you’ve just ordered hasn’t even a determined release date and is more than likely two years away from ever getting to your door.
This is what I encountered while buying shopping online, when I was targeted with an ad for the new Silent Hills game. I’m really excited for it. Please do not discount that solemn fact on account of this semi-coherent (hopefully) rant. My gripe is that some speculation has put the release of this around Halloween 2016, but the official release date is still even TBA so it could be later than that;
leaving the consumer waiting maybe more than two years after ordering a game.
The culture of pre-order has been growing. It’s not hard to see why; on the whole we’ve become a society obsessed with the idea of instant gratification but even this seems to be just so out there. While not as bad as this I’ll admit, most games are following suit with the idea of buy now and we send it to you at some point in the distant future. Has pre-order gone totally and unfathomably mad? To allow orders on a game not even out of the development stages. The good thing about Amazon purchases is that you won’t get charged till the release day, sometimes a few days prior with the way their system works, but that’s not everywhere. In fact, it’s generally the exception to the rule.
Exactly who are all these pre-purchases benefiting? The average consumer?
The only answer I can come up with is a resounding and absolute ‘no’.
I doubt I’m going to be too popular on this. I know so many people that haunt stores online looking for the next pre-order. Then count down the days till it’s on the doorstep.
And a lot of them spending the next few weeks ranting about one thing or another wrong with the game.
If you aren’t seeking the game for publishing or reviewing reasons, the only thing a pre-order guarantees is that good or bad, you’ve just bought a game. I can understand it. Occasionally you’ve a birthday coming and this is the only thing on the list and you’re worried it’ll sell out, but surely only a few weeks in advance? And in the world of the online marketplace supply often outstrips demand so there’s often no reason to be worried.
I know, I know, it’s hard not to pre-order sometimes, cause everywhere you look there’s a whole host of stuff you can get by purchasing early. All those little extras with the game, the figurines, exclusive content all available with the special early order bonus packs. But it’s not just with pre-orders you can get these. For instance, I’ve got all of the special edition Assassin’s Creed figurines and box sets and in every case with the exception of Black Flag, none of them pre-ordered and all of the codes and accessories available on various sites and in game stores well after the release date.
Even if I couldn’t get it, I can’t even tell you the lack of enrichment some exclusive pistols brought to Kenway’s life or the short time I spent on black Island wandering around before I’d seen enough of it. Don’t get me wrong, Assassins Creed: Black Flag is a good game, but this type of marketing is now becoming the standard. The gaming market is one that should be driving things forward based on quality and the love of all things gaming. When a game has enormous sales based solely on a lengthy pre-order campaign, a few clever trailers and a figurine, what exactly are we doing other than guaranteeing we end up with a game that isn’t how we imagined it, feels rushed because there’s been so many pre-orders and there’s a looming deadline for release, and ultimately is buggy with not a single person knowing why. A game should sell well if it’s good. We’re only cheating ourselves with a pre-order; ending up with a 
game we might not even like, that needs more patches than a two-hundred year old quilt.
Maybe I’m a different generation, but I don’t want to own a thousand games and enjoy playing only a handful. I want every game I own to be an experience in and of itself. I want to be able to close my eyes, pick a random game in my collection and be happy with a few hours gameplay. If I buy a game and aren’t driven to completing it, I consider it wasted money. At up to 70 Euro a go, do I ever. Wishful thinking? Probably, but with the current way things are I want to at least try and get games because I might enjoy them, rather than on account of generated hype or another mantelpiece monument for my cats to assault. There are more games out there than I could play in a lifetime and a culture of buy first, ask questions later isn’t going to cut it.
I’m not going to get too into this. It’s a two sided coin. And there are arguments against and in favor. Realistically, there are always going to be exceptions where it makes the most sense to put in an early order but I don’t know how I can ever stand behind a game pre-order that’s two full years in advance of a game release, even if it’s at a marginal discount. While I’m excited for Silent Hills, I’ll still want to read a few independent reviews before I rush out to buy it. I may even wait until the price drops a little or buy a copy second hand. I like to know a little bit about a game, positive and negative before a purchase. At the very least I can’t hate it and the whole series if I come across some irritating bug. Knowing and buying it anyway makes it more my issue than the games.
