Games

Never preorder.

No. I'm doing the opposite.

I'm currently playing PS4 games I have never played before.

You get them on ebay for like $10.

Can't wait to play PS5 games in 5 years... 🙃

I almost never preorder any game I'm not 100% sure I'll play no matter what. Sometimes I'll do it with online games in 90% sure on bc my internet is horrible and I like being able to get started on the download asap

Absolutely no reason to, you pay more for a buggier version. I generally wait until there's a good sale.

Last game I pre-ordered was Cyberpunk 2077. Yeah, it's a fun and really good now but when it released it was basically unplayable until Phantom Liberty was released. I had already said I would never pre-order a game and I made an exception for CDPR and got Cyberpunk, and I was immediately burned. For real-sies this time, no more exceptions. I will never pre-order another game until the day that I die.

Only if it's a game I'm going to play regardless. I pre ordered FH4 and FH5 and I easily have 2k+ hours in both of those games.

Hissssss 🐍

Don't preorder, what the hell are you people thinking?!

I don't think digital pre-orders even include banking functionality. I wouldn't know because I lack the nerd cred of ever pre-ordering a game

No, but I have purchased Early Access games on Steam.

No, one time there was a highly anticipated game that I really wanted.

Walked into the store after checking a couple reviews and bought it full price.

Ask the clerk, he confirmed there is never shortages or anything like that for physical disks.

Imo, there is even less of a reasons to preorder digital copies, what are they gonna do, run out of bandwidth?

Never because I'm cheap and also I don't want to pay a premium for a buggy unoptimized experience. Even when I had the game pass trial I didn't play games day 1, since games needed several patches to be acceptable.

Only games I'm super confident I'll love. Never got screwed over.

You are assuming the reviews have any bearing on whether I want to play the game. This is a risky assumption.

When Cyberpunk was busted and everybody was hating that's what prompted me to jump in. I went and got a PS4 physical version of the 1.0 last-gen release when I could find one on sale, even though I primarily played the game on PC. It's one of my favorite gaming artifacts. I like it more than any collector's edition nonsense.

Also, what reviews? I don't know if I know what "reviews" for videogames even mean anymore.

Anyway, to answer your actual question, if there is a discount at launch (which is increasingly a thing, which is kind of sad) or a decent preorder bonus I can prepurchase. I don't mind. Otherwise I just get things when I get things.

As a rule, no, but I'll make some rare exceptions.

It has to be a small studio, I have to be pretty sure I'll like their next game, and I have to have enjoyed their past game enough that it's worth throwing them a few extra bucks.

For instance, I'm going to pre-order Slay the Spire 2.

• Mega Crit is an indie studio.

• I thought StS1 was exquisite, so I'm optimistic about a sequel from the same people.

• I playes StS1 for hundreds of hours, so even if the sequel is a whiff, I'd have got my money's worth from them.

Similar goes for The Haunted Chocolatier, since I played the heck out of Stardew Valley.

I do preorder digital games but not just anything I’m excited about. It has to come from a single dev or small dev team that I specifically want to support, and help fund their progress. In this example, I’d preorder Haunted Chocolatier by ConceredApe (dev behind Stardew Valley).

OR, if the game is made by studio with a stellar track record or an absolutely phenomenal game. These more rare but their are a few. These also need to treat their dev team and customers well. No crunch. No shady micro-transactions.

For example, Hades 2 is something I would consider preordering. The next game by Larian Studios might also be on that list.

If there is a game that i'll definitely buy on launch and there is some real benefit for pre ordering, i might do it. But even then i'll wait for the last few hours and "pre-order" then. If there is no benefit for me, why should i tell the company "i dont care about quality of your game, i'll pay anyway". Because that is how the ones making decisions will see pre order.

I would have pre-ordered Civ7, but then they announced it has Denuvo so now instead of pre-ordering I'm just not going to buy it at all.

Fuck denuvo and fuck corporations who think their customers should just bend over and accept whatever bullshit they offer for the "privilege" of playing their game.

There is so much good indie gaming content these days, we don't need these abusive mega-corp games.

Not counting Kickstarter projects, which I rarely back anymore, no. I'll wait for reviews and probably a sale.

No.

Especially the big studio games.

They almost always go on sale 3-6 months past release, and they’ve been patched at least once.

You get a better, cheaper game.

These days? No.

I used to when I had very crappy internet speeds, but these days I have a gigabit connection - and I swear the decryption process takes longer than it is to just download the game right after release in an unencrypted state.

And even back then I was very picky on pre-orders. I honestly couldn't even tell you what was the last one I pre-ordered.

Not digital. I used to preorder popular games way back before digital was a thing as supply could be tight, but it makes zero sense in a digital world where they can't run out of supply.

Especially with how the trend today is release and drop hotfixes (or in some cases just laugh to the bank) I won't drop $$$ until its in a good state

No because it's stupid to preorder digital goods. I'll happily join early access to help fund projects I find interesting lile enshrouded.

No. Heck, I don't even play Early Access games (with rare exceptions, like Satisfactory). I'm not paying to be a beta tester.

Never preorder any game.

All they have to do is add a skin or some shit as a pre-order bonus and people will deposit money. It's absolutely crazy, especially with the state almost every launch is in these days.

Big games are like 50% off after a few months anyway, no point buying those at all until then.

I pre-order games. Steams refund policy makes it pretty much risk-free. Usually it's shortly before launch, if I want to play the game immediately anyway. For big games, reviews pretty much always come out before launch or on the day of, so I can still always cancel, if it looks bad. I don't remember regretting any of these purchases, even if I didn't like all the games.

never

Yeah I’ll pre order any game that I plan on buying. There’s no practical reason not to.

Never. I only rarely buy a game within a year of release. Too fucking many good cheap or free games to justify paying msrp before it even gets reviews.

No, it just doesn't make sense to me to do so. I mostly play single player games, so special skins to show you preordered are pretty pointless, and the most you tend to get is a discount on some DLC that I can just buy later, once I know I've enjoyed the game enough to warrant it, or items to give you a stat boost.

It's not like preordering a physical game, where at least I get an art book or something in exchange for handing my money over.

The reason people do it is poor impulse control for the dopamine hit from buying something they want. I'm pretty sure anyone claiming another reason isn't being honest with themselves or others.

I've pre-ordered games due to hype a few times and every time I do I get shafted and dev runs with my money. Now I stick to promising EAs. If I pay 20-30 bucks for EA, get some fun out of it and then dev runs at least I got some fun out of it.

There’s no point because you do not know how the games are.

I'll do it to support indie devs. Though I haven't ever done it through Steam -- just Kickstarter

theres no difference between preorder and buying on release date

so if youre buying it anyway, may as well preorder and cancel it if reviews are sketchy

No.
My backlog is so big and my interested in gaming became so little I prefer watching YT or stuff on my Jellyfin server.
I wanted to play Helldivers 2 but decided against it because I had nobody else and now it's kinda in late-progress I won't even bother.

Yes. After clocking up 10,000 hours on Civ VI. Civ VII can take my money!