I can pre-order a game by a developer I trust, a game that has proven itself through some sort of demo version, or a game that I want to support on principle because of what the developers are trying to do with it.

BioWare used to fall into the trust category, but not so much anymore.

"Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning" is a recent example where there was a demo. No regrets there.

I've lost track of how many games I've purchased in recent years simply because I want to encourage developers to make more games like that. Can't recall being disappointed by the games either.

As for Kickstarter...
I've backed a few projects of type 1 and 3. Type 2 doesn't apply, obviously. The lack of publisher meddling appeals to me as well.

I usually pre order my games. But I won't lie, my reasons for doing so have little to nothing to do with the game itself or the premiums I might get for ordering in advance.

I have a Gamestop that I go to. It's "My gamestop" I know the employees there and I like the store. I know that a lot of their performance revue is based on sales metrics and if I can help them out with a reserve sale I will.

Plus there's a bit of leftover fear from my days managing a video store.
I can't tell you how many times our store had a short supply of new release films because nobody pre ordered them.

Whoever was in charge of the ordering would use those reservation numbers to gauge interest in the product.
No reservations means no interest in the movie, which means fewer copies ordered which means less risk of stagnant product on the shelf.

That "logic" bit me right in the ass more than once as everyone and their dog came in to buy a movie we were given 4 copies of 3 of which were reserved.

So yeah I'll usually reserve my games. It doesn't cost me anything extra, it guarantees my copy (barring an unforeseen clerical error,) It lets me pay off my more expensive purchases over time and I get to boost the stats of a store who's management and employees know their shit and run a pretty fine shop.

Everybody wins.

Honestly I only see pre-ordering as something that helps Gamestop and the companies track how popular a future product will be. The only time it's really necessary to pre-order anything is when the game you're pre-ordering is going to be one of those small games that may end up being insubstantial in the grand scheme of things. If you really want Black Ops 2, it would be downright stupid to pre-order it since you're going to be paying $60+ for it depending on the edition*. If you play the Black Ops 2 waiting game, you'll find that it'll be cheaper to buy later on, more than likely after the holidays when whispers of the next one are starting to hit the interwebs. The only downside is the online multiplayer which could very well have turned into a ghost town in the mean time. Since it's CoD though you probably wouldn't have to worry about it but for a game like Sniper Elite 2 then you may be out of luck in a few months and are looking to join an online game.

Like I said though (tl;dr) if you want a game that will be popular don't pre-order unless you suspect the multiplayer will turn into a graveyard within the first 6 months. If you want a game that you think will fade into obscurity a couple weeks after its release then pre-order.

*=Also special editions, collectors editions, etc. Right now you can grab the Duke Nukem Forever: Balls of Steel edition for under $35 new on Amazon. This is by far the exception rather than the rule. If you're a collector and after these special editions then you are perfectly justified in pre-ordering that. AvP Hunter Edition on the 360 by contrast is $85 and, Halo Reach Legendary and, Skyrims CE are both $99.99 which I think are about what they were upon release...I think.

Zachary Amaranth:

This may be a bad thing, because people tend to remember when they were rewarded for their purchases more than when they were not.

That...depends. I'm actually inclined to argue that things going right is much more rarely noticed and registered.

But let me address this point differenly and in a slightly nasty way.

"That's the risk we should each enjoy taking because, with that risk, when you find quality, you remember it forever and cherish it."

Well to that I say. Want to gamble? Try a casino, and stop giving businesses ideas how to take people's money before they even have a product done.

endtherapture:
After ME3 I'm never pre-ordering again really.

Only game I'm ever pre-ordering is The Witcher 3 because I know CDProjekt will deliver.

You really came full circle there.

I mainly pre-order just to guarantee that I'll get the game I want on the day it comes out. How is that a bad thing? And if it has a special bonus for those who do pre-order, awesome! Again, what is so bad about that?

I rarely pre-order. The bonus either needs to be really good (e.x. early game access for SWTOR) or if it is my "if you could only buy 1 new game to take to a desert island" (Arkham City last year).

Borderlands 2 is going to be the big test. I know I'll want to play it, but I'm not sure I want to play it NOW and I know I want to play the multiplayer, but I don't know how much it will hold my interest.

I pre-order all the time and I've never been disappointed. If you want to be stingy cautious with your money then you don't have to pre-order and can wait for all the user reviews to tell you whether to get it or not.

But it comes at the cost of not being allowed to complain when no game ever tries. If you aren't prepared to financially support a developer that's actually trying then you aren't allowed to complain when they're forced to copy successful games.

The Unworthy Gentleman:
If you aren't prepared to financially support a developer that's actually trying then you aren't allowed to complain when they're forced to copy successful games.

...not this again...

The developer has been paid for the the development of the game they developed before I bought it, even if I pre-order it.

Its unnecessary because usually you get no small chance of finding most mayor games close to release; but its not a terrible idea. You should never preorder without knowing some things about the game. Weeks, months or even years before the game is released, there are trailers, previews in magazines, etc. Before you put your money down for a game, you should at least do some research.

Even on a controlled space, you should be able to see if a game could interest you or not. If you are easily dismissed by publicity and punchlines, I am sure many Hollywood people will have a blast selling you tickets for the latest Sarah Jessica Parker comedy.

And that is not even counting sequels, where you are preordering based on previous games of the series. Those are even more straight forward to identify as part of your tastes, or not.

I see very little reason to preorder, or even buy a game in its first few weeks of release. On the one hand, DLC and a game of the year edition is inevitable. And on the other, you've got bugs and glitches that will eventually be fixed via software updates in the coming months. I'm playing Skyrim on PS3 and didn't start until about three updates in (four or five months after launch). I've only had it crash maybe two times, had maybe two bugs that required a reloaded save, and no broken unfinishable questlines. Even the framerate and loading issues aren't nearly as bad as they were made out to be pre launch. In that case, I did buy it the week it came out, but only because there was considerable financial incentive to do so (it was nearing Christmas and there were deals).

Again, the last few titles I've wanted immediately seem to have benefits against purchasing them right away. Silent Hill HD had severe problems many review outlets didn't notice at first and apparently Konami is working on them in an update. Same for Downpour. Mass Effect 3 was 50% off at amazon about a month after it came out and I still didn't get it knowing there was going to be a ton of DLC for it. And in the case of every single one of those games I mentioned, I know of no retail store that had permanently run out of copies. There is no scarcity here, so I see no reason to go out of my way for it and risk my hard earned money.

BiscuitTrouser:

It doesnt apply a strong enough pressure to publishers who dissapoint their fans. Why SHOULD they make the third installment in any series good? At all? Pre order revinue will give them nice earnings no matter what the quality is.

That is the problem now a days regardless of pre-orders. If it's hyped up enough, plenty of gamers will take the gamble on it.
Personally, I only ever pre-order when the previous title gave me enough entertaining content that I
A - Played it for a really long time.
and
B - Already feel like I got two games for the price of one.
It helps if they don't try such a hard sell on the pre-orders so much that they seem desperate.

LA Noir with all the game content carved out so it could be auctioned off to retailers for pre-order "bonuses" is an excellent example of a game that seemed a little too desperate for pre-orders.
And it's a total racket for the retailer who takes in the money months before they need to use it. One of the reasons Gamestop was pulling in such profits is because they're actually able to convince some people to pay for a game in full nearly a year before it comes out.

its only a bad thing if you aren't careful about it. I'll only pre-order if I know I'd by buying the game regardless of reviews/opinions/how it turns out. games that I'm kinda on the fence about I'll always wait. The other aspect of pre-orders for me is that I'm on a pretty tight budget. usually if i have extra money to spend, it will only be $5 at a time. I am also pretty bad about just hiding money away and saving that way, so with pre-orders i can put that extra $5 in and over the course of a few months, pay for the game.

Duh.

The clever thing to do is pre-order moments before 'release' on Steam so that you have enough time to read all the reviews. It's pretty much the only bonus to having to suffer European release dates too; you've had 3 days to hear about player complaints.

You know, I'm honestly not sure I see the good or bad of preordering. If the complaint is that you don't know all the exact working details of what you're buying before you buy it, then I'd imagine anything judged subjectively is simply not on the table for you. I cannot count the numerous books, movies, TV shows, foods, games, music artists, fine-arts displays, blogs, (I'm pretty sure I could go on, but I'll just leave this with a:) etc. I've been disappointed in, but was told I would like by friends, family, reviewers, etc. When I buy a game, yes, there's a chance the ending will stink. Or the combat will be way different than what was advertised in the demo (see: Brutal Legend). Or that I will like everything about the game, but the environment just kills it for me and I never play more than a few minutes of it (see: Fallout 3. There is no natural reason for me to not enjoy this game, other than I just didn't enjoy it. It has everything ever that I like, but I just don't get very far before wanting to play any Elder Scrolls game and go back to that).

Honestly, if you really dislike the idea of purchasing something before the community at large has had a chance to 0-bomb Metacritic or sing its praises on any gaming forum, then preordering is not for you. But honestly, I've found I'm a better judge of what I like than the gaming community, reviewers, and sometimes even my friends are. If there exists a game I know I will get regardless of how high it rates to someone else, I'll probably preorder it, unless I don't want to play it the second it comes out.

Really, I think when you preorder something, you know the risk you're taking. You also know the benefits, such as early access, DLC, and even the humble owning-it-before-it-sells-out-everywhere. I don't see how denying the ability to preorder would help anything. It would rule out an option for early adopters and be a non-issue for those who like to wait for reviews and first-hand testimonials. Frankly, I don't think cutting options for people is really the right way to go, especially if the worst-case scenario is you're out $60 and know not to preorder from the company again.

Here's a quick little checklist you can go through to determine whether or not you should pre-order a game:

1) Are you definitely, beyond all reasonable doubt, going to buy the game?

2) Are they offering any bonuses for pre-ordering which are interesting to you?

If you answered yes to both of these questions, you should probably pre-order. If you answered yes to one of these questions, you should consider pre-ordering. If you answered no to both of these questions, then you probably shouldn't pre-order.

Pre-ordering itself isn't a good or bad thing; it really depends on what is being pre-ordered. As a consumer, does pre-ordering make you more vulnerable to not getting what you expected from your investment? Definitely. But it also means that you are guaranteed a copy of the game when demand for it is likely to be highest, right when it comes out. So...it boils down to what that's worth to you and what the costs of it are.

BiscuitTrouser:

This is the event im talking about. That whole thing wouldnt have happened if customers had waited until after release to buy it. A lot of people in the thread are touting the whole "im smart enough to tell a good game from a bad game". Sometimes its literally impossible for demos or trailers to reveal the fault in a game that makes it not worth buying. Mass effect 3 is a prime example.

Ok, I'm jumping on this point right here, even though you said specifically you didn't want to turn this into a Mass Effect 3 thread. The thing is...

Mass Effect 3 is not a bad game.

By any stretch of the imagination.

Prototype is a bad game. Mass Effect 3 isn't. I loved it. it was fun, it had its moments of intensity, many of the character arcs were otustanding. Does it have flaws? yes. Everything has flaws. as loathe as I am to mention it - because tis tired and played out - the ending is one of them. I didn't have so much of a problem with the ending. But whatever.

No product anywhere is going to satify everybody. But back OT. Is pre-ordering a bad idea? No, of course not. Think of it this way, if the option to pre-order games wasn't available, there would be no way for the Publishers to gauge how much interest there was in a game. I admit that the systems in place right now (massive amounts of marketing) are broken.

The problem isn't with pre-orders, its with marketing. And fatigue. By the time a new release game comes out, I personally (and I'm sure there are others out there too) get sick of hearing about it. I'll use Arkham City as a prime example. I enjoyed Asylum. When I heard it was getting a sequel, I was looking forward to it, but then there are all the trailers, and the articles, and the developer diaries, and all the details about the game are slowly streamed out, so by the time the game is actually released, there's nothing new in it. Everything (or at least the vast majority) of the games content is known, has been analysed, and processed.

I know what the option is: Just don't take any notice. And in the case of Arkham City, I did that. I just stopped reading about it, because i'd lost interest. The massive amounts of marketing and hype had actually killed my interest in the game. I felt somewhat the same about Uncharted 3. I knew that was going to be a disappointment, and it was. Because it was overhyped.

Going back to Mass Effect 3... Jesus, the way that was marketed you'd think the game would start the fucking Rapture or something. It was inevitable that it was going to disappoint because it was over saturated in the media.

I think another problem (and this is a major one - and sort of ties into pre-orders) is the set release date. I know they occasionally drop back, and it can be irritating at times (I think about Dues Ex:HR in this case) but ultimately its better right? I think few people will disagree that we could wait an extra six months for the game to release if they... Put more time into the ending.

So yeah, while I guess pre-ordering can be... useful... from the publishers perspective, setting a release date isn't. As someone else mentioned though, I think pre-orders are really only good for the special/limited editions, and then only if they're worth it.

But then there's the whole pre-order bonus/day one dlc thing...

I wouldnt say its a terrible idea but I would say there are more cons then Pros to it. The thing about pre-ordering is when a game comes out your basicly garanteed to get it. Businesses fill pre-orders before anything else and they should because a pre-order is essentially a contract that says I bought the game before those other guys.

Thats really the only pro I can think of. Pretty much all the cons were already covered in the original post so obviously pros and cons say there's usually more risk then reward. Still Im not going to say pre-ordering is a bad thing.

Vegosiux:

The Unworthy Gentleman:
If you aren't prepared to financially support a developer that's actually trying then you aren't allowed to complain when they're forced to copy successful games.

...not this again...

The developer has been paid for the the development of the game they developed before I bought it, even if I pre-order it.

Yeah, I know. It's just that people generally dislike publishers so you get a better response using developers, despite it not being correct.

Though the point still stands that if games that try aren't supported by the consumer because they were cut down because of publisher's demands then we'll still have a market populated by games that people are going to complain about all being the same. I just think we need to be spreading cash a bit more, rather than only buying games that get a Metacritic score over 80.

Sonic Doctor:

Halo 3: ODST--Awesome

Yeh?

I don't even understand why someone would preorder, there are probably five stores in your city that will have the game. Then there's internet sellers and stuff.

Another big turn-off I have is pre-order bonuses. I would have bought Sniper V2 this past weekend, but because I didn't want to pay the same price as the pre-orders while getting less content (bonus mission and weapons), I'll wait until it's on sale.

TheRookie8:

endtherapture:
After ME3 I'm never pre-ordering again really.

Only game I'm ever pre-ordering is The Witcher 3 because I know CDProjekt will deliver.

You really came full circle there.

I think the lack of EA involvement alone is enough to comprehend his decision.

Ill pre-order a game if I know Im gonna buy it and want it pre-loaded on steam, I pre-ordered fallout:NV 7 min before launch on steam to get the bonus stuff, don't know it thats really pre- ordering though, lol, ill pre-order a guaranteed buy on steam just because I have extra money some weeks more than others.

I don't pre-order in stores because the last release day game I had a hard time finding in my area was FFVII had the go to 3 stores to get a copy but I hear others in larger cities aren't so lucky.

There are pros and cons both ways, guess it mostly depends on personal preference and the game in question, only people that I don't get are the people that say they pre-order almost every game they get. IMO it sounds like a competative "I played/beat xxxx game first" complex to me.

I got burned badly when I pre-ordered Tron a few years ago. That stopped me pre-ordering cold. Now that I've gotten over that incident, I've actually pre-ordered a few things, Lollipop Chainsaw and Black Ops 2, though I'm still a little gun-shy about them. I guess we'll see in the following months if my fear was misplaced or if I should give up pre-ordering anything altogether.

You can get some really neat stuff from pre-ordering. Borderlands 2 and The Mechromancer is a great example. Pre-ordering Assassin's Creed III gets you a cool looking game case. From personal experience, I traded in my DSi towards a 3DS pre-order and got $75 of credit. I haven't bought the 3DS yet, but the price has dropped now so it would be easier than ever.

I really don't see a reason not to pre-order a game that you have an interest in. There's no real commitment and you could get some extra stuff just for putting $5 down early. You win some, you lose some, that's life. I decide whether or not a game was worth buying by playing it, not by relying on someone else's appraisal. If there's enough doubt, I can just rent the game.

Pre-ordering is stupid in most cases, but there are some cases where I think that it's warranted.

If the game studio is particularly trustworthy, or the game being particularly well-hyped, then your chances of being screwed are fairly low, and pre-ordering may be justified if you're sufficiently excited or if the pre-order bonuses are sufficiently awesome.

Otherwise, I'd say it's too big of a gamble, most of the time.

I'll be pre-ordering Halo 4, and have already pre-ordered Borderlands 2, but won't be pre-ordering anything else this year.

You could consider this analogous to seeing a midnight release of a movie. It makes little sense to do it for a series that you know nothing about, butttt if it's a series you already love...go for it, if you accept the risks.