We all know how pre-ordering works. We put our money down early in order to secure a game on the day of release, sometimes earning some small bonuses for doing so. It's a practice that has been going on for many years and can really be quite convenient.
...But could it actually be doing more harm than good?
Now, this is all just my personal thoughts and I am yet to come to a solid conclusion but I feel it is worth voicing it.
When you pre-order a game you are pretty much paying for a new title sight unseen. Trailers and gameplay previews can easily be controlled by the creators to make their game look better than it actually is, thus making them not totally reliable.
So with this in mind, you never quite know what you're getting when you make your purchase, the game you acquire could be of abysmal quality yet you have already funded the companies behind it with no way of going back on your decision.
This ties into my article on your role as a consumer and the idea of voting with your wallet; pre-orders can cause companies to be funded for bad products simply because pre-release material looked promising, just look at games like Aliens: Colonial Marines. (Video courtesy of www.videogamer.com)
The pre-release material clearly looks far better than what was present in the final product which was critically panned for being an incredibly flawed title that preyed upon fans of the franchise.
Yet, despite all of this, this game ended up topping the UK sales charts at launch, probably boosted considerably by pre-orders alone. This alone is proof that pre-orders could have a negative effect.
If you think about it, even pre-ordering games from a well-known developer with a proven track record of great games could be a bad idea. This type of fan loyalty could allow them to release an awful game on purpose simply because pre-order sales would make them a fortune with no real effort. By no means am I saying this is a likely event, this is simply something I consider possible under extreme circumstances.
As said, I couldn't possibly come to a solid conclusion on this subject but it's really something interesting to think about. Personally I'll be a lot more cautious about pre-ordering games in the future, possibly opting instead to wait it out and check reviews and such post-release.
Thanks for reading.
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