Why Pre-Ordering Games is a Waste of Time

With GTA IV just around the corner, gamers across the world are holding their pre-order slips tightly in their hands in anticipation of April 29th. While having a copy of the game personally reserved might make gamers feel secure, in reality, it's a completely useless exercise and a waste of time for gamers.

[St0]

Most online stores in the UK are already out of stock, so i wouldn't say it was a waste of time. Most games you don't need to but GTA4 is so big, you would be crazy not to preorder

[season007]

and i would like to add that preordering a game give the publisher better estimation over the demand of the game...so it saves our time and their time at the same time

[chaosatom333]

Don't u have to pay extra for pre-order? like for shipping or something.

Also, aren't u kinda stuck to just one store for games.

[SIX]

With many pre orders come additional goodies.

[7tH_iLLMaTiKz]

before it comes out. So once it's released I don't have to pay sh*t, then I just pick it up.

[-EvoAnubis-]

Exactly. I pay it off, walk in on release day, they hand me my copy, I leave.

Beginning, middle, end.

Waste of time? Hell, it SAVES me time.

[EZCheez]

It's also definitely not a useless practice to pre-order if you hate waiting. There are a couple of games I would not have gotten on the first day had I not pre-ordered them. The last one being COD4.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

I thought the average age of a gamer is 25-35. Most people in this range has a good disposable income and shouldn't have a sticker shock for $60. Although I recognize people have different income levels and stages in their lives i.e. you might be young etc. What age range are you guys?

To me, I would rarely pre-order primarily because I can almost always find the same game cheaper than MSRP than popular places like Circuit City, GameStop and Best Buy charges on their new games. If they give me something extra, I might consider it or if it is indeed limited such as the MGS4 LE.

I do not see value or time saved in giving a retailer money up front and spending time doing so, when I can walk into the nearest store and get the same thing often cheaper!!!

[EZCheez]

I don't think any of us just implied we don't have enough to pay for a game at once.

I'm, 26, in the Navy, and I make about $55,000 a year. While that might not be much to others, it keeps me and my family going just fine, and it easily supports my gaming habit.

What I said in my post is that sometimes where I live in Norfolk, I would not have gotten the game day one had I not pre-ordered it. The guy at my local Gamestop told me they had none to sell until he found out I had already pre-ordered it.

Anyway, pre-ordering has nothing to do with your income. To me it seems like an easy thing to do with perks at specific times. One I can think of in particular is that I will be in the MGO beta.

[jmare]

Out of curiousity, what grade are you? I would ask what rank, but the Navy has always had ass backwards ranks.

[MikeGdaGod]

i just pre-ordered two games for the first time ever. but both games are the reason i bought my PS3. MGS4 and GTA4

and they come with perks with trading them in at GameStop. pre-ordering MGS4 gets you into the beta. (a must for me since this is my most anticipated game this generation)

trading in games for GTA4 gets you extra credit toward the game. so i traded in Madden 08 and Assassins Creed. (neither have been played in months) now all i own is $10.

once i have these games i will be satisfied and every game afterward will be icing on the cake.

Warhawk anyone??? PSN: MikeG115

[TheWickedOne]

Scottie right on,

I don't pre-order, but I did for MSG for the Beta and GTA4 because of a great trade-in deal. As far as pre-ordering is a waste of time, I don't think so.

[killtheaquitted]

i'm guessing rockstar is going to make sure that anyone who wants a copy of the game will be able to get their hands on one.

[still the worst]

mom and pop stores will get it
3 or 4 days b4 release date

[solar]

so handing a clerk $5 bucks on a pre-order is a waste of time? news to me.

plus i like to pre-order and pay as the weeks go by to lessen the shock of $60 being drained from my bank account :P

[EZCheez]

I more or less make payments on games and have them paid off long before. It's much easier on the wallet, and it's how I got about 10 games for my PS3 including Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 in November and December alone, and didn't even break a sweat.

The "Great Game Drought of 2007" gave me plenty of time to pay off every single pre-order I had.

[PimpHandHappy]

i traded in a bunch of games to get the rumble and i had credit left over to pay in full

GT5
GTA4

i also put money on MGS and got that beta key

but yea

most times you can find the game without much issue. GTA4 might be different

[Silellak]

Keep in mind, pre-ordering is probably more useful if you wanted a Limited/Collector's Edition of a game. If you just want the standard version, it's significantly less useful.

I still have to decide if I want the Collector's Edition of GTA4 or not...

[Marceles]

I think it's harder to get the standard versions and alot of the limited versions are gonna be left available, at least thats what I think for MGS4 and GTA4...they just wanna play the game and not have the extra clutter.

I preorder games online also just in case idiots start camping out while I'm at work and by the time I get off, even though I pre-ordered it there's no more copies available...it's happened to me before, so I just have it shipped to my job.

[jaaz]

But living in a large metro-area, I've seen local gaming stores completly run out of copies of highly-anticipated games. In fact, as I recall, it happened down here in South Florida when GTA III was released....

While it's probably true that I could find a copy of GTA IV on launch day at SOME store, why would I want to drive all over town looking for a store that hasn't run of copies? I'd rather pre-order, pick-up the game, go home and ummm... play the game.

[killtheaquitted]

I wrote the article and I live in Chicago. I think that qualifies for a large urban area. Also, its easier to get a game in large areas because of how many stores there are. If you live in a one stoplight town you might be SOL, but here Gamestops are on almost every corner, let alone every other retailer that sells games.

[jaaz]

However, that still doesn't explain why you would want to risk having to drive from store to store looking for GTA IV on April 29th instead of putting down $5 measly bucks at the store closest to you.

[BrianC6234]

What a dumb opinion piece. I preorder plenty of games but just the games I want right away. I preordered my DS3 controller and GT5P as well as GTAIV LE and MGS4. I want all of them right away. I will be buying them at the Gamestop across from where I live so that part doesn't matter. I don't know why this garbage even gets posted here. I guess they'll let people post anything on this site now.

[Dio1080]

Yeah, it may seem that it is pointless to pre-order, but, just like madden and other games, if you want the game that night before the day it comes out, you must have it pre-ordered or you wont get your copy till they open up the next day. Its not a big deal, but rather have it now and get it out of the way instead of waiting till u get off work and dealing with rush hour traffic.

[Ares84]

...and if you don't preorder your game here you probably won't be able to get your hands on it 3-4 weeks after it's release. Especialy when we are talking about a high profile game like GTA4.
Also preordering can get you some cool stuff. Like I got into MGO beta by preordering MGS4. I also got a hard cover book for Viking when I preordered it.
There are other cool stuff that you get for free if you preorder...it's not a waste of time. No sir!!

@EDIT: to all that disagrees LOL !! You probably never been to NYC anyways!

[bootsielon]

Stores usually have the game, and if they don't, I can wait a day or two if there isn't another store around. I refuse to let companies salvage interest off of my money

[THC CELL]

this game is worth a pre order in the uk and euro
stocks are running out quick

Campers seen as well in some parts of the world

[PikkonX]

$5 isn't going to break the wallet and it's not like you're paying any extra for the game than you usually would. I agree that the big name games don't usually sell out completely nowadays, but during the N64 era it would be a disaster trying to get certain games on the release date if you didn't pre-order (especially the wrestling games).

[crck]

but for older people with cars who can drive to any of 20-30 stores that carry games in a 15-20 mile radius it is pointless unless goodies are included. I usually wait a couple of days before the release of the game and see which store is offering the best deal. If everyone is charging retail I just order on online or wait. I ain't down to pay no $66 for 1 game.

[neogeo]

I went to pick uo RE4 for gamecube and they told me they were pre order out for the next 2 days. I waited 2 days and came back only to be told they just sold out again!

I don't like the nerdy/pushy gamestop employees forcing the pre orders down my throat, but what can you do? I also enjoy pay off games before they hit the store, Like Uncharted, I stooped by every week and put extra money down into the game into it was paid off weeks before it came out. On launch day I cruzed on in the store and got my game without even opening my wallet. (very VIP as everyone looked at me wondering why I did not pay anything)

[Gorgon]

This article is only partially correct. I pre-order from amazon; that means I ONLY pay the game when it is shiped AND I pay no pre-order fee AND I buy it for 16% less.

No waste of time or money at all.

EDIT: funny that someone disagrees with me. I stated FACTS not opinions.

[Adamalicious]

What's their logic?

Spending 1 minute pre-ordering a game = waste of time, spending 100+ hours playing that game = not a waste of time?

[JVC06]

I work in a games store and the way its goin any1 who hasnt pre ordered GTA IV probs wont get a copy on release day. We get allocated the pre orders first then if theres any copies in the company not pre ordered they are shipped to the different stores.
As a company we have already hit pre order limit for PS3 (with 360 soon to follow) so if u dont have a pre order then you will have to go elsewhere. Ive heard Gamestation and Game have stopped taking pre orders so it must be the same everywhere.
At the moment our store has 59 PS3 pre orders and 116 on 360!

[Lord Vader]

I'd say for big releases like GTA IV, MGS4 & Gears 2, preordering is a very wise move. I mean, why not if u know u r going 2 buy it anyway ???

Plus alot of preorders get special stuff even on the "regular" game order = I got a hat for Dark Sector, an Art book for DMC4, & 2 extra weapons via a code for A02.

[Fux4Bux]

If you're ordering online then yeah it's a good idea but as for in store preorders unless it's a hugely popular game like Halo3 or GTA4 then yeah it's totally pointless. I have no idea why people preorder anything at Gamestop when there's just going to be tons of games on the shelves of any store.

[Hitster]

I like pre-orders just because many times they give you cool swage, like the Unreal Anthology.

[CaliGamer]

If you do get out to the store in the morning when the games are released then it might be easy to get some of the extra copies they have, as I would do when I was in school because I went to school in the afternoon so I could get to the store nice and early.

But I have had instances when games sell out are they only have reserved copies so for me reserving beats having to drive around town to find a copy of a game when you can put down $5 dollars at gamestop and be guaranteed a copy even if you get off of work late. Most of the time the argument made here might be right but it's a case of wanting to risk it or not. The game stop is the closest place to me here in LA so I lose nothing by reserving the game at the place I would probably get it at anyway.

[The Wood]

I have my shop, They KnoW the deal plus I always get games early before the rat races start. You should of seen the queue's of people lining up for an early copy of pro evo for the ps3, ps2 and 360. I had to take video footage. Later that night I saw the midnight launch queue in Asda, wtf, it was nuts

[PimpHandHappy]

this stuff gets posted because thats what this site is. You dont have ppl getting a weekly paycheck to give out gaming info here. Thats why you see flaimbate from blogs and stuff show up. A real gaming website/company wont use blogs to start debates

atleast not from what ive seen

this is a site where the ppl that visit it are also some of the ones that find the stories

all be it sometimes its not really a story to anyone but the person posting it

[RoseSapphire]

Wow, someone doesn't know what they are talking about. I know when I was on the customer side of the fence I thought the idea of pre-ordering was stupid. There was no incentive other than the occasional demo (which begged the question why the demo wasn't handed out prior to pre-orders in the hopes that it would attract more people) and I had rarely if ever come across a game I wasn't able to get. Then again, I'm a hardcore gamer and I knew well in advance which games I wanted and when I needed to be in the store to get them.

Now that I work in a game retailer I see the benefit to pre-orders. From the business perspective, both for the game store and for the publisher, pre-orders are an estimation of the demand. If there is a small niche title on the way and three people pre-order it the store is likely to get 5-6 copies, but on the other hand if no one pre-orders there is a significant chance that only one copy might arrive or none at all.

Further, publishers have been offering more for pre-orders, which I see as a good thing. It gives collectors and real fans something to look forward to, either a bonus disk of some sort or a little collectible item. Incentive always helps.

Obviously this isn't as big of an issue for large titles like Grand Theft Auto, but does still have an impact on the number of copies an individual store is going to receive and it takes pressure off of the store by having customer orders ready to go.

Besides, lets face it everyone. It costs you absolutely nothing to reserve a game. If you know you are going to buy it or are just curious to try out the demo of something, putting $5-10 down isn't going to hurt you. It goes towards paying off the game AND is fully refundable if you decide you don't want it.

So how is this in any way a bad thing?

[Grown Folks Talk]

...

[Jdoki]

Spot on...

[PSWe60]

I've only pre-ordered MGS4 and Soul Calibur IV

[mrlokievil]

Sure some you will be able to find a lot of bigger games on release day if you don't preorder but why both risking it? I like having a guaranteed copy waiting for me so I don't have to rush to the store and hope they have it. Plus, I don't want to have to check multiple stores.

[cr33ping_death]

i do it simply for the fact of not having to drive everywhere, in most cases they do only receive the orders for people who pre ordered and the left overs are the ones they sell. i like to pre order and be guaranteed my copy from the place one block from my place and not have to go farther down say to.... target or best buy

[f789790]

I really dont mind waiting two days to walk in to a store and right back out with it.

[Deios]

Is never a waste of time. I preorder all the big title games like Metal Gear, Mario Kart, GTA IV etc. etc. I think is a waste of time if you DON'T preorder it. For expample, look at those people that are camping outside stores just to get a hold of a game, console, etc. Now THAT is a waste of time.

[cr33ping_death]

i agree buddy.... the only thing i have ever camped out for is my launch 60 gb baby :)and that was camping out for the ability to pre order :) that was crazy.

[Grown Folks Talk]

Not too long ago, there was an article here with everyone B'ing & moaning about GameStop screwing people & how pre ordering was a scam. Now it's all good. Hypocrisy4Gamers never ceases to amaze me.

[Jdoki]

Wow, what an enlightening article!! I didn't realise I was being such a chump by simply going to a website, pre-ordering a game, and then waiting for it to drop through the letterbox on launch day!!

I'll know in future to drive in to town, push past the snot nosed kids asking the condescending employee a million Pokemon related questions, to find a game that will probably... but not definitely... be on the shelf. Then I'll enjoy queueing up to pay behind the parents asking the same condescending employee whether GTAIV, Condemned 2 and Gears of War are suitable for their screaming 8 year old brat!!

Good times!

[Pshann1]

I just paid for my copy in full a month ago because i had the money to do it then. I might not have the money on April 29, then that would suck.

[Cerberus_Hunter]

If it's a big release like GTA4, i think is worth pre-odering.

[DolphGB]

There are lots of benefits for publishers, retail outlets and distributors as it helps them all with their supply-chain management.

In the UK, this benefit is passed on to the customer by many retailers as they offer bonuses for pre-ordering.

For example, GAME UK will give you double the reward points on their loyalty card, so you can save more money on future purchases than you would have.

Pre-ordering is here to stay and it's a worthwhile exercise. And no, I've never paid more pre-ordering a title than I would have by getting in-store - the costs are identical.

[machete squad steve]

A gaming ritual which says "I am a rabid fan of this title", and I will show support just short of those tards camping out for two weeks.

Plus the extra swag they give to pre-orders is nice.

[EZCheez]

Your explanation better.

[KingItachi]

I don't have to pre-order any games I know 4 game stores I can go into on April 29 and get GTA.

[Frances-the-Mute]

i wasted my time reading that article...thanks alot

[Covenant]

If there's a premium to be had--such as the cool T-shirt I got for pre-ordering Gears of War--then I'll do it. Otherwise, I won't bother.

[Scenarist]

I just gotta say that this is bullsh

When san andreas came out i had bought 5 preorders on seperate reciepts ,,,and sold the preorder reciepts to customers who couldnt get a copy for 15 -20bux each depending on what they had.

so yea i got my copy reserved and a couple extras that i can easily refund if they DO have exta copies. Im pretty sure they will be more prepared this year but i got extras just in case.

[Crazyglues]

Nothing Special ... - http://boardsus.playstation...

They continue to the next page 5

[N2NOther]

Your editorial is 100% correct....for launch day. GTA IV will sell out on day one and a typical reserve is for 48 hours. So, provided you can't get to the store launch day, it insures that you'll have a copy the next day. I work at a Gamestop and I can't tell you how many people were turned away during the second day of Rainbow Six Vegas 2's availibility. Why? Because they didn't have a reserve. And that's R6v2. A game that, while popular, is nothing but a microbe to GTA IV.

So while it is possible to get a copy on launch day, this game will sell out and having a reserve guarantees that while others are going from store to store looking for it, all you have to do is show up and get your game. Plus, it's only $5.

[ReBurn]

There are going to be millions of copies of GTA IV available on launch day. That game is not going to sell out. Rockstar would be turning away money otherwise.

Games just do not sell out like they used to.

[Grown Folks Talk]

you'd always be able to find a game. Once the game is ready for mass production, you only have so much time. There will be millions of copies day 1. There will also be millions of people that want it day 1.

[sumfood4u]

Most of the time when u preorder the book comes a week laters on most fighting/action games! I preorder anything with Final Fantasy on it period. Gamespot gave awaymy preorder of Naruto ultimate ninja 3 & i put $10 down so its not really 100% safe!

[etownone]

never a good reason to preorder for two reasons:

1. games dont tend to sell out like consoles.

2. i usually look at the deals for the week of release, all the big stores usually compete and offers extras if you buy the game at their store. ex. when i bought call of duty 4 at circuit city they gave me cod3 for free. when i bought r6v2 at circuit city they game me a bunch of extras, toys are us gave me mario galexy with $25 gift card.

but if you feel better making two trips to the store, one to preorder, and one to pick it up, then thats your choice.

[Grown Folks Talk]

you reserve during the purchase of something else. Sometimes people come in just to reserve something, but more often it's in addition to buying something else. Or, they don't see anything they want to buy at the moment, & they choose to reserve something they know is coming down the road.

[ReBurn]

The only game I ever had trouble finding a copy of on release day was Dead Rising, and I think that's because Capcom underestimated the demand. Every highly anticipated game I've wanted since then has been available in droves on the first day. There were literally dozens of copies everywhere of Madden 08, Assassins Creed, Uncharted, Mario Galaxy, Halo 3 and Brawl. The only one I can think of that really was in short supply was the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3.

[PSh1t3]

Hahahaha. I just changed my mind. F*ck preordering. Might be close, however. So many ppl want the 360 version. Sure as hell know the droids don't need to LOLOLOL.

[dfire1212]

alot of the gamestops around by me still have a sh1t load of preorders left

[Ali_The_Brit]

what this guys forgetting is, who the hell botheres to pre-order instore?. i pre-order ONLINE, its £10 cheaper, free delivery, and 90% of the time i get the game (unless its extremly high profile) the day before its even released. i pre-order EVERY game its the way to go.

[level 360]

Never had any problems pre-ordering games, you get you're name on their lists' and also a fairly good discount at that.

That's how it should work, it's all about the *lists' - you have to ask for the *lists', if you're names not on it you buy the game at full price.

[DarkRayneRules]

I pre-order all my games. Saves me not having money when they come out, then trying to get a copy of it later. Plus I like the store I get my games off, :) I'm happy to guarantee them sales. Plus if a game gets banned or the price drops, you feel like you're actually getting money. I will pre-order until I die. :P

[AngryTypingGuy]

I never pre-order. If Gamestop doesn't have it, then Best Buy will. If I could walk in during the evening hours of Halo 3's launch and pick up a copy, then I'll be fine for any game that comes out.

I remember when Bioshock came out, I walked into Best Buy to pick it up, and they had stacks upon stacks of the game sitting on a table.

[JASC]

Good thing I live in a reasonably small city in Belgium, I don't have to pre order anything. Hell, I'd be surprised if there was a queue.

[DFresh]

It's a waste of time because sometime the developers delay the game and then you have to re reserve it again.