Post by Eorl @ 04:53pm 08/08/14 | 21 Comments
"You guys can see the same thing we see industry-wide, which is that there's been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to preorders," he explained. "We think that's happening due to a number of factors: Things like increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles; titles being widely available on day one; and the decline overall for demand of software on the previous gen consoles."
Hirschberg also mentioned that pre-orders should no long be used as the gold standard of whether a product will sink or swim, saying that "it's also important to sort of reset expectations as it relates to preorders overall." Other measures such as awareness of social word of mouth or purchase intent can help gauge the potential interest of a game, rather than pre-order numbers.
It is somewhat ironic that this has come from Activision, who during their financial report revealed that Bungie's Destiny is already setting records for its high number of pre-orders. Hirschberg even notes the high sale of pre-orders himself, noting that Destiny has the highest amount of purchase intent and awareness of any new IP ahead of its release.
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Posted 04:58pm 08/8/14
Posted 05:21pm 08/8/14
Personally i wait until games hit the bargain bin as i feel the initial price is exorbitant
Posted 05:31pm 08/8/14
Posted 05:45pm 08/8/14
Posted 06:19pm 08/8/14
Posted 06:21pm 08/8/14
Posted 09:51pm 08/8/14
Tough call.
Posted 10:26pm 08/8/14
pre-order then have expansions for sale on day one is not how you look after pre-orders
Posted 12:55am 09/8/14
Never again.
Posted 01:38am 09/8/14
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars here. Also never again.
Posted 07:55am 09/8/14
As was already mentioned if there's 'limited supply' (not limited edition... which I still find laughable as a 'concept' in digitally delivered content....) I might physically pre-order something, but as I'm moving from physically purchasing games more and more I have pre-ordered a great deal less.
I also 'pre-purchase' some steam games (very few). I'm SUPER keen for Alien: Isolation and saw it @ $49USD when it launched the other day. I snapped it up. I could have waited, or picked it up from GMG or the like, but knowing I was getting it on steam, at the non-inflated price (I'm looking at you now Far Cry 4... (was $49US, is now $75US to AU customers...)) Having seen the production diaries, I'm ok with this.
I doubt anyone responding to this thread is surprised by that statement... I think the likes of Kickstarter has shaped how games are being made. In conjunction with the digital distribution, there really isn't a need to 'pre-order' unless it is for some sort of pre-release perk, or in the case above 'securing it at a suitable price'.
Posted 08:24am 09/8/14
So it would take something pretty special for me to pre-order in the future.
Sorry big publishing houses, but when you rush a game out the door and it is balls, or mis-represent a game during hype, you pretty are just saying 'f*** you' to your customers and future sales.
Posted 09:37am 09/8/14
For games like World of Warcraft and their expansions, I'm more than happy to pre-order because I know the developer and I know the quality. Sure, that isn't to say there won't be screw ups, just look at D3's launch. It definitely isn't safe to say pre-order based on developer, but for the most part I'll pre-order a game like Warlords of Draenor because I'm at least guaranteed something of quality.
Posted 10:15am 09/8/14
Posted 10:24am 09/8/14
Posted 11:05am 09/8/14
This is my philosophy also. Either that or ozgameshop for a better deal if I'm in a hurry.
Posted 06:19pm 09/8/14
Posted 11:05am 10/8/14
As usual, TB has some nice points about this...
Posted 12:25pm 10/8/14
The Diablo 3 launch from the highly esteemed Blizzard was a bollocked up launch and pretty much made high quality pre-purchase irrelevant. If Blizzard can stuff it up, any company can.
With the increasing sophistication of building hype it gets harder and harder to get strong evidence a game will actually be of high quality on release. The above example of Aliens Colonial marine, it looked fantastic, however it was balls.
So yeah, nothing is guaranteed now. About the only thing that will make me consider pre-orders if there is a free to play pre-release demo. If the demo plays well, then perhaps I'll pre-order.
Basically the only thing that will convince me of pre-ordering is hands-on playing of the game, by me. OR the pre-order price is significantly reduced to take into account the risk of buying a dud.
Since we know that the significantly reduced price isn't going to happen, we can only hope for old-skool demoing. Which I think will start to happen again. Some companies will start doing it, see their pre-orders pick up (providing the game is actually good) which will have flow on effects.
I hope anyway.
Kick-starter is similar to pre-orders except, in general, the price of the product reflects the risk of a dud. Usually you can get in for a digital copy for ~$15, much better than $69.95 pre-order.
last edited by Tollaz0r! at 12:25:46 10/Aug/14
Posted 12:59pm 10/8/14
Posted 01:32pm 10/8/14
8-)