pre-ordering works conviniently for me actually
because i live in europe almost always they are released on US before it is here
and that way i just pre-order if it's interesting enough
or alternatively i will get a import version
like i did with P4G.

now with Ni No Kuni i knew it was going to be great
so i wasn't all that worried and just pre-ordered it

I'll always pre-order. It takes away one less thing to deal with. Pre-order on Amazon then you're done. The next step is the game simply arrives.

I don't see why preordering is bad or why you felt the need to write an article about it.

Some companies offer nice perks for preordering. BB offered 20 credit on Dead Space 3, GTA V, Metal Gear Rising, Bioshock and several more. While you do have to wait for the credit to get posted to your account, you're also free to get a PRICE ADJUSTMENT if it drops. So you could easily make another 10+ from that and even break even / make a profit if you trade / sell your copy. Amazon also offered some X credit for Y game offers too.

In addition to this, plenty of games / editions went on to be VERY rare and nearly impossible to obtain without preordering. Sure it's a roll of a die, but still I rather over pay for a series I love / item I really want / whatever other reason I have than risk missing out / paying absurd markup.

Besides what we get as a consumer, preorder numbers give companies DATA they can use to anticipate popularity. It is unlikely we would have saw the Rayman Legends fiasco if the preorder numbers were higher, just like we're more likely to see quality DLC if the numbers are higher. These figures represent the faith the consumer has in the product, which is important.

Well if I didn't pre order Fire Emblem I doubt I could have gotten a physical copy for the ussual amount; I mean it's still 60$ on amazon

everything has it's ups and downs

I got all my bad game purchases out of the way in the NES-SNES era.

Newegg usually has deals where you can preorder any game for $47 and pay when it ships. I have all the major titles of this year I want only and already preordered there just because I am saving money and shipping is free.

I preordered BL2 for $30, it still cost $60 and $30 on deals and its Febuary now. I got a free $10 dlc to and some preorder stuff. Not every game isn't worth preordering.

There is no reason to pre-order unless it just comes with something amazing you can only get one time....In my 30 years of gaming I have never had a problem buying on day 1.

not a good idea preording that alien game!

All pre-ordering does is encourage developers to leave content out of games to offer as incentive, causing more and more games to become disparate. Online games especially are showing imbalance between the haves and have nots. ONE game ONE price ONE playerbase. NO to preorder crap NO to (PAID) DLC crap held back on purpose. What happened to rewarding loyal paying customers for the fact they actually BOUGHT the game regardless of paying more and more for DLC or giving money in advance for a game with zero reviews or user feedback.

It's a trend that needs to stop (along with purposely held back day one payable DLC) to bring back the quality of games for the player! ALl these modern 'incentives' are nothing more than cash grabs for the publishers and pull the wool over gullible player's eyes.

IMO ;)

if i didnt preorder Fire Emblem on 3DS, i wouldve had a b*%#& of a time finding the physical copy...

"Never?"

Fail.

Any game I want to play day one is ALWAYS worth it. And MOST games, I wanna play day one, if I want to play them.

Sure, I'd rather save money. I'm not fond of spending my hard-earned cash. But one of the benefits of pre-ordering is that you can do it months ahead of time and put money down whenever.

There are probably some good reasons to NOT do it, but just because you're not fond doesn't mean there's NEVER a reason.

This article should be titled "Why Buying Games On Day 1 Is Never A Good Idea" (although I would disagree with it anyway). The author doesn't seem to know that you can always cancel a pre-order.

Hmm... my Gamestop let's me shift my money to another game pre-order or outright purchase if I decide not to buy a game after all, even well after it releases. I have plenty of time to look at reviews and reception. There's only the benefits of guaranteeing a copy and bonuses if they exist. Plus I pay $5 less later.

I'm not really losing anything, in my case.