Pre-orders have certainly changed. Growing up as a gamer in the 90s and early 2000s, pre-orders were just a way to ensure you were able to get a copy of the latest and greatest title on launch day.
Fast forward 20 years and pre-orders play a different and more pivotal role in a game's development and marketing. It is not uncommon to have games being announced that are more than a year away from release but at the end of the teaser you're being told to pre-order now! Come on...
It seems that publishers are actively pushing pre-orders since it's easy money that most gamers are only too happy to pay up. In this digital delivery world where PSN, Xbox Live, and Steam exist there is no need to "reserve" your copy if your going to just download the game. And even if you plan on purchasing the box product, when is the last time you've heard of a game (excluding special editions) being completely sold out? In store and online. Consoles, yes, that is understandable, but actual games being sold out and nowhere to be found seems very rare almost impossible in this digital age.
The major problem with this "pay way before you play" model is that it takes the incentive away from publishers to release a polished product. Yes, I know you can always cancel a pre-order, but as long as publishers can keep up the ruse of promising a game that gamers have had over a year to project their hopes on (I'm looking at you Watch Dogs). It is unlikely they will cancel their pre-order short of a horrible public relations event or extreme downgrade in game quality in terms of graphics or gameplay. And even then, many gamers will still not cancel pre-orders and just hope it turns out okay.
If we stop with all this pre-order madness, maybe publishers will be forced to polish the game and deliver what they promise instead of getting paid long before the game is even out. But the sad reality is that many of us will just take whatever they give us and downplay the broken promises to justify our purchase.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I haven't pre-ordered a game since MGS 4 came out. Don't see the point, these days games are pretty much the same price in stores like Tesco and Asda if not cheaper at times.
I think the fear of not getting a game at launch scares people into a pre-order or just sheer impatience. Watchdogs, Destiny, Last of Us and Diablo 3; I've strolled into a store and picked each of them up on my lunch break at work on day of release.