Recently, many people on the internet have given an opinion about preordering games, and they are all negative.
Crave Online
Rock paper shotgun
Polygon
Forbes
Kotaku
While I agree that you shouldn't really preorder anything that you aren't waiting like the second coming of the Messiah, I find the level of entitlement of the players just disgusting. If you ask how the gaming industry is going, they will tell you "it's shit because idiots preorder games!", forgetting about everything else. I've followed groups and image boards, and with the GTA V preorders there are thousands of posts online saying how dumb those people are and how they are "ruining the market".
Let's talk about this, shall we?
First off, I should mention that I don't usually preorder games. Out of 100+ games I have on my Steam library, I have preordered just two: Magic 2014 and Age of Mythology EX. As soon as both games became available, I immediately played the shit out of them until my eyes bleed. I also got free cards on Magic 2014 and a discount on AoM EX. Considering that my intention was to buy them on day one anyway, preordering 2-3 weeks before release was an advantage.
But what are the pros/cons of preordering a game?
For a physical copy of the game, you usually get a gadget. They can be crap (Alan Wake's torch) or pretty good (Pokémon HG/SS statues). They usually don't offer a discount, but if you are going to buy the game on day-one anyway and you are interested in the crap they will be giving you for free, why not preorder?
For a digital copy of the game you don't get the same gadgets of physical preorders, obviously. They offer you additional content for free (usually crappy skins for the characters) and/or a discount. Again, if you are going to buy the game on day-one anyway, why not saving up?
Maybe it's because I rarely preorder games, but if I see a game I'm REALLY interested in, and I am sure that I am going to play the shit out of it on day-one, I'm going in. On top of that Steam, Origin and Uplay (maybe GOG too?) offer the possibility to download the preordered games so you don't have to wait more in order to download the dozens of GB your next adventure is going to be.
What about the cons? People against this practice whine about "ruining the market" by giving money to developers they haven't earned yet. They also mention that you shouldn't buy a game full price if it is going to get in a sale months after.
Whoever thinks that preorders are the cause of the gaming industry getting worse is a fool. They really are. Because the REAL problems that are affecting videogames are others, and plenty, and they don't want to address those, because they are into those problems themselves, 99% of the times.
Paying for Early-Access games or games that haven't been worked on at all yet (Steam Greenlight/Kickstarter)
There's nothing wrong with supporting a game that's in development or an idea of a game that needs money in order to get made. But when the "game in development" is an obvious money-grab and the Kickstarter project comes from the "test the market first, then we work on it", then there are dozens of problems. First, by purchasing a Pre-Alpha game, you are purchasing a Pre-Alpha game. This means that you are buying a demo now for something that maybe will be complete in a year or two. Isn't this worse than preordering games? Steam Greenlight has had many issues from developers who promised everything but then disappeared after enough money were made. And while Kickstarter has some sort of promise that the game will be complete, you don't even get a Pre-Alpha! All you get is a RELEASE DATE for a PRE-ALPHA! Crazy, right? Kickstarter used to be for people with an idea in mind and a place where they can ask early purchases/donations in order to make it happen, but lately it has been field for a marketing test and greedy people in order to get more money than they really need "We need 20k€ to make this game BUT DONATE 200K€ TO GET A <insert console name> VERSION!".
Paying for unfunny, "joke" games
BSOD simulator, grass simulator... they are all jokes. Unfunny jokes. But they stop being jokes when the people behind them actually want to sell them. This is the era of the internet where people feel entitled to make a comedy out of everything. But when they want to sell them, then no. They aren't "joking", they are selling something, so they should be counted when it comes to Early-Access games. After a few of these unfunny jokes became popular, places like Steam Greenlight got flooded with people thinking to be funny when, in reality, all they want is to make money easily. And who cares if they are ruining a service, right?
Piracy
"B-BUT VIPERA! THIS KEWL USER WROTE A POST ABOUT HOW PIRACY DOES NOT AFFECT THE INDUSTRY!" I don't care if an user wrote it or Bill Gates: playing games without paying the price is WRONG. You can argue all you want that so far piracy didn't even scratch the majority of big titles, and I could counter that by saying that small developers are more afflicted and don't get enough money for next games (and for a good reason, if all you hear from people with a flashcard when a new, unusual game comes out is "I'm not paying for this game lol", even if they play it and finish it), but with the internet it is getting a lot more easy and popular. And developers don't want to invest on a console where you can easily download their game from the internet and play it for free. That's why they have huge DRM teams and that's why they can get annoying. GOG has a cool concept and I respect them for it, but don't get surprised if people online think to be smart by creating torrents with the whole GOG library into it. If the game has a DRM the excuse is "I don't want to deal with this so I pirate". If the game doesn't have a DRM the excuse is "why bother when I can have it for free?". Of course, this can't ruin the industry at all.
Waiting for sales all the time
I'm going to need an example here. Let's say that Ubisoft releases Rayman 4 on Steam alone. It has a new concept, but it's still a 2D platform like Origins and Legends. The price is 39,90€.
We'll get two kinds of main group: the first is interested about the game and will buy it at that price, and the second is interested as well but will wait for the game to drop below 4,90€ while making fun of the "idiots" who bought the game full price.
By purchasing games that are always on >-66% discounts, you are giving developers less money. A lot less, in fact. The second group is getting bigger and many games don't see sales until they get a discount. Or when they get themselves to Humble Bundle.
This is considered a "smart" purchase. It is, for the short-term. But what are you going to do when developers will prefer consoles over PC? If I sell my game of Rayman 4 on PS4 with an average of 30€ and I also sell it on PC for 10€, where am I going to make my next game? And keep in mind that, like piracy, PC gaming is growing very fast and one day releasing a game on PC won't get any major selling unless you give it a -66% discount on DAY-ONE. All this while many developers just move on and changed job to one with more revenue.
Isn't this ruining the market? Discounts should be made in order to get people interested in the game that they weren't going to get anyway. They shouldn't be the final offer everyone will get, while making fun of the real supporters who bought the game full price.
These are the problems with the industry, and those people don't want to address them. Because early access games are kewl, unfunny jokes you must purchase are funneh, piracy is not affecting anything and steam is good and almighty gaben our savior etc. So they had to find another excuse. How about we start looking at things with the right point of view instead of going to shout at the fans who preorder games "it's your fault!"?
And I get it, there are people who preorder everything and then never play the game. But honestly, between the group who buys preorders full-price all the time and anybody from the list I just did, which one do you think is the biggest?
