Stop pre-ordering games.

[Travesty]

This video makes some great points on why we need to stop pre-ordering these games, when they keep releasing broken/buggy/glitchy games. I totally agree with this, and I'm done pre-ordering. I'm almost done with getting a game on day 1 altogether. If I hear the game doesn't work, I'm not even going to bother with it.

*this doesn't apply to Nintendo, as they never release broken games.

[YT]yrc-YxG3-Gk[/YT]

 

[HauntedKnight]

This video makes some great points on why we need to stop pre-ordering these games, when they keep releasing broken/buggy/glitchy games. I totally agree with this, and I'm done pre-ordering. I'm almost done with getting a game on day 1 altogether. If I hear the game doesn't work, I'm not even going to bother with it.

*this doesn't apply to Nintendo, as they never release broken games.

[YT]yrc-YxG3-Gk[/YT]

Games have always been broken. I still remember having the glitched No Mercy on N64 that would erase everything periodically. No game is ever perfect.

I haven't watched the video, but I know from my own experience that most of the times the devs at least patch games into working. Sure, nothings ever perfect, but for $60 I get years worth of work from the devs. As long as they keep giving incentives for pre-ordering, I'll keep doing it. Should some of these already be in the game? Sure, but welcome to 2014.

 

[Soapy]

Games have always been broken.

Revisionist history.

Have there been broken games released before? Of course. However, what used to be rare in the past has become commonplace over the last two years. So much so that it's become the rule rather than the exception. It's gotten to the point where you can reliably expect nearly every AAA game to launch in some kind of a busted state. It's a pleasant surprise now when a game isn't broken.

That's ****ing unacceptable and it needs to change.

 

[Havok83]

With the exception of digital games, you can always cancel a preorder, so I don't see why people should stop doing them.

Revisionist history.

Have there been broken games released before? Of course. However, what used to be rare in the past has become commonplace over the last two years. So much so that it's become the rule rather than the exception. It's gotten to the point where you can reliably expect nearly every AAA game to launch in some kind of a busted state. It's a pleasant surprise now when a game isn't broken.

That's ****ing unacceptable and it needs to change.

common in the last 2 years? Id disagree with that. Its still rare, but seems to have been exaggerated bc we got a string of 3 high profile releases within the span of a month this fall with major issues (which still haven't been completely resolved)

 

[Thundercrack85]

Preordering a digital game just seems crazy to me. Unless you're filthy rich.

 

[MadVillainy]

Preordering a digital game just seems crazy to me. Unless you're filthy rich.

Yeah that means silly and pointless. It's not like theyre gonna run out of the game.

But to whoever wants to do that more power to ya. I just cant see me doing it

 

[Silvermoth]

I was going to say I wanted to preorder toad treasure tracker but I see you already beat me to it

 

[Havok83]

Yeah that means silly and pointless. It's not like theyre gonna run out of the game.

But to whoever wants to do that more power to ya. I just cant see me doing it

People do it for the preorder incentives (discounts, DLC) and/or to have it ready to go on launch (preinstall) which is especially useful for large files that take a long time to download

 

[HauntedKnight]

Revisionist history.

Have there been broken games released before? Of course. However, what used to be rare in the past has become commonplace over the last two years. So much so that it's become the rule rather than the exception. It's gotten to the point where you can reliably expect nearly every AAA game to launch in some kind of a busted state. It's a pleasant surprise now when a game isn't broken.

That's ****ing unacceptable and it needs to change.

I agree that I wish things weren't as broken sometimes, but think about what is USUALLY broken and that is online. When you have to stand up and manage hundreds of servers you can only test so much internally. You can't tell what it's going to be like when millions of people start playing a game on different providers, locations, etc. Sure it's a pain, but it's almost unavoidable.

We are no longer in the generation of a 700MB PS1 disc (which still had tons of glitches), but rather 50-60GBs of data and a majority of the gameplay being networked online. Thinking about it, every time a game does come out it's a miracle we live in a computing age that this is possible. Think about the scaling of just what needs to be done to make a game in 2014. All of that aside, we still are able to get patches. Thank God for that. It's a great time to be a gamer. NASA messes up too... Humans and humans.

 

[Havok83]

I agree that I wish things weren't as broken sometimes, but think about what is USUALLY broken and that is online. When you have to stand up and manage hundreds of servers you can only test so much internally. You can't tell what it's going to be like when millions of people start playing a game on different providers, locations, etc. Sure it's a pain, but it's almost unavoidable.
.

Thats what betas are for. The 3 big offenders this fall, ACU, Drive Club and Halo, all failed to have public betas. The results were disastrous connectivity problems upon launch. ACU, itself however had even bigger issues, which extended beyond that. You didnt see Destiny (which is online only) have those issues bc they made sure to test extensively with multiple betas. It almost feels as if Evolution and 343 had gamers pay them to be beta testers

 

[HauntedKnight]

Thats what betas are for. The 3 big offenders this fall, ACU, Drive Club and Halo, all failed to have public betas. The results were disastrous connectivity problems upon launch. ACU, itself however had even bigger issues, which extended beyond that. You didnt see Destiny (which is online only) have those issues bc they made sure to test extensively with multiple betas. It almost feels as if Evolution and 343 had gamers pay them to be beta testers

Sure, I agree. However, from a dev standpoint you have 2 problems:

1) You need to have a team to stand up a beta. That's a lot of work. I do think they should invest in this regardless, but it's not always realistic.

2) Battlefield Hardline had a beta. Bored the hell out me, now I'm passing. It can hurt sales...

Ultimately you could argue what should and shouldn't be done, but dude they want your money. They keep getting it too. No amount of bugs, betas and non-preordering will have an established series fail miserably. Bugs aside, the games are still a blast in a lot of cases, that's all that matters to me as long as the issues do get addressed.

 

[TheVileOne]

No. Pre-orders are refundable.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I was pre-ordering well before it was the cool and hip thing to do. I pre-ordered God of War and Resident Evil 4 back in the day from a now long gone Sam Goody, and no one else I knew was even aware you could do stuff like that back then. So, nah, I won't stop. I'm cool with it.

 

[jonathancrane]

I cannot afford to buy many games when they are first released. However, the handful that I do purchase are pre-orders; the ones I splurge heavy $ for the Collector's Editions are ones that I know are going to be solid (Arkham Knight, Arkham City, Bioshock Infinite, etc.)

 

[TheVileOne]

Exactly. I think it's fine to pre-order games. If not, you do not have to.

If you have reservations about a game, you can hold off on the pre-order and read reviews and get it refunded. Pre-ordering is never going to stop and campaigning against it is a lost cause.

 

[Travesty]

Well, that's the point, you're just feeding into these companies churning out broken game after broken game. If the company already has the money from pre-orders, they don't care about releasing a broken game, they already have the money. They'll just worry about patching it at a later date.

And why some of you are fine with this, is beyond me.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Eh, well, there's a big assumption that the two things are mutually bound, and I'm not entirely sure this is the case. For AssCreed, was Unity's bugs and unfinishedness really because it had a lot of preorders, or was it more because it was rushed to market for an annual schedule because the franchise has become so popular? It's easy to point to preordering and say, 'Yep, this one thing is what kills everything', but really, I think there's much more to the issue than boiling it down to one single point.

 

[Havok83]

Well, that's the point, you're just feeding into these companies churning out broken game after broken game. If the company already has the money from pre-orders, they don't care about releasing a broken game, they already have the money. They'll just worry about patching it at a later date.

And why some of you are fine with this, is beyond me.

Companies dont already have the money from preorder (unless its digital) bc that isnt translated into an actual purchase until a game is picked up/shipped. All preorders do is allow companies to gauge how much to ship and retailers how much to stock.

 

[Travesty]

Eh, well, there's a big assumption that the two things are mutually bound, and I'm not entirely sure this is the case. For AssCreed, was Unity's bugs and unfinishedness really because it had a lot of preorders, or was it more because it was rushed to market for an annual schedule because the franchise has become so popular? It's easy to point to preordering and say, 'Yep, this one thing is what kills everything', but really, I think there's much more to the issue than boiling it down to one single point.

I definitely don't think this is the only reason, I do think it's a multifaceted issue, but I think it'll help show these developers that consumers are getting sick of blindingly buying these broken games. I think from now on, I'm waiting for ratings from any kind game now. No more day 1 purchases or pre-orders for me. Unless it's Nintendo. I was getting tired of it, but after this whole MCC thing, I'm done with it. And I'm definitly not buying another 343 game at retail. If I happen to get H5, it'll be a used copy.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well, that's the point, you're just feeding into these companies churning out broken game after broken game. If the company already has the money from pre-orders, they don't care about releasing a broken game, they already have the money. They'll just worry about patching it at a later date.

And why some of you are fine with this, is beyond me.

IMHO, it's an unrealistic and illogical leap to take. Developers and publishers don't get that much extra money from pre-orders.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I just saw that u can digitally preorder the Resident Evil REmake on the PS4 and youll have access to the ps3 version as well. I'm gonna go ahead and do that. I'll also preorder it on the Xbox one as soon as it's available to do so. I want that gsme on all my consoles.

 

[Havok83]

thats an odd preorder bonus which I really dont see as being much of an incentive

 

[KevanG]

That's why I stopped pre ordering from EA. I find the games they release are garbage therefore they no longer get my money. I almost never preorder games except for the very very few I want and they usually get ordered as a special item like a collectors edition or something.

I find I don't buy games much anymore and I do my research before getting them. That usually means waiting a few months for peoples reviews as opposed to companies like IGN.

 

[Iceman]

I'm only going to pre-order games that have earned it with their previous title. Destiny was a terrible mistake for me.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

I just deleted Destiny. Definitely my one regret this gen so far. I enjoyed it for a time but the refusal to add matchmaking to Raids and Strikes makes me morally against this game. Punishing players for not having 5 friends with the same schedule is not only ridiculous, but wrong.

But I have nothing against pre-ordering as a whole and I've pre-ordered many digital games this gen. If you know what you want, no need to wait.