Good day, Steamgifts!
I want to chat with you over a cup of tea, coffee or another beverage of your choice, about a topic which I don't see directly addressed here. 🙃

Do you pre-order video games?
If you do, why do you choose to do this? Do you see any advantages in it? Is it to support some particular developer or publisher?
Talk about your experiences. And regardless of doing it or not, what's your opinion on the popular culture of pre-ordering?
I'm curious what you have to say.

I, for one, never do it because I don't see any advantage to pre-purchasing games, especially when it comes to purchasing on Steam or other digital platforms, where the acquisition of games isn't limited by number of copies available.
I'm also a bit skeptic of games until they came out and mostly like to wait for reviews of the game before purchasing.
Relevant picture below...

Update on the talk:

Many of you have answered my question and given your varied opinions on the topic. Thanks for joining.

My main curiosity was how much of our community supports the practice, but I found out much more.
Besides talking about pre-purchasing specifically, I have heard a lot of views on purchasing games in general and the particularities of certain games you guys enjoy supporting through pre-purchasing (in many of its forms, like crowdfunding or the usual pre-order through Steam).

The following thing is an opinion. Honestly in this debate no one can actually be wrong, just not as right. 😄

Many of you have pointed out an idea with which I agree:
Yes, it is much better from an individual buyer's standpoint to wait until a game reaches a big discount in order to purchase that game, even more so if that person already has a backlog filled with games waiting to be played in the meantime. You can't force someone not to do this, and if you want to save money it's the best choice.
But, I'm pretty sure the industry needs people to purchase games immediately after launch, otherwise it wouldn't function as it does.

With that in mind, I suggest to all of you (and I should do this myself from time to time) to invest a little more in games you pretty much know you will like, buying them early. That sort of thing keeps developers moving forward. 🙂

About pre-ordering them, I'm not so sure I'd suggest it even in that case. It's, again, beneficial from a personal point of view, but as some of you have said as well, I believe it affects the gaming industry at large in a negative way, showing publishers that pre-ordering is endorsed by us.
It's not an intrinsically bad thing, but it leaves a lot of space for abuse, and a bit of consumer skepticism is always good.

That's it, thanks.

Also, I've reached 1000 sent games, so cheers to that! ✌
Here are some more giveaways, since you guys seem to be loving these things.
I haven't prepared ahead, so there's no big special giveaway this time, just bundled things I had stacked over time, most of them from Humble.
I've made a table for your convenience.

Level requirement Name and giveaway link
   
Level 0 Beastiarium
Level 0 Hunahpu: way of the Warrior
Level 0 Steampunk Syndicate
Level 0 Turbo Pug
Level 0 Turbo Pug 3D
   
Level 1 Edge of Hearts
Level 1 Greenwood the Last Ritual
Level 1 It's Spring Again Collector's Edition
Level 1 Judas
Level 1 Sakura Beach
Level 1 Sakura Beach 2
   
Level 2 Bionic Commando
Level 2 Sakura Agent
Level 2 Sakura Angels
Level 2 Sakura Fantasy
Level 2 Sakura Spirit
Level 2 Tattletail
Level 2 The Corporate Machine
   
Level 3 HunieCam Studio
Level 3 Infested Planet
Level 3 Infested Planet - Trickster's Arsenal
Level 3 Rollers of the Realm
Level 3 Saints Row 2
Level 3 Sorcerer King: Rivals
Level 3 The Count Lucanor
Level 3 The Political Machine 2016
   
Level 4 Pale Echoes
Level 4 Remnants of Isolation
Level 4 RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry!
Level 4 RPG Maker VX Ace
Level 4 Screencheat
Level 4 The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
Level 4 The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Level 4 Wurm Unlimited
Level 4 Zeno Clash 2
   
Level 5 Borderlands: Game of the Year
Level 5 Hand of Fate
Level 5 Neon Chrome
Level 5 The Flame in the Flood
Level 5 Satellite Reign
   
💙 Guild of Dungeoneering *

Hope you enjoy the giveaways and that the level requirements are fair.

You can bump the thread even if you don't want to talk about it, but it's not necessary to do it just because you entered a giveaway. Feel free not to bump, keep the giveaways a secret in case you want more winning chances. 😉

*Let me know if you want to temporarily (or not, who knows) join my whitelist, in case you are really interested in playing Guild of Dungeoneering and want a shot at it. Just leave a comment if it's the case. Some other guys from my whitelist also had the game wishlisted, and it just happened to be lying around here.

Damn, I should've made a poll.

View attached image.
6 years ago*

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I only pre-order when it's an expension to a game I already play. Like the latest Guild Wars 2 expansion. I knew I was going to play it, so figured I'd get it all ready before. I don't think I'd pre-order a game I have no prior experience with. Haven't so far.

6 years ago
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That makes sense :). Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject!

6 years ago
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I'm only pre-order game once and it's Life of Strange if i remember. Well, my reason because the game is interesting at first knowing the game and since they offered to buy 1 episode only or all episodes. So in my thoughts why don't try buy one episodes or all episodes and if that a good one i'm gonna buy next one if theres another. Maybe i'm planning gonna buy another one game on november but since Steam unlock the game until the day release i cannot assume it's a pre order.

6 years ago
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I heard that's a good game nonetheless. :)

6 years ago
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bump , pre-order game?
I have bought some in ps4 or psv, it may give me some gifts.
In pc, I buy some pre-order game before 10 years.
I do not play so many game quickly.
So, I stop buy pre-order game, I only buy some game when I clear some backlog.(or buy some I promise to play)

6 years ago
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Yeah, the old PC pre-order was different from the digital current one. :)

6 years ago
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Congrats on 1000 sent games! I'm getting there. :)

I do not pre-order games anymore. I did a few times in the past, but now that I have so many games to play, I can't really justify the cost of pre-ordering. I can just be patient and wait to buy the game when it drops in price. Currently I'm waiting patiently for GTA V and Planet Coaster, among others.

6 years ago
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A lot of people here experience the same thing when it comes to massive backlogs. 😄
Wasn't GTA V at a pretty high discount last sale?

6 years ago
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I believe it's been $25 a few times, but I am waiting for $20 or maybe even less than $20 (if I can get it on Humble with my subscriber discount, for example).

6 years ago
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Oh, yeah. Seems like it's about 26$ right now on GamesPlanet UK, a reseller. And it's been to nearly 20 once, so it will probably drop soon enough. :)

6 years ago
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bump, i dont pre-order any game :),can i join on Guild of Dungeoneering ga its a very nice game :3

6 years ago
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that pic fhaushufasuhfasuhfuhasuhfasuh

6 years ago
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Well, if you're also willing play it in case you win, sure. 🙂

6 years ago
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if i win i will :)

6 years ago
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Cool. :)

6 years ago
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Bump! ^^

6 years ago
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Thanks again! :)

6 years ago
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You're welcome again! :D

6 years ago
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I rarely pre-order stuff, there's just too many games in my account to justify a bigger spending in something.

And I'm very interested in Guild of Dungeoneering. :)

6 years ago
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Okay, you can go ahead and enter the giveaway. ^^

6 years ago
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Thank you!

6 years ago
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Don't mention it. :)

6 years ago
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Actually I only preorder games that I know will be one of my favourites (like Portal 2, because I loved to play Portal) or if I want a special edition of it (like Gran Turismo an PS). Usually these turn out to be AAA titles.

But I don't think I'll ever preorder a game on steam, just for physical copies that I want.... Guess I'm still a little old school with wanting to have physical copies of my favourite games around

6 years ago
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Nah, physical copies are cool. I know we're moving towards a digital era, but I'd love to have a collection of those too. 🙂

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Uh-uh. :)
Yeah, I heard that game wasn't that well received by fans of Planescape: Torment... I don't know much about it, though, haven't played any myself... yet.

6 years ago
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I've actually heard really good things about Numenera from Planescape fans. That it's not as good as Planescape, certainly, but that it's still really good.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I've only pre-ordered four times - Left 4 Dead, Dragon Age 2, and Pillars of Eternity, and Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition.

I only played 5 hours of Left 4 Dead, and haven't touched Dragon Age 2 or Pillars of Eternity yet (though I plan to). I only pre-ordered Fire Emblem Fates SE because I was sure I would like it, that it would sell out, and it was the only way to get a physical cart of all three Fates campaigns.

I won't pre-order again unless it's something like Fates SE, where I'm sure I'll enjoy the game and there's no way to get it after release.

6 years ago
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Yeah, it's a 3DS game, makes sense. :)
Did you order boxed copies of the other games, or Steam? Just curious.
Thanks for answering, in any case. :)

6 years ago
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Steam and GOG. I do digital almost exclusively on PC at this point. I always joke that one of the upsides to my video game collecting is that at least it doesn't take up space. :) I mix physical and digital for consoles, depending on what has the better sale - except for 3DS, where I do almost exclusively physical. Since the 3DS eShop still ties purchases to the hardware, and my family has multiple 3DS consoles, it doesn't make sense to buy digital since we'd need to buy a seperate copy for each person, whereas we could share a single physical cart.

And if you want more info on my pre-orders:

My friend convinced me to pre-order Left 4 Dead a few days before it came out, so we could play together. We only played together for a few hours before he decided he didn't like playing with me, and started playing with random people online instead.

I pre-ordered Dragon Age 2 based on the strength of Dragon Age: Origins, and because you got extra DLC for free with the pre-order. Then life got busy, and I never got around to actually playing it. Oh, and most everyone else seemed disappointed with it, so there was that...

I backed Pillars of Eternity on Kickstarter (my one and only Kickstarter pledge) back when it was being pitched as "from the makers of Planescape: Torment" because I absolutely adored Planescape: Torment. It later became apparent that it was not the Planescape: Torment successor I was hoping for, which became even more obvious when Torment: Tides of Numanuma launched their Kickstarter. I've heard that Pillars is a great game in its own right, so I look forward to playing it - I've just been so busy the past few years that I haven't had the time. I've only recently been able to find time to start gaming on PC agian, and even that's limited to an hour or so a day.

6 years ago
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Woah. That's nice to know, thanks for providing so much info about it.
I've heard some people on Youtube say the same about Pillars of Eternity. I have purchased it as well, since I heard it's good in some ways, so I'm looking forward to playing it too. :)

By the way, I'm not doing a project or anything, just more of a case study, a personal curiosity, in case it seems weird I'm asking so many things from people. 😄

6 years ago
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No problem, I'm glad to have been of help.

I generally advocate everyone to avoid pre-orders, there's just no real benefit to it. You won't know whether the game is good or not until it releases - and recent AAA releases have shown that a studio's success on one game (or a series of games) does not necessarily translate to a success on the next. There's almost always a 10%+ off sale somewhere after release, which will quickly grown to an even bigger discount, so you don't lose anything by waiting. And you sometimes avoid a completely broken launch of a great game, giving them time to fix it.

The only time that I think pre-ordering is justified is when there's a limited edition that you think will sell out, such as the Fire Emblem Fates Special Edition - and that's only if you really, really want that limited edition.

But that's just me. Clearly the greater gaming public has no issues with tossing money at unproven pre-orders.

6 years ago
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That's very true, you've said it much better than I could manage to. :)
And yeah, it's weird how many people don't consider what they're doing when paying for things.

6 years ago
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Bump

6 years ago
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Thank you! :P

6 years ago
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NEVER preorder

Congrats on the sent games!
Bump!

6 years ago
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^^ thank you!

6 years ago
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sigh, I never preorder BUT I do kickstart (which is a form of pre-order, albeit a risky one!).

6 years ago
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Although there are cases where you won't ever see the game, I agree with Kickstarter more than AAA pre-purchasing. 😏

6 years ago
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Never have and probably never will preorder any game. It mostly feels "gambling", too risky. I wait to see gameplay videos from other people and sometimes the reviews.
Thanks for the great giveaways Quex :)

6 years ago
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I enjoy watching the reviews too, even though I most likely won't buy the game at launch because of monetary issues. 😅
You're very welcome! :)

6 years ago
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Preorder phisical is obvious because of the limited numbers (like the NES Mini or some 1st edition Amiibos). I never buy special editions so I'm fine not having extras like figures, metal cases or OST CDs.

Sometimes I'm tempted to preorder a digital game because of the preorder exclusive extras, but most of the time I prefer to wait and buy the game on sale. The discount is usually higher than what I'd pay for the extra items.
I think the only Steam game I preordered was FF XIII. I never played the console version, and the Steam release date matched the start of my vacation/holidays and since the game was like 60GBs and the game is so long (I wanted to go for 100% completion) I decided to preorder it (at 10% discount) because of the preload/pre-install function.

6 years ago
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Yeah, for physical copies it makes sense.
I didn't even know about the pre-load thing, sounds like you planned well. Does the pre-load include patches or day 1 updates? Not sure I understand how it works. :)

6 years ago
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Basically it lets you download a game a few days before the release of the game.
You can't play until it's officially released, but if you have a slow internet access or something you can install it and start playing the moment it releases, instead of waiting the release date and THEN waiting a few hours more for the game to install.
About the day 1 patches, you receive it at the same time as everyone else (at day 1) but since you cannot play before the game is released, it doesn't matter

6 years ago
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Oh, I understand. Thanks for explaining it to me. :)

6 years ago
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Last 7 hours bump! :-)

6 years ago
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You're a sweetie. 😋

6 years ago
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Thank you. 😉

6 years ago
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i've been burned on preorders before where the game wasn't what i expected it to be: from dust, deus ex human revolution, civilization v, and amnesia: a machine for pigs. from dust i would rather not have bought at all, machine for pigs has nothing to do with amnesia: the dark descent (i probably could have canceled that preorder when i found out), and the other two i would have been much happier waiting until they'd completed / fixed things a bit more. especially considering the human revolution director's cut that was sold separately, leaving the edition i preordered with the poorly-designed boss battles and unlinked dlc chapter.

i also have an 1800-game backlog so it doesn't make much sense to buy full-price games unless i'm going to play them right away.

even with those i'm not totally against preorders, in fact i plan to preorder frozen synapse 2 and unavowed. for both of those i got their previous games cheap through bundles and really enjoyed them, so i'm happy to get them a little extra support when i can reasonably expect to like what they're doing next.

6 years ago
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Hmm. I've listened to a talk held at GDC from the Frozen Synapse developers, so I know a bit about them and their game, it's great that you wish to support them. :)

I have a huge backlog as well, I perfectly understand how you feel. 😄

And yeah, I've said this before in this thread.. It kinda sucks, but it's unavoidable, the first people buying a game are most likely the ones who get the worst version of that game, like in your case with Deus Ex.

6 years ago
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Mostly I do not pre-order games, the only time I did was for a WoW expansion. I needed the expansion anyway and it was to come with additional stuff from the store so I figured why not. Once they had confirmed that the additional item was on the way I had opened the package and applied it to my account. They later said I was not to receive the item and it was "while supplies last" so they weren't going to do anything. Unfortunately for them they were still advertising it on their site and had already confirmed with me the item was on its way so I managed to get them to return the open package for a full refund.
Unless there is a really good incentive to pre-order I see no reason to do so, especially on platforms like Steam. Better to wait a day and find out about any issues, such as Batman: Arkham Knight.

6 years ago
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Hm, I understand. :) Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts!
Hope you enjoyed the giveaways as well. I guess this talk will be over soon, since the GAs have ended. 😅

6 years ago
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Bump
I preordered only two games, (Torchlight II, CS:GO), it was over 5 years ago.
I will never preorder again - for a few reasons:
*Read the reviews or view gameplay videos first - CSGO is in my opinion worse than older versions, Torchlight II - they changed something in game mechanics and I didnt had fun playing it
* I dont know when I will have time to play games that i collected on steam through years (and I want to play them all, at least the ones with achievements)
* I got 6 year old laptop and currently cant afford new PC or 'gaming' laptop, so many new games that I want to play don't work well on it, I usually play games on low setings
* by the time I will be able to play or will have machine with enough power to run them they will probably be in 1$ tier in HB

6 years ago*
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Yep. The HB Tier 1 thing is almost true, prices fall at a very fast rate nowadays. :)
Thanks for supporting the thread!

6 years ago
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bump!
I pre-ordered a game once, for a series I just adore too much to even doubt if I'd like their next game, and one whose developers I'd gladly financially support instead of wait for a sale

6 years ago
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We all have some of those, I think. 😋

6 years ago
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I've pre-ordered one game and it was Destiny (The first one.) This is what's really deterred me from ever doing it again as it was a huge let down in terms of what they promised (Though it did have many other fun features, just not those which were promised). The only reason I pre-order/buy games on day 1 is purely so I can get my hands on them early; with online multiplayer games such as destiny it can give you a competitive edge over other players.

P.S. I really want guild of dungeoneering! Could you please whitelist me? :P

6 years ago
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I would have... 😕
I'm sorry, there were barely 3 hours between your post and the giveaway end time, and it's already over right now... I should've made the time longer, damn.

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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Thank you, hope you enjoyed the giveaways and everything. :)

6 years ago
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Closed 11 months ago by Quex.