- What about Early Access Games?
- Do you feel differently about Early Access vs traditional preordering?
- If you are open to the idea in specific circumstances, what are those?
- How do you decide if a game qualifies?
I’m interested in the community thoughts on preordering and I’d love to have a thoughtful discussion on the matter.
Personally, I’m against preordering, except in specific situations where I want to actively support the development of a game.
I have been thinking about this because there is a game I’m considering preordering from a medium sized studio, but the reason I want to preorder is for the IP, rather than the game and it goes against my typical stance on this. The game is based on my favorite book series and part of me wants to encourage more games be made based on this series. At the same time, the book series has found commercial success and as a whole does not need my help.
I did name the specifics here because I’m hoping to encourage discussion on preordering as a whole, rather than my example, but if you want to know, I’ll drop a comment and we can have a discussion in the comment thread. :)
EDIT: thank you all for the thoughtful discussion on this! I expected most people to slam preordering, but there was some very thoughtful dialogue here and that is why I appreciate you, Lemmy!
I always wait for release, even if I’m planning it to be a release day buy. Early Access could be an exception if the product they offer is good even in that stage, like how I got Rhythm Doctor when they finished Act 4. (The game has recently came out of Early Access and it’s really good). A demo could incentivise me to preorder, a game I could give example for that is Diesel Knights. While it’s not available for pre-order yet, I would absolutely do so if it did. But nothing released : no preorder
Strictly against it in AAA titles, anything above 60 is a never buy in the first place for me but a putting a preorder for a game in that price range is something that is straight up NOT happening under any circumstance.
No preorder for me. I almost do the opposite. I buy games after they get cheap in 1 to 5 years, lol
No
It is extremely rare - I do it when I have some form of dedication to the developer, or their rare variety of ambitious game. I may not have even done it once this year.
So I think that matches the OP’s feelings of buying early in support. Largely, it doesn’t matter.
Never. I hate the preorder exclusive bonuses; it’s anti-consumer bullshit, especially in an age where every game is available as a digital download, even the physical copies usually require downloads. Publishers are enticing customers to pay while hype is high, before the product is actually available, before quality has been proven and before reviews are published.
I hate gift cards for the same reason, you’re giving money to corporations before they’ve provided anything to you.
Hold on to your money, wait for reviews, then pay them for the finished product if you still want it.
I also think the rising launch prices of AAA games is bullshit, especially for singleplayer games. I’ll usually wait for a decent discount.
Last game I pre-ordered was Pokemon Soul Silver.
Since then, no.
I stopped after Cyberpunk.
I stopped after No Man’s Sky.
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I buy mainly physical games.
Will I preorder a AAA game that will have 18,000,000 copies sitting around after 6 months? Hell no.
Will I preorder a physical title from a small-medium dev/publisher that I will never see again? If they have a track record of making stuff I like.
I don’t pre-order but I do buy early access games. Unless it’s something genuinely limited edition and unique there is not reason to risk buying before release.
I try not to pre-order or get early access. However I am not perfect, I did pre order Dragon Quest 11 when it came out.
I never pre-order. I broke that rule exactly once and pre-ordered No Man’s Sky, boy did they make a fool out of me. Never again.
There are plenty of games I play that are on early access, the qualifier is whether the game is in a playable state and is fun to play (by account of online reviews or friend’s recommendations).
Exactly this. If it’s already fun, and especially if the early access price is good, then buying a somewhat janky game that will get better seems fine.
No, I wait 3 years usually. All bugs fixed, everything works, mods in great shape and price down 50%. Plenty of games older than 3 years also and much lower hardware requirements.
I made an exception for Elden Ring last time but that’s about it.
I don’t think I’ve ever pre-ordered a game. I’ve always been a patient gamer.
The only game I can recall purchasing during early access was Vampire Survivors. It was cheap as hell at $3 and was due to launch in about a week or so. There wasn’t a downside to getting it for me.
I never pre-order, there is no benefit.
Early access is misleading, there are games which are “released” and would barely count as early access and vice-versa, so I just treat them equally.
The criteria for me is that based on reviews or some gameplay footage it seems like I can get £1/hour worth of enjoyment out of it. I tend to look for how many hours do people have when they leave reviews and how many have they played since, rather than just what they say. If I’m unsure if I’ll like it and there is not enough videos or reviews to give me certainty, i may take a risk on £10 and below games depending on how bored I am at the time.
