Stop Pre-Ordering Games!

Stop Pre-Ordering Games. Stop it. Right now.

You there! Yes, I see you, finger hovering over the big green button that sends £40-50 of your hard-earned money whizzing away into cyberspace. What pre-rendered trailer of lies caught your eye this time? What offers of a slightly different coloured armour set or game-breaking weapon spun you into a fury of buyer’s panic?

The industry has become very good at convincing us that we need new games now. Overly elaborate trailers and polished unrepresentative screenshots lull consumers into a false sense of security. “Maybe this time the game will work on release,” they mumble, clutching their knees in the corner of a dimly lit room. “Maybe this time there won’t be day-one patches and game-breaking bugs.”

I can recall a time when pre-ordering meant walking into a shop and asking them to reserve a copy for you. That was it. No man at the counter asked me if I wanted the Elite edition of Sonic 2, where you could change Sonic’s fur colour and use a skill that defeats all enemies in the game in one hit. Yet somehow the option has crept into modern gaming and is as pervasive (and annoying) as quick-time events.

Why aren’t there demos anymore? This is why. If a game is found out to be unfinished, unpolished and unoptimised then sales will inevitably go down. Why take the risk by releasing a demo? Sure, there are the occasional public alphas (Evolve comes to mind) but these are usually done when a company is 100% sure their game is playable. The fact I have to justify that is mind-boggling - a game complete before release?! What a preposterous idea!

Games are released far too early in their life-cycle these days, that’s a given. Even AAA titles given huge budgets, development teams and years of time will release titles so poorly optimised you might as well have set your cash on fire. Watch_Dogs promised to be the game that showcased the power of the PC yet fell flat. Destiny was supposed to be the game to end all games - the perfect FPS: it wasn’t. Rome 2 Total War was the game the fans had been asking for since 2005: after a day they wanted to give it back. Perhaps the reason developers continue to do this is partly down to overly-pushy publishers (I’m looking at you, Sega), yet another big reason is this: they still get everyone’s money.

“Hmm, y’know I think this game could do with a bit more tweaking,” says one doomed Ubisoft employee. “If we release it in this state it will be awful.”

“Pssh, forget it,” snorts his colleague, wary of watching line managers and the ‘independant thought’ detectors. “We’ll fix it post-release. Besides we’ve already made millions in pre-orders.”

But Alex, you might say, clutching your wallet and eyeing up your next purchase. In pre-order packs you get cool stuff!

Do you? Does paying full price (or more) to dip your toe into the murky waters of day one uncertainty really warrant a different outfit? Is this really content that you get extra, or something that the developers made to be in the game originally, before chucking onto the pile labelled “for suckers”? Don’t even get me started on the figurines and trinkets that probably cost around 80p to make and package. I will grant you, however, that the helmet that came with Halo 3: Legendary Edition was pretty darn awesome.

Okay, there are some good examples of pre-ordering. Mythic Entertainment allowed users who pre-ordered Warhammer Online to create and play four days before launch, while Gearbox creative director Mikey Neumann said he’d play online with and give free loot to anyone who sent him a picture of them buying Borderlands early.

These examples are few and far between, though, and if games companies keep rolling in money they won’t give a damn about people complaining about their product. What makes us gamers - our competitiveness, our need to come first and win - is being exploited. Like a drug addict we keep coming back for a fix of day-one gameplay. I ask you this, though: is a few hours extra gameplay worth risking your money for? Why not wait a day or two to figure out what people think? Wait for reviews from trusted sites, or perhaps head to Metacritic and laugh at the poor souls who did pre-order and are now giving the game low scores because "it’s broken".

There was once a time when word of mouth and reviews played the most important part in determining the success of a game. With titles becoming more and more expensive these days you would think this would be extra important! More critically for the devs and publishers, though, they can be bad for business - remove the bad press and you remove the roadblock to easy cash. Some companies and PR agencies are becoming so bold that they are now handing out review codes for major titles after the release date. Reviewers online for Shadow of Mordor were even told they could only get a copy if they gave the game positive press. It’s disgusting!

The only way to send a message is to stop pre-ordering games. As soon as the early revenue stream dries up developers will have to look at the games they create and say “maybe we should finish it up.” At the rate this is going you’ll be able to play the half-finished alpha stage with no animations if you pay for the £80 pre-pre-pre-order legendary developer’s kit.

When the money becomes more important than the audience, the awards and the art something is terribly wrong.

Not that you’re listening to me, you’re too busy grimacing your way through Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Gotta get that £40’s worth, right?