Developer here - currently indie but was in the machine at one point. Cold hard fact is that demos hurt sales for AAA games, and pre-orders get cash in the door today to keep the lights on. With millions and years invested, they must hedge and limit risk as hard and as quickly as possible.
If demos hurt sales, that means that game devs depend on gamers buying games they don't actually end up liking right? I understand making games has become pricier and pricier, but if the whole business model is dependent on "We want to trick people into getting stuff they don't want", then we have a problem.
The reality is probably closer to the flightily nature of us as gamers - We mostly just want to try the game because some part of it seems fun, if that can be tried for free with a demo, why buy it now that we got our fix? Why would a big AAA take that risk?
If people get enough from a free demo maybe it's time to make shorter cheaper games, and start churning out 2 hour playtrough 15usd games, but with high quality graphics/acting/voices/etc. Or just abolish capitalism and make fun games no matter if they sell or not 😂
Companies 100% have a right to skip demos and sell pre-orders. And people have a right to boycott those.
Absolutely! The numbers show they gain roughly double the sales with trailers/footage and no demo, they won't budge until boycotts reverses that. Same with microtransactions we all hate; they basically just print money.
Financially, preorders without a “preorder bonus” are a zero interest loan to the developer. Preorders with the “preorder bonus” are a loan with the bonus as interest. Even if the game were guaranteed to be good, you could most likely be doing something better with the money until it comes out. Since the game is not guaranteed to be good, it is a risky loan as well. Without any of the protections you get when you make an actual loan.
Without any of the protections you get when you make an actual loan.
I'd say a 100% refund when requested with less than two hours of use within the first two weeks is a pretty good protection, and it's pretty much the standard policy on PC.
I think it’s an age thing a lot of times. It’s like telling my kids to brush their teeth because of my experiences with dental, or you can plug any example like that.
I can tell kids not to preorder all I want. They just haven’t had the opportunity to be burned as many times as we have yet.
I think a lot of gamers just don't care enough too. I know so many people that buy a game on release, play it for a few hours, and then drop it. Even AAA titles that are actually good.
Steam achievements kinda confirm that as well, there is a fair bit of drop-off on even the most popular games.
I used to keep my Galactic Edition copy of Spore on my shelf as a reminder to not preorder games.
Didn't you like spore? I thought it was awesome! Maybe because I was I kid when I played it though
So, full disclosure, I do look back on it nostalgically now. I was in high school when it came out. I was incredibly invested in the hype. I would watch the tech demos of it multiple times a week I think. It wasn't so much that it was bad, more that it heavily under delivered on what was shown in demos.
Fallout76 is my reminder, it was an expensive lesson, but one that needed teaching.
My Copy of Alien: Colonial Marines would like to have a word with your copy of Spore.
I don't pre-order games nor do I really buy any games new.
I mean why should I when I can buy complete version of the game for like 10-20 bucks 1-3 years later. Honestly I've simply discarded the idea of being consumer and shifted to thinking myself as customer instead. Its not my job to support the developers and keep their studios afloat its their job by making good games that are actually worth their price tag.
I already have backlog of games that would take years clear thanks to steam sales, playstation plus and all sorts of bundle offers. I am in no hurry to buy new games and I can easily wait for the developers to actually finish the game and buy the GOTY/Ultimate/Definite edition that includes most if not all the expansions and dlc for a discounted price.
As for free 2 play and live service games I simply don't have the time and interest to play those. If I ever make an exception to this then I'll be using only default skins/cosmetics, no gatcha and ignoring the battle pass completely.
Its not my job to support the developers and keep their studios afloat its their job by making good games that are actually worth their price tag.
That’s fine and all, but it goes both ways. If you’re gonna wait years to maybe buy their game, then they’re not going to cater to what you want.
There’s a middle ground imo. If I love a certain type of game, I’m gonna buy it relatively new to show my support. If you don’t do that, then you’re essentially a bottom of the barrel afterthought that the market simply won’t cater to.
I agree with this; we used to pre-order back when physical copies were the only way to get a game, in order to reserve a copy. Now they use it to squeeze extra money out of you for "exclusive content." As somebody who is as militantly against exclusive content (because it screws over late adopters) as always-online content, I can't agree enough that digital pre-ordering needs to die.
I don't bother pre-ordering anymore. Can't afford to. Most AAA games are £60-£70 on release (up to £90 if you want the Upgraded Super Deluxe Gold version). I wait until a game goes on sale before I buy it. By then all the bugs have been patched and most of the DLC has been released so you get a better experience.
I wanna talk about DLC. I bought a physical copy of Fire Emblem Engage. I also bought the DLC. I had to go out to take someone somewhere and wait, so I brought my Switch. The game was running before I left home. Had to connect to the internet to resume the game while I was waiting for the person.
I pretty much don't even buy a game after it's been launched now and I wait a couple of months to see what happens. They haven't bought out a game since Halo that I've cared enough about to even buy on day 1 and it's not like I don't have a fat library of other games I already enjoy.
I miss the age of videogame demos, it feels like nothing but a distant memory now. And the only reason companies let people play their broken betas now is to gauge excitement for their games and fix any serious game breaking bugs.
I stopped preordering awhile ago but honestly I just stopped buying games in general. I already have enough games to last me a lifetime and there is just so much trash getting released that I skip it all together.
I miss the days of game demos
Steam's Next fest has brought back some demos on PC. You might not get a demo for a big IP, but you can try lots of smaller dev games without having to buy first.
Can someone unbiasly tell me whats the point of preordering a digital copy?
It's installed when I want to play it. Usually the counter I hear is that internet is fast enough where that isn't a problem. This is an argument, that gamers use to contend when the idea of online only was considered by Microsoft. The fact that I can preinstall 100GB of data beforehand at my leisure is worth it.
Especially now considering that steam offers free refunds up to 2 hours of gametime or 15 days after release? Realistically on PC there is very little reason to argue against it at this point in my opinion (obviously this is referring to PC, no need to do that for Consoles that don't provide these opportunities.
This isn't really a pro preorder, I just lost my frustrations with it when the risk was mitigated
I'm sure it varies from person to person, but as far as I can tell it's some combination of FOMO, peer pressure, and virtual dick measuring
People mostly pre-order for the add ons they put in. It's not uncommon for pre-orders to get beta access, or early access. Sometimes they get even greedier and tie that into the next tier up so you'll pay $80-100 for the game. People don't like to wait/get hit with fomo when they see everyone playing the game already.
Yeah idk why anyone is still pre-ordering games.
I pre-ordered baldurs gate 3 after playing the developers previous game divinity original sin 2 and hearing a rather large amount of praise for the content available in the early access.
It's something I wouldn't regularly do but in their short line of recent games Larian studios have left a very good impression on me and I trust them individually.
Did you pre order or buy early access? Buying a game in early access when you believe what is currently in the game is a good deal for the price is the same thing as buying a released game in my opinion.
In my oponion the two recent Steam Demofests have been a breath of fresh air for the gaming world and might be the first good thing in a long time to happen in gaming. Since the early 2000s demos grew mainly out of fashion and have been replaced by Early Access™ and consumer friendly refund policies. If a game had a Demo it was often out of date and a subpar representation of a game. But with definitve events like Demofest, developers have the opportunity to show of their goods through free and up to date Demos without the fear of piracy or location constraints of gaming conventions. If some Indie Dev shows me that the game is 90% done and the release is with a reasonable time, I surley can spend 20$ to help polish out the last flaws before release. Indie developers are often ride or die with their games and could use the income as early as possible.
Ironically the last games I preorded where AAA games. Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remakes, both of which had extensive Demos. I played them and immediately thought "Yep, this is it, that's worth $60."
Demos are an effective marketing tool and can fully justify a preorder.
FF16 wasn’t preordered as much as they wanted. Then when the game turned out to be okay, people bought it (and it had a demo). It was a hit.
The fact that you can "pre-buy" a digital game is insane to me!
Like what's the point! You still can't play it until it comes out!
Remember shareware?
Pepperidge farm remembers
I recall pre-ordering EA's Battlefront back then. I only played it for 4 hours at most. Should have pirated it.
Oh yeah? Well what about the new thing to do that's even better than pre-ordering. Take Starfield for example. Wanna play it earlier than everyone else? Well their early access option is the one for you.
"Anyone can dive in then if they're willing to pay the price - it's only available to those who buy the expensive Constellation Edition of the game (for roughly £250/$300) or the Premium Edition (for about £100/$100)"
Edit: deleted comment was additional edit, realised I could just edit original comment
Early access is different tho...
Because you know what you're getting, others who already have it are able to post reviews.
A preorder is just giving them money early for zero reason.
For example, I knew I was getting BG3 no matter what. And I know I habitually restart act 1 of RPGs multiple times before picking what I want. So having a chance to run thru (a limited) act 1 a bunch over a year before release was worth it to me.
But there's no way I'd have just pre-ordered it, there'd be no reason to pay before I got the product.
Cyberpunk was the nail in my pre-order coffin, fuck those clowns and their shitty releases. I don't want the game to be good and playable 3 years after I bought it.
Oh and for the fan bois if the game was so good when released, why did they have to do a complete overhaul of basically the entire game to make it good?
The release was trash and the game released with as little product as possible while charging people full price.
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