XCOM

There once was a time video game reviews and word of mouth played the most important part in determining the success of a new title. There'd be a chance for either professional critics or like-minded peers to get their hands on a game and tell you whether it's actually worth your time or money. With games being so expensive, those opinions can be - and to be sure, are still in some way (especially word of mouth) - important!

They can also be bad for business if you're in the business of making or selling video games, though, so removing that roadblock is in both the publisher's and retailer's best interests. The cult of preordering is how this is achieved. By getting your commitment to purchase a game in advance, when all you've got to go on is a marketing campaign, you're signalling that you, as a consumer, are totally cool spending $40-$60 on a game simply on the strength of how it's been marketed.

And it works, with many games tallying up preorder counts in the millions.

Want to know why there aren't any demos anymore? This is why. Want to know why content is withheld from everyone's game and is instead sprinkled across various competing retailers? This is why. Want to know why there's now an accepted norm where those paying more for a game can sometimes gain competitive advantages? This is why. Publishers don't need to sell you on their games, because by slavishly throwing money down before they're even out, you've signalled your intent to take whatever it is they give you.

Jump back to quoted post10 Aug 2015, 17:13 PMsquippy

Pre-ordering breaks the relationship supposedly inherent in the transaction, in which you give them money for a working product. It takes pressure off companies to deliver games that live up to their advertising, or even just simply ship in a working state. After all they already have your money, and even in the worst case they can count on a lot of people not being willing to go to the hassle of getting a refund.


http://kotaku.com/5909105/stop-preordering-video-games-please

There's an old aphorism that you should never buy a pig in a poke, and that's exactly what pre-ordering tries to get us to do.

Jump back to quoted post11 Aug 2015, 04:31 AMJadame!

I preordered witcher 3 almost year ago and when it was released it exceeded all my super hight expectations.

I bought Xcom in release day, it was exactly what i wanted.

Bad companies who does not care about their customers would make bad games and spend half of budget on marketing, good companies would make hight-quality games which would speak for themselves, preordering would not change a thing.

Looking forward to preorder Xcom2.

Jump back to quoted post11 Aug 2015, 05:05 AMThe Big Red 1

witcher 3 is on my wish list i hear good things about it problem is my comp can't run it =(

Jump back to quoted post12 Aug 2015, 02:17 AMAppleseed

you can run COH2 then you should be fine to run the witcher 3, my laptop runs both witcher 3 and COH2 on lowest sitting about same FPS borrow your friend's GOG copy and try it out.

Jump back to quoted post16 Jun 2015, 20:32 PMVuther

So how's about that XCOM 2 eh? The different direction was surprising and intriguing to me - I hope it utilizes the change in setting to its fullest, and then things could turn out pretty well for the game.

On a related note, I went back to the previous XCOM playing the Long War mod on it, which is HOLYSHITGODDAMNAMAZING10/10!