Re: I don't understand pre-orders. Do you preorder?

On Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:03:45 -0600, Zaghadka wrote:

I recently went to Epic to get my weekly freebie hit and was asked in a
banner at the top of the page if I wanted to 'pre-order' Civ VII.
 
Why would anyone do that with Civ? Civ has a storied reputation for being
unfinished at release and only being worthwhile when DLCs drop.
 
In this case, you get an extra Civ that isn't even an exclusive. You can
buy it in the Deluxe version. If I like a Civ game, I tend to eventually
buy all the add-ons.
 
It's also a general question for any game at all.
 
For competitive FPS, I get that you want to get to be part of the
community ASAP. Especially if you're a pro or semi-pro. Maybe for a
sports title too, as it's a seasonal thing and you might have a yen for
'live sports.'
 
But everything else? Why buy on day 0 when you can buy on day 1? Is it
really the ability to 'pre-download?' Is there value in being able to
click 'play game' the second the official release drops? How does this
benefit anyone but the publisher?
 
I guess what I'm really asking is does anyone here pre-order... and WHY?
Do you get anything out of it?

I've pre-ordered a few games.

Once was Elite Dangerous Horizons, where I got access to the Cobra Mk IV,
and this is the only way to have gotten that ship.  To this day, commanders
grouse about it being exclusive...personally, I think they should just
release it to everybody, but nobody asks me.  It's not even a particularly
good ship, though it is handy for cargo runs to settlements with only
a small landing pad.

The recent pre-release of the Cobra Mk V sort of makes it moot, because it
pretty-much obsoletes the Mk III and Mk IV -- it's faster and turns better.

Let's see -- I pre-ordered one of the Dooms to get the extra merchandise,
so I now have statuette of a revenant.  Also did that with Fallout 4(?),
and got a powered armor helmet -- also have a pip-boy, but I think I may
have bought that separately.

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