In the last ten years or so, led by the pre-Gamestop game specialty chains (Babbages, EB, EBX, Software, Etc., Funcoland, Rhino Video Games), the practice of preordering games has become commonplace. Before the preorder, companies just shipped enough products. Crazy, right?We're generally not fond of the practice, since we like to pay money for stuff and not a chance at stuff later, but we recognize that it's firmly entrenched in the gaming business model. How about you all? Do you habitually preorder your games? Or only when you perceive a chance of limited availability? Which do you think benefits more from a preorder-- huge releases or niche games with tiny print runs?
1. Anyone who was a fan of comic books in the 90's knows the benefits of pre-ordering. Need that variant cover? Want that copy of the indie comic with the 5,000 copy print run? Pre-ordering lets that happen. In theory (though not always the reality of the Gamestop Way), pre-ordering is painless and results are good. In theory.
Since I haven't experienced the "mean Gamestop clerk won't give me my pre-order" thing people sometimes complain about, I'm pretty much happy with pre-ordering anything that comes out on the DS that I want week of release. Etrian Odyssey, Phoenix Wright 2, Izuna, Castlevania: PoR (and its super-sweet bonus)... I have Luminous Arc and Hoshigami both pre-ordered.
I didn't pre-order Planet Puzzle League, because I figured it would have a massive print-run. Nor did I pre-order New Super Mario Bros. Most PS2 games (outside of Valkyrie Profile 2 and Odin Sphere) I don't pre-order. PS2 just seemed to get a larger piece of the store space than the DS, and thus was more likely to get more copies of something without my help.
Posted at 9:20AM on Jun 18th 2007 by Lard Of Dorkness