There's a piece of news going on about Germany banning pre-order of items without a release date and a decided to search about articles and opinions about pre-ordering games and I was astonished when I found many articles calling pre-ordering stupid.

The main reason is, most of them say, there's no point pre-ordering games when they're everywhere and the consumer shouldn't have to pay before getting it when they'll find it after release. The consumer also shouldn't be giving the retailers/developers this precious information that is the future demand for the game, the consumer doesn't get anything from it, just they who sell it. That's among other reasons such as when consumers pre-order a game they're visiting the shop twice instead of just once (in a e-commerce world, this reason is nonsense for me).

I'm not sharing sources here, because one can look them up easily on Google. Articles against pre-ordering are out there.

In my personal experience what I see is that there's still people going out on release day and not finding games they want. I still see people upset for having to wait for weeks before finding sold out games while those who pre-ordered are enjoying them.

What are your thoughts?

I don't mind pre-ordering at all.

I am ok with people with money to throw, preordering. My problem is when they start giving those who preorder, ingame items and benefits that those who come later wont be able to get.

I never felt the urge to pre-order anything, not just games. I see no point. But to each their own.

Ka-pi96 said: I don't get why people would go into a store to pre-order a game (or buy one that's already released for that matter). But it makes complete sense to pre-order online. You don't get charged until they ship the game, they usually have some kind of day 1 delivery promise which if you get from a good retailer means they ship early to guarantee you'll get it day 1, but you'll usually end up getting it a day early or something, and best of all once you've pre-ordered it you don't have to even remember when it releases, it will just show up in your letter box one day and you'll be like "yay, new game ".

I love the feeling and it makes sense indeed.

I only pre-order games online so I can get the 20% discount from Best Buy/Amazon.

Even then, it's only for games I know for a fact I'm getting day one, like Smash Bros.

If you want a Collector's Edition or something then of course pre-ordering is obviously very important. Pre-ordering a regular edition probably unnecessary depending on the game unless there are incentives like discounts. But then you hear about Octopath Traveler's stock-issues so games aren't always available day one

They are just getting rid of preorders that don’t have specific release dates aren’t they? I’d be fine with that. Honestly, I don’t worry about preordering much anymore anyways because I have been doing digital only for the last 5 years or so.

Best Buy gives me $10 in store credit for pre-ordering certain games like Tomb Raider, Smash, and Fallout 76. And that's on top of my 20% Gamer's Club discount, and my 6% cash back. I also pre-order when I want to lock in a collector's edition of a game like Valkyria Chronicles 4. That tank just looks too sweet!

With how games are these days I don't see a reason to pre-order. I don't really buy physical games these days and collector editions are hardly of the same quality as the asking price. That and I don't see the point in pre-ordering if you do not know the outcome of the game.

I pre-ordered a lot because I like making a list of budgeting around what games I'll be buying and plan ahead and set funds aside for specific releases and their release dates/months they release.