damndl0ser said:
So are you saying pre-orders aren't an important part of the process or you can't judge a games excitement level from them? Another question, did they even have pre orders back then? Possibly for GT4 but I am almost certain they didn't for the others. So to be honest you can't base anything on past pre-orders for GT. |
It is a fair point. While traditional pre-orders have been around for a longtime they were more in line of going to your local shop, writing your name down, and then coming back to pick it up on release. In the past 5 years or so times have changed a lot. The internet age has brought in online shopping. Online shopping has been around a longtime. Ebay started in 1996. But it is only recent that is has got to the levels we now see today. Nearly everyone now has a pc and internet. And to pre-order stuff sometimes online gives you bonus things. I would imagine maybe 99% of pre-orders for games are now done online. For various reasons like free stuff or simply because the price is cheaper then in store.
To say pre-orders don't matter is just fanboyism. It is damage control, simple as that. The reality is you can gauge how well a product will do based off of it's pre-orders. Not just games but all items. If you look at game shops today online you see they advertise heavily things that have not come out yet. Games/Devices that are yet to launch. Like with Kinect. Some stores such as GAME are mass promoting it and trying to give you incentives to pre-order. By raising your awareness of the product means more potential money for them to make. If they can hype something up and convince you to buy it then they will get paid. That is why you see when games get released they normally then move onto the next thing.
Pre-orders give us an idea of how well something is going to sell in it's first week. It doesn't mean we know what it will do lifetime. But history of games shows us that if you want to sell 10m units then you have to hit the floor running in terms of sales. We know this because we have the data here on this website to show that. Mario Kart, New Super mario bros, MW 2, Halo 3 are the only games this gen that are not bundled with a console to sell 10m units. They all have something in common. They all sold roughly over 2m units in their first week. A lot of games had around or even above a 2m opening and never got to 10m. Games like FFX, GTA4, WOTLK etc etc.
And like wise games that have had high pre-orders have gone on to sell little in stores onced released. To use the recent release of Starcraft 2 as an example. Prior to release it had 796k pre-orders in US. Then in it's first week it sold 912k in US. A difference of just 116k. Or to put that into a better figure; 87% of first week Star Craft 2 sales were from pre-orders. To use another example, Modern Warfare 2. The biggest selling game on HD consoles. If we use the 360 version we see prior to release it had 1.86m pre-orders in US. Then in it's first week it sold 3.2m in US. A difference of 1.34m. Meaning nearly 60% of MW2 first week sales were from pre-orders. Even if you do the PS3 version you see prior to release MW2 had 748k pre-orders. It then sold 1.645m in it's first week. A difference of 897k. Meaning nearly 50% of MW2 on PS3's first week sales were pre-orders.
So as said, to think pre-orders don't bare any importance is just silly and totally false.
