Are "early access" perks kinda BS?

[Chazore]

SvennoJ said:

We used to have midnight launches for big games, also sort of early access. And yeah pre-ordering would be wise if you're going to stand in line at midnight lol. That was just 9 hours early access compared to normal people getting it the next day in the shop.

I don't know what the draw is with pre-ordering, pre-download, marathon play it, taking time off work to power through. Is it for clicks on you tube / twitter tok, bragging rights? I just don't get waiting for something, looking forward to something, then rushing through it. I like to take my time, hence still not finished TotK and avoiding games with season crap and limited time events.

I miss those days, the days people would camp outside for the latest WoW expansion, or when GTA IV/V launched, or Gears of War 2, etc.

Pre-ordering back then made sense, because back then we had an even limited supply of copies per store, so midnight launches made sense, but today?, hardly anyone does those anymore and it makes even less sense, given that the modern day pre-orders for complete editions go into the $100's.

Pre-loading was sort of like an ease of waiting to download at the time of a game's launch, but tbh, I don't bother with pre-loading, mostly because not all dev studios support it, or they somehow manage to magically fumble it completely, or allow pre-loading based on regional release times (which then makes the act of pre-loading practically useless).

I've grown to be the same over time, in that I'd rather just take my time and wait for a game to either be patched up to make it as best as it can be, as well as just waiting for a cheaper sale, because buying a game day 1 these days sets you back more than anything.