I usually pre-order either for cool bonuses, or to reserve a copy. Since games today are usually well stocked, I don't feel the need to pre-order games. So it's not so much the minority influencing my decision, haha...

Preordering did bring something undesirable in combination with DLC. Games are getting chopped up more and more due to preorder bonuses. But I don't think that this trend was caused by preorders as a concept or by the people who preorder. It was pushed by publishers who actively wanted people to preorder more and started to include goodies.

One could argue that if preordering had been commonplace to begin with, publishers wouldn't feel the need to incetivise us.

If the game has a pre-order bonus, I will not pre-order it.

i pretty much only preorder Nintendo games, because they are the only company that have shown that i can trust them.

This comment I think I have heard a few times from youtubers. Yeah, can't say I would know either. That only sort of feels that way with games that release with issues or requiring major patching with games, such as Assassin's Creed Unity, Halo MCC, and Drive Club. I won't say I think that is the case with those games, but that does seem a little dodgey with games having some big issues and requiring big patches to fix.

The 2nd part sort of sounds like console specific exclusive things, such as "PS4 owners get this content" and "Xbox 1 owners get this content." That I don't like very much at all either. I'd rather this sort of thing would go away...

I think I can agree with publishers pushing for pre-orders. Though wasn't pre-ordering always there? I would get often if I wanted pre-order games whenever I went shopping at game stores. I usually say no, so perhaps publishers started doing this to get more pre-orders?

Not even for a cool toy or book of something? : ) No bonus what so ever? Just honestly curious.

I never really saw the point in pre ordering games, there's no incentive for me to do so and to me it's all about blind leaps of faith, watching TB's and Angry Joe's vids made more sense on why it;s often better to not pre roder, you simply reward the pubs/devs before the game has even reached your hands/eyes and you also reward bad practices before they are fully taken on.

All I do these days is wait for reviews to pop up, a few LP's and more videos in general to further study the game, it's pro's and cons and wait for the price to drop down to a level I feel it deserves for my cash, buying day 1 so far has shown that there's less reward and more bugs, day one contant shoved right out the gate that can even suffer bugs itself, then there's witheld review copies which straight away tell me to stay away from games like Dying Light for the time being until they have fully proven *to me* (big massive hint there, no need to even argue that out) that they are worth my money.

That said I honestly don't outright hate the pre order culture but I can see it;s done it;s fair share of damage and just makes me the customer having to be more alert and wait longer due to how the practices play out thanks to pre orders.

They are bad when they incentive you to pre order by offering exclusive "Pre order exclusive DLC". It's even worse when that exclusive pre order bonus is japan only.

F you Tales of Graces.

Of course it was always there. But the gaming industry wasn't always this big. The bigger it got the more ways opened up to monetize procedures. The internet and online shops had their part as well. Just think of all the new trends that emerged in the last 10 years. All part of strategies to squeeze more money out of games.

Not saying companies are evil for trying to optimize their margins. It's just the natural way.