Topic: The Upsides and downsides of pre-Ordering?

Now before you go and post links to several videos telling me to stop pre-ordering, hear me out. It was just a question I've been thinking about a lot recently. I'm sure we've all had that conundrum in our heads once or twice where we ponder whether or not it would be a good idea to put money down THIS INSTANT so that we have acsess to the game the moment it comes out, even if it won't come out for a few months or so. But that DOES come with some upsides and downsides. Here are mine;
UPSIDES;
I am aware that money has been put away for an experience i am Looking forward to. I have put my trust in the developers enough that i am ready to take a chance on them, which does not happen often if I'm being honest. Not to mention sometimes you get cool trinkets and the sort!
DOWNSIDES;
But then again, there is that one in a gazillion chance that the game turns out to be a dud (I'm sure we've all had that moment when we're looking forward to something, only to wake up to the day the review embargo lifts and it's pretty much one of the most hated things of the year). Not only that, but i find it stupid personally when the pre-order bonus is DLC that deserves to be in the hands of everyone. A trinket or something like that is fine, as that's a collectible that can be handed off to someone else or put up for sale online. But when it's a single code that can never be used again? That's when i start taking issue personally.

It's no doubt a question that you've talked with someone about before. So putting aside that Caustic side of us for a moment, what do you think? What are the upsides and downsides to pre ordering a game to you? (In The intrest of all fairness, try to think of BOTH Downsides and upsides. Come on, it can't be all bad! And yeah, i suppose Pre-Download in this day and age could be slotted into this discussion too.)

Love the idea of this thread. So I never preorder unless I get these things for doing so...

1) a healthy discount
2) preroder bonus ( special items)

But In doing so, im only preordering if i know for sure, I'm going to like it. And secondly, if i know there's limited stock or limited edition that I really want (links awakening dreamer edition)

Reasons not to: you pretty much summed it up with the game possibly being garbage. I'm kinda regretting my pre purchase of creature in the well. While it looks good, I watched an early impression with them saying it's brutally hard and unforgiving. That kind of turns me off in all honesty but it was kotaku so who knows. Alot of people don't take what they say with credibility but I doubt this was stretching so ya.

Most importantly why not to preorder, most places will discount the game not even a day later. I canceled my Amazon preroder of astral chain since I was able to walk into Wal-Mart and pay less on day 1. That pretty much sums it up.

I've pre-purchased a few games on the Switch because it means I don't have to wait for them to download when they release. And by some games I mean Smash Bros, Mario Maker 2 and Link's Awakening. Outside of those I don't think I've pre-ordered that many things except when I'm concerned about stock.

For example I pre-ordered the SNES Mini, the Switch itself and ... I think the last physical game related thing before that would have been years ago. I know did pre-order Wii U, I didn't pre-order anything on Wii U because those games never went out of stock. I think I may have also pre-ordered Pokemon Y, but it might have been Black? One of the Pokemon games from a few years ago anyways

But yeah, usually those two reasons:

• Genuine concern about having to hunt it down at launch or wait (usually hardware)
• digital pre-purchase so I don't have to wait for the download

Upsides:
-Occasional bonuses that are often trivial.
-Get the game earlier if it's the physical version. Like 2 days earlier, which matters almost never.
-Make sure to get a copy in the rare case where it might sell out. Also hardly ever happens.

Downsides:
-They're getting more money out of you because they earn interest on that money over time.
-Hyped games often end up being terrible in some way.
-Pre-orders incentivize developers to over-promise to build hype. Also makes them focus on graphics over gameplay because graphics make good promotional material, whereas gameplay can't really be previewed.

@Willax I have almost never felt it necessary to pre-order a game. It's been a very long time since I've gone to a store on the day a game came out and they didn't have any left. It generally has to be a real niche title that ended up far more popular than the developers expected. The only recent example I can think of was Octopath Traveller selling out here in Japan shortly after launch.

Sometimes I will preorder a game that I am confident I am going to want from an established franchise or developer. When I do, it's simply because I've already decided to buy it and want that sweet sweet release day delivery.

On the other hand, on two occasions I have pre-ordered games only to have the pre-order delayed well past launch. Both Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Three Houses were games I bought months ahead of time and got delayed by Amazon - leading me to cancel the orders and buy them digital instead.

On that note, I think buying digital pre-orders is pretty silly. By the very nature of digital, games can't sell out. Although I can kinda understand wanting to pre-download a game so you can play it right when the game goes live - that process bugs me because it annoys me having a digital game on my system that I can't play yet.

One thing I basically never do though, is to pre-order a brand new title from a new IP or a developer I don't have long running experience with. I don't care how hyped a new game is, if it's totally new and not from someone I've running good experiences with, then I wont preorder, even if every review site is praising it as the second coming of video game Jesus, I'm still gonna wait to see how people react once it arrives.

I only preorder limited/special editions, or games that have an obvious advantage, like early access to a beta.

Generally I'll only pre-order if I'm getting bonus items, a cheaper price, or a game that's likely to be harder to get later.

I do have an example of losing out due to pre-ordering: I caught wind that Monster Hunter 3U was coming back into stock at an online retailer for about £8.50, so I pre-ordered it knowing it was otherwise three times the price (at the time). But between the time I made the order and the time the stock arrived my payment card got damaged and I got a replacement... forgetting to update my payment details for the MH3U order. Come stock day, the retailer couldn't process my payment, cancelled my order, sold it to someone else, and because it was such a good price, the rest of the back order had been committed, so I couldn't re-submit my order.

The only time I've ever pre-ordered a game is when it's digital download, that way I can download it so don't have to wait on release day to do so.