To Preorder Or Not To Preorder?

Toward the end of 2014 several high profile triple A console titles were released with game-breaking bugs, missing features, graphical glitches, and/or other such annoyances. Specifically, I'm thinking of games like Halo: Master Chief Collection (Xbox One), DriveClub (Playstation 4), and Assassin's Creed Unity (multiplatform). Many have pointed out that these sorts of issues seemed far less common in the days before consoles were connected to the internet; the theory being that nowadays developers can rush their games to the market and fix any bugs later via a patch to the game's code. I won't pretend to know a whole lot about video game development cycles or the industry's quality control protocols, but this seems like a logical explanation for what we're seeing lately with these buggy games. Also, I'm old enough to remember the 90's (and the 80's), and while I can easily say that the sophistication and overall quality of video games has only increased in the last 15 years, it also seems logical to conclude that as games have gotten "bigger" and their production more complex, all of the extra "moving parts" are leading to an increase in the amount of bugs.

Everything was PERFECT before these bastards came along ;P

The reason I bring all of this up is because the idea of game breaking bugs in high profile games like the ones I mentioned seems to have reignited the long running debate over whether or not to pre-order games. As one theory goes, if we stop pre-ordering games then developers will feel less pressure to rush release broken games and they'll spend more time polishing the final product. Now that may be true of some smaller studios, but smaller games get way fewer pre-orders in general, and it seems to me that small dev teams and one-person operations have to do a better job of ironing out the bugs in their games because they're putting their reputations and possible future sales on the line. Another theory posits the idea that when a game has already pre-sold a large number of units, devs may feel inclined to cut corners figuring that they'll make their sales figures despite a lack of polish in the final product. That seems a more likely scenario. No one likes bad press or diverting resources into the process of patching huge bugs after a game is released, but EA, Sony, and Microsoft certainly have the means to get it done, and they're big enough to whether the PR storm.

Here's the thing: as much as I dislike the concept of pre-ordering video games (more on that in a moment), I don't think that if people stop pre-ordering games that we will cease to see these kinds of game breaking bugs. Big developers need to release games in a way that will maximize sales and keep their shareholders happy. If a game is slated to come out in time for Christmas then it might make more financial sense to release it with a few bugs, get the holiday sales, and then just fix the problems later. Big devs weigh these kinds of things out when they release unfinished games, and it's nearly always the consumers who suffer.

So what can gamers do to send a message? How can we tell developers that we don't want to sit and wait for them to patch broken games just so they can make their quarterly sales figures? Spam them on Twitter? Organize a boycott? In my view, you send a much stronger message when you simply DON'T BUY BROKEN VIDEO GAMES. And how do you do that? Simple. NEVER PRE-ORDER, and ALWAYS WAIT TO READ A REVIEW. Now obviously, Halo: Master Chief Collection is a game that was destined to sell well, bugs or no, pre-orders or no. But if gamers had just been a little more patient and waited to read the reviews, my guess is that Microsoft would have been jolted by the lower than expected sales numbers and might have taken players' dissatisfaction a little more to heart. Yes, I know I'm stretching things a bit by talking about Microsoft being "jolted" or suggesting that a multinational corporation has a "heart", but I think you get what I'm saying here.

So now on to my own problems with pre-ordering games. I've already spilled the beans on my main issue, which is that I don't believe in paying money (even if it's just a $5 deposit) for games that no one has yet had a chance to play or review. In general, triple A games usually require a significant time commitment and, at $60 a pop, a modest financial investment as well. With that in mind, I'll be damned if I'm going to invest my time and money into something that's buggy, broken, or just not fun. My other main issue has to do with developers and retailers who offer pre-order bonuses, especially when those bonuses come in the form of unlockable in-game content. I just think it's bullshit to tell consumers "If you pay for our game the day before it comes out then you get something "extra", but if you buy it on the day it's released then you get fuck all."

Don't pre-order, people. The benefit to you, the consumer, is minimal. It's a chump move. Wait until the reviews hit, watch a few "Let's Play" videos on YouTube, and make sure that the game in question meets your quality standards. Pre-order bonuses, while occasionally pretty nice, are little more than a come-on to draw you into parting with your money before you get a good sense of what the game is truly like.