Here’s What You Learn When You Swear off Pre-Ordering for a Year

Pre-orders. The word itself causes a bit of a division among players. Some say it is the cardinal sin causing a slew of issues in the gaming universe. Others use it as a practice to ensure that they can receive a copy of the game the moment it becomes available. And still others use it as a sort of layaway system, allowing them to pay for games in small increments until it finally becomes available.

I didn’t necessarily fall into any of these categories, but I made it a regular habit to go to the local game store and pre-order any and every game that I was looking forward to.

All of that would change in 2015.

The latter half of 2014 was a letdown in a lot of major releases. After preloading Halo: The Master Chief Collection and installing the ungodly 20GB patch, I was ready for the clock to strike midnight and to relive the nostalgia of getting caught carrying rockets and snipers near the enemy spawn. But, when the hour passed I found myself knocking back copious amounts of Coke Zero as my efforts to join a match came up empty again and again. For the next couple months post-release, it was just a rinse and repeat of that night.

Assassin’s Creed Unity lacked that same hype for me, but after skipping several iterations of the game, I decided the French Revolution setting and co-op elements were enough to get me back. It didn’t take long to run into the first unplayable frame rate drop. Jumping from rafter to rafter in a church near the start of the game proved to be impossible. The disc left my system, jumped back in the box, and slipped swiftly into the land of games I never returned to.

The letdowns of 2014 went far beyond my own gaming experiences. Far Cry 4 forced some people to delete and reinstall the entire game in order to fix issues. Driveclub was an unplayable mess for the first several weeks of its — already quite delayed — release. And of the dozens of major releases on console almost, every single one had to launch with some sort of day one patch to resolve problems that were discovered after the game had gone gold. The landscape of gaming at that time seemed pretty bleak, and I was not alone in losing almost all my day-one faith.

Near the end of the year, I was talking with some of my friends who had experienced much of the same frustration I did, and it was during that conversation that I made my 2015 New Year’s gaming resolution. I was not going to pre-order a single game in 2015.

MLB 15 The Show starts calling my name with some great pre-order bonus? Sorry, no dice. Halo 5: Guardians special edition? Just can’t do it. Sega does a limited physical run of Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine? As tough as it might be, thanks, but no thanks.

My thinking behind the resolution was this. For single-player games I was looking forward to, I would wait for reviews to go up, look for any known issues in the reviews, and spend some time looking over forums and Reddit for bugs that may have popped up post release. For multiplayer games, I extended the process by a day, waiting to see if there were any server issues after the influx of gamers attempting to play during the first 24 hours. If nothing major popped up, I would buy the game. Simple.

It’s been a year since I made the resolution, going from pre-ordering about 20 games in 2014 to zero in 2015. There were moments of peace and moments of weakness. In the end, after many temptations, I picked up a few lessons I’m glad to have learned.

One of the main reasons to pre-order back in the day was to ensure that there would be a copy of the game waiting when you went to pick it up on release day.

Unless you are really interested in a collector’s edition of the game, our current gaming market doesn’t necessitate such measures. Walk into any store on the day a game drops and you will see a shelf full of unspoken-for copies.

There was only one time where I walked into a store to pick up a copy of a game and it was sold out immediately after release, and that was Until Dawn. But in today’s world, a quick Amazon search and an exercise of a little shipping patience will yield you any game you want.

Not putting money into an unfinished project allowed me to temper my expectations. When I paid for a game weeks or months out from its street date, I became attached to every trailer, preview, and other media coverage that came down the pipeline. With each piece of content, my anticipation would grow and grow to the point where my expectations more often than not exceeded the final product. That letdown was generally on me, not the game itself.

In 2015, my approach to game releases was much more laissez-faire, and my satisfaction with the games I purchased was greatly improved. While I still watched trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming releases, my reaction to them wasn’t attached to a prior investment I had made in the game.

Keeping my resolution got a bit tough in September thanks to NBA 2k16’s pre-order bonus, which offered the ability to play the game three days early. My need for the very same instant gratification I was standing up to beckoned to me.

But after some soul-searching, I was reminded why I’d resolved to do this in the first place. Two days after the game released, I picked it up with my resolution still intact. 

One thing I surely didn’t miss throughout the my pre-order-less year was the midnight release. Sure, attendance to these events isn’t required by your pre-orders, but it sure does incentivize it. Putting down money for a game months ahead of its release and knowing you have immediate rights to it promotes a need to be at the head of the line when the game drops at midnight. At least for me.

But a world with no pre-orders was a world of no such lines. A world without overhearing people make bets about who will win the first head-to-head match-up in the latest version of Madden. A world without the threat of physical violence if I don’t proclaim love for my country and join in the fight to run “all foreigners out of the land.” All of which I have experienced first-hand at midnight events in 2014.

Overall, my year without pre-orders didn’t really change my gaming experience in any direction but positively. Dropping money on games only after they had proven themselves saved me the frustration that was gaming in 2014.

With that being said, my venture into a world with no pre-orders turned me into a bit of a proselyte at its inception. My friends, who had not made the same commitment as I had at the turn of the year, caught the full brunt of my judgment when they “dropped $5” on a game they were excited for.

But I realized something. Spending money on your hobby is about doing what brings you joy. Just because I had resolved to not give my money to an unfinished product didn’t mean I had it right. I had become “that guy,” the one that tries to convince people that their way of thinking is wrong simply because it wasn’t my way of thinking.

Not pre-ordering games made my gaming life a whole lot better, but maybe that anticipation, that invest, that “early-adopter” mentality brings joy to those gamers that do pre-order. And who am I to tell anyone how to spend their hard earned cash?

For me, I don’t see any pre-orders in my foreseeable future. The deals don’t often appeal to me, and the heartache of 2014 looms too heavy for me to welcome the process back into my life any time soon. But if pre-ordering makes your gaming life better or a little more financially attainable by all means, pre-order all the games you want! No judgment here!

Do you still pre-order games? What do you need to see from a game before spending your hard-earned cash? Let us know in the comments below.