I despair! I am not a fan of the UK retailer GAME, the games are over-priced and the staff are next to useless, however it is often the only option I have in the high street now.
A few months back I pre-ordered Halo4. I don't often pre-order games, in fact this year I have only pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands 2. Halo 4 will be the last pre-order I make this year.
Any hoo, against my better judgement I pre-ordered at GAME rather than one of the numerous and more reliable online retailers that I use, because GAME has better pre-order bonuses than anywhere else. Pre-orders are farcical in GAME IMO, there is often two ways you can do it, 1: register your name down for a standard copy and you will get a text on the day of release saying the game is available for pick-up and will be held for 48 hours or 2: You can place a £5 deposit for a limited edition version if that particular game has it and get the same text, but secure in the knowledge that you will get your hands on the special edition with all the goodies if you are that way inclined. (Personally, those packs generally have no interest for me).
Way back when I chose the first pre-order option for Halo 4 they were trying to get me to go for the £5 deposit option despite them, at the time, not knowing what the limited edition version contained or how much it would cost. Seriously? Who in their right mind would place a deposit down for something that they have no idea what it is, or how much it will end up costing them? If anyone does this... then you are an idiot.
I have been looking for the past few days for my pre-order slip so that I can redeem my order in the next few days when the game is released. I have been unable to find it. I went in to the store today to find out if I had definitely pre-ordered and I hadn't just passed out at some point and dreamt it. It seems I have pre-ordered, but in the interim between me doing that and now, it seems that GAME has now added a 3rd edition option to Halo4. The "specialisation edition" - the edition I thought I had pre-ordered a few months back!! The staff STILL do not know how much the specialisation edition will cost, or what is contained in it, but wanted me to put a deposit down any way. I enjoy Halo, but I am not insane.
I am not sure what the point of this blog is really, but I am feeling a little anxious about my pre-order. I made it with the understanding of a certain thing and now it seems that has changed. The lack of knowledge of the staff is infuriating because now I am not sure exactly what I have pre-ordered, and I strongly suspect it isn't what I thought. Still, I suppose at least I didn't put any money down for it and I am free to go elsewhere if it isn't what I thought.
What do you guys think? Do you make pre-orders? Do you pay deposits (although me potentially calling you an idiot may put you off answering that truthfully 
) Also, what do you think of pre-order bonuses? I find them infuriating! The idea in principle is a good one, but I end up poring over different sites trying to understand what they all are and whether they are worth having or not (more often than not they aren't).
I usually pre order from Amazon, although I have pre ordered from GAME online a few times and came out happy...never done it in a shop though. Hope you get/got it ok though and it is what you want.
@Wren28 Thank you. Yeah in the end I decided against the store, the feckless idiots that work there do not fill me with confidence. I have decided to pre-order from the site instead.
I very rarely pre-order games as I am generally a solitary gamer which means I can wait for the price to go down without worrying about the lobbies to empty. However when I do pre-order I just find the cheapest website as they will often deliver it in time for release morning or even before. I think GAME ask for the deposits for special editions as a sign of commitment so they won't be left with a load of overpriced luxury items that they will have to lose money on shifting.
@-INKling- I rarely pre-order as well to be honest. And I do normally faff around looking for the cheapest. The only reason I have gone with GAME in this instance is for the pre-order specialisations bonus, otherwise I would steer well clear. Even their reduced games pricing is all over the place. I have an issue purchasing a second had game from them when in some instances it can be £5 or so more expensive than a brand new game from an online retailer.
1 Like @-INKling- Unlike the shelves full of overpriced bargain-bucket crap they normally try to shift?
I have pre-ordered exactly 3 games - Uncharted 3, Red Dead Redemption, and BF3. I paid in full up-front for all 3. But I never give the "special edition" versions a second glance - they were all the vanilla product. Seems like it's better to wait for the prices to drop if you want that sort of thing, as they are all pretty useless 2 weeks after release.
@wavey_gravey I think I got them from Tesco. They were all at massively reduced price, I hasten to add - BF3 was about £28 for a pre-release delivery, so I wan't complaining.
@WorldOfHurt Did you actually pay up front, or did they take the money upon shipment? I know that if you pre-order from Shopto.net you have to input your card details, but payment is not taken until the item is shipped and even then they send a sequence of emails checking that things are still ok. I like that, it makes me feel secure.
Blog confuses me. You say special/limited editions are for idiots....but then say you thought you preorded the specialisation edition?
But anyway....I don't pre-order. I have somewhere between 5-10 different stores that all sell games, so getting a copy is not an issue. Plus I rarely day one a game any more because most prices drop very quickly and one of the 5-10 stores will have the game I want on offer. the pre-order bonus idea is kinda a decent idea to encourage new sales...each store has its own little exclusive content offer....so I tend to view it as DLC ass rape. Slicing and dicing the actual product.
@angryfodder I didn't say that special/limited editions are for idiots, I said that putting down a cash-money deposit for something that you are unsure of what the end product will be is stupid. In my example, GAME were trying to get me to pay £5 to pre-order the "collectors/special/limited" edition of Halo4 without knowing what it contained or how much it will end up costing. If you think back to the Legendary edition of Halo3 with the replica Master Chief helmet, that bad boy cost over £100!
As for the "Specialisation edition" that is at the standard price, but contains the store pre-order bonuses. It was that that I thought I had pre-ordered, but GAME couldn't tell me whether I had or not.
@wavey_gravey Ah, ok I get you. They are pushing preorders hard again at the moment. You'd think they'd back it up with a decent preorder service. One where they can link a customer to a product :lol:
@angryfodder Oh it is farcical, in store they cannot see a customer's purchasing history using the reward card, so the store that I had pre-ordered at couldn't tell me if I had my pre-order. The only way they can tell is if they call head office to find out!
I've never preordered a game in my life. I don't believe in paying for something that has not been released yet. I don't know the quality of it. And even if it is of high quality, it will usually be better a couple patches later. I also rarely buy a game full price. I haven't paid $60 for any game this entire year. Wait long enough and Steam will put anything on sale for half price or less. Only games I buy at full price are some PS3 exclusives because Sony doesn't drop their price for a long time usually and I can't get them on Steam. Hell I haven't bought a Wii yet despite wanting one for years. I was waiting for it to hit $100 and now that it has I don't have $100 to spend. I didn't get a PS2 until 2 years after the PS3 was out. I didn't spend more than $30 for any PS2 game that I own and I own dozens of them. If I really want to play a game close to release I rent it. I may break my rule for Bioshock Infinite though. I'll still wait for reviews, but I might break down and actually buy it for $60 if it turns out as good as it looks.
I very rarely pre-order myself but don't mind throwing down for a series I love. I bought the CE of Xcom and the LE for Assassin's Creed 3 this year but that's it. I'm also a sucker for soundtracks and quality art books...digital items are just a joke though.
@-Saigo- I generally not interested in the Limited / Special editions of games. I don't tend to go for the collector's stuff, it just isn't my bag. My problem in this instance is that the store were trying to get me to lay down a deposit for the collector's edition, but had no information on what it contained or how much it would end up costing in the end. No way am I going to do that.
Pre-orders are a farce, especially when it comes to new IPs. I never pre-order anymore; I've come to realize how stupid and overhyped the whole practice is, and how anti-consumer it actually is. I mean, you are putting down money on a product without knowing anything about how good it will be. I actually don't buy on day 1 too often either. I instead wait to see what friends/other gamers are saying, and this also gives the developers time to iron out any rough spots the game might have on launch. Hell, did you hear about the new Medal of Honor? Supposedly the game wasn't even done when it was shipped, so a "patch" was released that fixed nearly 100 trivial features...like voice chat allowing you to hear the enemy team, a glitch where people could become a clan leader by leaving and quickly rejoining the clan, and numerous glitches that prevented people from unlocking certain items.
The only game I pre-ordered all year was Borderlands 2 because it actually had a substantial pre-order bonus. I mean, a free $10 DLC when it comes out? I played the hell out of the original game, so that sounds good. I ended up getting screwed out of that deal anyway...The dingy blonde that took my pre-order didn't take down my e-mail address, thus I had no way of having the pre-order bonus code sent to me. I was told at release that I'd have to buy the game a second time to get my code, which doesn't even make any sense.
So no, I don't pre-order. The whole practice is stupid. It's stupid that so many gamers are willing to blindly trust a developer/publisher to release a good game, even going so far as to give money ahead of time to reserve their copy.
I used to never pre-order games. There's no advantage to the costumer. Do you really expect every store not to have a billion copies of Halo 4 at launch day? The store benefits from pre-orders because they lock you in to buying the game you want there instead of somewhere else, but there's really no advantage to the costumer unless you get something from pre-ordering..
Stores have gotten better at offering people pre-order incentives over the last few years. So nowadays I do pre-order maybe 1 or 2 games a year when I see they're giving me something worthwhile. But it's always for a game where I know exactly what I'm going to get and how much it's going to cost.
Also.... my pre-orders are usually from amazon.com. They tend to give you good stuff like credit toward future purchases and they will even ship many pre-orders so that they arrive on release day, if you care about that sort of thing.
@johnsteed7 The other two games I have pre-ordered this year have come from online-retailers and I agree, often they are much better. In this instance though I wanted the store pre-order bonuses. I might just ignore it and go to my usual retailer if I am honest!
Sounds like a horribly run place. Kind of like our ebgames :P I can't even remember how many times I've gone to ebgames looking for a game on launch day and they told me it's not released yet, only to travel to a different store and find it sitting on the shelf :/ Anyways, if I were you I'd just avoid the place if possible. Shop elsewhere. Pre-order bonuses are, at best, forgettable and more often than not, consisting of DLC items that get released to the masses later anyways. I don't pre-order a lot, as it has to be a title I'm REALLY looking forward to, but when I do, I see what's offered. Our 'Futureshop' seems to love throwing in unique steelbook cases with their games and often I'll go that route, cuz the steelbooks are nice.
@hush404 It is pretty horribly run, earlier this year they went in to administration and were saved at the 11th hour. It looks to me that it won't be too long before they are back there because their practices haven't changed one iota.
I think I only preordered Dark Souls, Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 from Amazon, and I didn't even get the Dark Souls special edition I ordered. Most preorder bonuses are kind of silly imo but if you're planning on buying on day one anyway, might as well find a preorder bonus to go with it, especially if that bonus is something like $10 off a future game. There's less and less incentive to buy something on day one these days though, given how fast prices drop and how fast things go on sale, and most preorder bonuses don't provide enough incentive.
@kfjl This was my point really. I don't tend to go for the limited edition with the collectors stuff as they hold no interest, however I do sometimes like to get the bonus stuff for pre-ordering at a particular place. In this instance I am just totally confused as to what I have actually pre-ordered and the lack of knowledge from the staff at GAME has just served to confuse me more LOL
1 Like honestly, I do it all the time! I pre-order ultimate editions and know I can shift the order down if I don't like it. But like Bioshock is already practically sold out for their limited edition, I can go to the standard, but I can't go up to limited now - so I always go for broke and switch later.
@pokecharm I should have perhaps clarified and said that the £5 deposit is "non-refundable" in this instance. I think it is a ridiculous way of doing business for GAME if I am honest.
As for the limited editions, I generally am not interested in the extras that come with games, so the more expensive options aren't of interest to me :D
@wavey_gravey even if it isn't refundable, can you use it on something else? that's how our place works and that is a good way to go! the extras are hit and miss, I agree!
@pokecharm I guess I could, but I am not a fan of this particular store, more often than not the prices are waaaaaay over the top so I tend to use online retailers. The only reason I pre-ordered here this time was for the pre-order bonus.
1 Like Agree - my go-to retailer at least has the decency to not charge until the game ships, and I'm free to change my mind up until the last minute. They'll also drop the price if one finds that a particular product is being offered cheaper elsewhere.
Not that we've got much of a choice between retailers down here, but then there are global stores available for those really hard to get items.
@s_h_a_d_o we still put a deposit down, but you get your money back if you change your mind - it isn't ever locked in! Like for Gears 3, my cousin pre-ordered and played the beta then canceled the pre-order, not the best way to go, but it worked and he got to use the money elsewhere!
