Gaming & Culture —

The death of the preorder

Remember the good old days? To hell with them.

I remember when you had to preorder games. Now, you may say, "But Ben, you can still preorder games now! Those times have not passed you by!" You're right, you can still preorder games. There just isn't any reason to now.

The idea of a preorder is you put a set amount of money down on an item that you believe is going to be scarce. This allows you to make sure you'll get at least one of this item. Before gaming was mainstream many times there simply wasn't a lot of a particular title. In the days of the 8-bit Nintendo cartridge shortages, real or manufactured, were common. You had to be the first on your block to get a game, and there weren't that many places you could buy it.

Now gaming is everywhere. Within 15 minutes of me is literally over 20 places I can buy videogames, from the chain stores to Sears to Best Buy to CompUSA to the independent shops, everyone has games. Even more importantly, they all get a lot of games. A ton. Before I gave up on preordering I remember putting down my five dollars and then on release day there was literally a wall of the title I wanted. If anyone at a game store told you Halo 2 was going to be hard to find so you better give them cash before it comes you should have smacked them. Everyone was going to stock that game, and by the truckload. Hell, I saw it in gas stations on sale at launch.

In the end this is a good thing for the consumer, and good for the industry. You don't have to cough up money before you get a game and the competition is more fierce, making give aways for preorders and the neat little bonuses more plentiful. The retailers know if they sell out you can take two steps in either direction and grab the game from someplace else.

I like it, this is one of the nice things when your hobby gets big. The chain stores no longer have any power. While the clerk may sniff his nose at you when you don't give him your fiver to get the new Zelda game this Christmas you now have the ability to give him the finger and walk across the street. Hell, I bet soon you'll even be able to get games through the magic of the mail. Imagine that!  

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Channel Ars Technica