I usually only pre-order games that come with some sort of bonus, ex. Gamestop only RE4 case and Xenosaga DVD.

I've preordered the PSP because it seems like nobody can manufacture a system and be able to meet demand.

Pretty much sums it up for me. For the most part, I don't see the need to pre-order because most games are widely available release day, and you can shop for the best deals. Getting it early doesn't usually matter to me. Consoles are a diff. matter, they aren't usually available release day unless you pre-order since supplies are so limited.

I personally pre-order a lot. Not because I feel it's necessary, but because I like supporting my local Gamestop. I know there's a certain idiot factor at some of these... but the folks at my local one are cool, know what they're talking about, and are generally very helpful. Plus, they tend to make sure I get all the cool freebies, and I get the game early. I've cancelled pre-orders before when I've found better deals. It's not really a hassle to me... but to each his own.

I only pre-order now at GameRush....since I have credit and they usually have good trade-in deals for Pre-Orders.

I currently have on Pre-Order:
Doom 3:CE
SW:Republic Commando
GTA:SA (XBOX)
Fight Night 2

I may get one or two more...since the deal is still going on

Let me ask you all something: how does pre-ordering affect you? If you don't want to pre-order a game but still want it on release day, go to a different store. I've had trouble in the past finding games I wanted on release day at various big-box stores. Plus I feel my time is worth something so I don't like driving around for that stuff.

The only game I've pre-ordered recently was Halo 2. I could have picked it up later in the week at a big-box, but I was home playing it at 12:30 am the night it was released. It was a win-win as far as I was concerned.

Who cares if EB and Gamestop push pre-orders? If you don't want it, don't do it. And if you don't like it don't shop there. Seems pretty simple.

Well, that's what most have said they do, just stay the hell out of lame game stores.

Don't forget all the extra money the stores make off of pre-orders. Say they pre-sell 1 million copies of a game. That's $50m they have sitting in an account generating interest until the day they have to pay the publisher for the games. Compare that to regular sales where they only have the profit of the sale to earn interest off. That's why they push pre-orders so much.

Good point, though the numbers are way off as not everkyone pays in full for pre-orders. You usually only have to put $5 down to reserve it.

Do preorders work that way? I assume it does earn interest or something, and I'm not an MBA, but I know there is an issue with gift cards--you'd think selling 10 million in gift cards is a good thing, but many [all?] retailers can't log the money spent on gift card purchases as 'income' until they actually have a product leave the store--one reason why the holiday sales weren't higher, a lot of people gave gift cards for Christmas instead of money/gifts, and the cards got spent after the holiday season, so the sales applied to a later quarter.
Preorders may work like that.

The cash goes into the cash account and can earn interest. It's only an accounting issue on paper that causes a problem.

With gift cards, you book the cash as an asset, but it has an offsetting pre-paid sale liability, so the net effect is zero until the pre-paid sale is converted into an actual sale (the gift card is exchanged for merchandise).

I don't know that pre-orders work the same way, though I would think they do.

But that's really just a problem on paper. A store would have your $5 and could do with it what they want. They just owe you $5 worth of merchandise later (in a way, it's an interest-free loan to the store from the customer).

I always preorder the big games. I'm so for preorders! This guarantees me the game I want on launch day. I hate having to deal with Best Buy or other department stores on getting games. You never know when Best Buy is really going to put them out on the shelf. They always have later release dates and by luck, sometimes they put it out before their so called release date. Then I'll show up on the release date and it's sold out. I hate the hassle of having to check with Best Buy every day for a week to see if they have it yet and then to only find out it's gone already. I go to EBgames, place my $5 deposit and wait for them to call me the day of release to let me know it's in stock. Oh by the way, that's why they ask for your phone number so they can inform you it's in stock. If you don't like preorders, then continue dealing with the hassle. Preorders make my life a hell of a lot easier!

I agree, if you're the type that must have the games on release date, preorder is much easier.

I'll occasionally preorder something like a non-portable zelda that I'm dying to play.

But for most I'll just go to best by the week after release when I know they'll have it, or even more often just wait months for it to drop to $20. No hassle and easier on the wallet!

If they give me something free like an art book or extra disc I will sometimes preorder. GameRush has some good trade in deals right now where your basically get your preorders at $34.99 instead of $49.99 for trading it two games (plus the value of the trades) so I have several things preordered there.

It just depends I guess. I preorder when it benefits me and I get something out of it or I just have some trade in credit to burn. I don't fall their dumb high pressure tactics though. If you go to Target on release day you can pretty much get anything you want without preordering it.

Like ive said before in numerous pre-ordering theads we had in the past, when I ran a store, if you didn't pre-order, I would NOT sell you the game for 2 days. Yep, very true. Even if we had 5 extra copies of a game, if you came in asking for it, and didn't pre-order, you didn't get it. Why? Becauseof people that don't preorder, I get screwed in sales.

Example, lets say Snowblind came out today. Not a huge game, not a small one. Some general intrest in it. If my store didn't get any pre-orders, I would get 2 copies ($100). Guess what? They would be gone in an hour. If we had 4 people pre-order, we would get atleast 12 copies ($600). Why is that important? Because the first week of a games release is when you sell the most copies. By not pre-ordering, and you come in later that night of a games release, chances are the game WILL be sold out (this is videogame stores, not BB, Target etc. They HAVE a back room to store 100+ copies, we barley have enough room to fit 2 people in there)

BTW, Pre-ordering also shows whomever is making the game (lets say Atlus) that there is enough intrest in that title to garner a sequel. If they see that have 500,000copies of there game pre-ordered, chances are a sequel is likley. If they see that have no pre-orders, how do they know how many copies to make, nor if it will even sell?

That's fine for 'limited interest' games, although if Atlus sold 1 million copies of Nocturne in Week 2, and no preorders, they'd probably still be interested in a sequel. Plus, a lot of those companies, while they certainly wantto make money, don't put the dollar first--they know they're not going to sell 1 million copies. I know they plan ahead, but they don't rely solely on preorders.
But things like Halo 2 or GTA: SA? Again, unless you need it Day One, I don't see the point. Yes, it might sell out at Store A. Odds are you can find it from Stores B-Q, or order it online. Or wait a week.

If you had no preorders for Snowblind, would you order 2 copies, or have two copies sent do you? As in, does the manager of the store have leeway in his inventory? I can see judging interest based on preorders, and certainly you wouldn't order 50 copies of everything, but by tying it all to the preorders, you are limiting yourself. Plus, you don't push preorders of everything; so in a way you are artificially limiting your inventory off the bat.

If you ordered 10 copies of a game, and you had 5 preorders, and I came in and wanted one those 5 copies that wasn't preordered, you wouldn't sell it to me? Perhaps that has more to do with your lack of sales than your preorder status. If I wanted that game, and you wouldn't sell it to me, not only would I go right over to Best Buy or somewhere and buy it, but in any future game buying plans, I would think "That's the store that wouldn't sell me an item they had in stock, screw 'em."

Unless there's a premium/price deal for preordering, or you have to have it release day, I see no benefit to the consumer for preordering. All the benefits [other than those two] seem to be heavily weighted toward the retailer. As a consumer, when I'm offered a 'deal', especially one that involves my giving a store money *now* for an item in the *future*, my first question is, 'What's in it for me?' Not a whole lot.

Yeah, sequels get made because a game sells well, period. It doesn't make a shit whether 50% or .05% of the sales were pre-orders.

I can see the supply and demand, and the reason the stores push them so hard, but as I said I hate game stores and don't care about their plight.

If a VIDEO GAME SPECIALTY store doesn't know how to properly stock their store.. they need to close shop.

If a VIDEO GAME SPECIALTY store doesn't have room for their stock they need to either clean out the stupid shit that litters their hovels more than the actual video games (dumb ass anime toys and figures that don't sell and always end up on clearance the next month, hundreds of unkempt DVDs, etc) or own up to the fact that business is booming and get a bigger fucking store.

Sad, very sad.

Pixy, its not like that though. When I ran my store, my office was 6 feet long, 2 feet wide. A desk BARLEY fit there. Since then, I have managed two other videogame stores, most have an office 8 feet long by 3 feet wide. We simply DON'T have room to store tons of games. This applys to EB's, Game Stops, Game Crazys etc.

Dtcarson, at the three stores I have managed, we had no control how many copys to order. Some moron at the shipping plant decided "This store get 15 copies, this store gets 1". Im not kidding. I would goto my store with 0 pre-orders and see 2 copies of the Sims, goto are other store 10 miles down the road, they too had 0 pre-orders, and have 20 copies of the same game!". Its simply amazing. Often times they would ship one store (always the farthest one out there in the ghetto) 300 copies of a game, and I would have to drive 150 miles each way to pick my shipment up. I really do NOT miss those days.

No, I simply would say "All the copies are for pre-orders only". You would see the game on the back counter with a big PRE-ORDER only paper on it. Keep in mind, alot of stores did this. This was a tactic coming from one of my District Managers. BTW, the extra 5 copies would be sold the next day.

Drop-ship. When I worked in retail, they did that a lot to me too. I could order certain things, or extra or certain things, but I got sent cases and cases and crap I didn't want, couldn't sell, and wouldn't have ordered. We had to do the same thing, trade/sell with other stores where the crap would sell, and drive all around town making these deals.

Even if you said "All the copies are for pre-orders only," you still lose my sale, because I go somewhere else to buy it. And you may sell all five the next day, but I don't see how it makes sense to punish the consumer for the company's lack of foresight or lack of flexibility in ordering. And that's the gift that keeps on giving, because again, next time I want a game, I'll think "They only had enough for pre-order," and go somewhere else, totally eradicating any chance that store may have had of my pre-ordering.
I just don't see how it makes sense to *not* sell product to a customer who's willing to buy it [again, as long as all those who preordered stuff got theirs.] *shrug*

Games really don't take up that much room, especially since a lot of stores nowadays stick the empty cases on the shelf [another thing: why do we need 10 open cases of the same damn game? 2 or 3, maybe, so 2 or 3 people can look at it at the same time, but the rest is wasted space.]. Those cd slidey-racks my EB has hold thousands of disks in not a lot of space, and a good shelving system could do the same. I'll admit, they couldn't store what a BB could; but then again, this is the exception, not the rule. You don't need to keep 250 copies of MLB 2004 in backstock; a couple copies each of the current releases, and more stock of the hot new titles, depending on how detailed your consumer data is, and how often you get a shipment in [and of course assuming you could order your own stuff, which you're saying you couldn't, which of course adds a level of inefficiency to it.]

Quick summary:
Other than:
* getting the game on release day [and if I preordered it, and you sold my copy, I'm pissed] [valid if this is an issue for you];
* getting a preorder deal/discount [obviously this is good, unless you wait a month or two for a price drop];
* getting a freebie/promotion [could be good, could be pointless--I'll take a t-shirt, but calendars seem pointless];

Are there any benefits *to the consumer* for pre-ordering?

This is seriously fucked up. Thank you for contributing to the decline of American customer service.

Hi! I'm a big chain video game store. I like to lie to and belittle my customers, the people who put me in business! My life is soulless, bitter and empty and it makes me feel better about myself to be a total fucking cum-slobbering jackass to the people who give me money! Instead of providing friendly service and knowledge and familiarity with our specialty product (things that are supposed to make specialty stores better choices to go to then large corporation chains) we deliberately NOT sell our products to people and instead keep them behind the counter where we jack off to our own pathetic malice!

Nope, and from what most have said, aside from the occasionall great freebie (Zelda) or killer trade in deal (gamerush) most gamers don't care about those much. Other than the hardcore types that have to have games ASAP.