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[RoboFu]

Buying at launch or later … why does that matter ?

If you buy at launch and the game is too buggy for you personally then you can just wait for the fix to continue playing. no one is forcing you to play it then and there.

And let’s be honest this is much more of a pc problem than consoles anyway.

 

[systemr123]

Which can be done at any time.

I said it before and I'll say it again: buying games on launch is paying the most money for the worst version of them.

True statement here. Also, buying anything at launch is paying the most money for the worst version of them.

People but at launch because they’re enthusiastic about new things. If you wait 2 years it’s not new anymore. It’s purely a logical psychological thing.

I don’t pre-order because personally I think that’s stupid, and mostly wait a few days after a game release to see if it’s at least playable. Games can contain bugs at launch but as long as it’s not major, why wait a year? You can have fun right now.

Also, maybe a bit gloomy and doom, but you don’t know if you will still live past today, anything can happen so just enjoy the here and now, instead of waiting for a future that might never happen.

 

[Filben]

I think for most of us who have a paying job and don't rely on social services have enough money to pay 20 bucks more than you'd do months later. As a grown up your more valuable resource is probably time. And sometimes when a game comes out you're excited and maybe it's fall or winter and you go out less often and therefore have more time.

If you wait this window might pass, another game coming out and you don't have the time to play them both back to back.

If it's not something I'm really excited about I often wait for huge discount. But sometimes I simply want to play it as soon as it comes out.

Don't want to be playing RE4 in summer so I bought it day one (for 54EUR mind you, not 70).

 

[Griffon]

I used to never buy anything on day one, but since CDKeys has good preorder deals, I do it from time to time. Got RE4R for 40€, I can't complain.

 

[Havoc2049]

I've been gaming for a long time and I know what games and genres I like. I also do tons of research on a game that interests me and I have no problems with pro-orders if it looks like something I will enjoy. Very rarely have I felt that I've been burned by a game because I bought it day one.

I also love the excitemnet surrounding game releases. With games that have a multiplayer component, it's fun to experience a new game with a community of gamers. With MMOs and multiplayer games, if you wait to get into a game, sometimes it leaves you with the feeling of being a day late and a dollar short, because the core of the community has already moved on to the latest update and your left scrounging around looking for someone to play the old content with. Playing catch up on a MMO can feel overwhelming at times.

 

[SmokedMeat]

People have FOMO. They like to be part of the first group of players discussing a game, even if it’s trash like Forspoken.

I mean, I get it if it’s a series you enjoy and don’t want to wait. I’m talking about the folks that just go from new AAA release to new AAA release.

Me personally, I don’t feel most games are worth the asking price. There’s just way too many games I’m interested in that are dropping in price, to care about paying top dollar just to play a new release.

It’s not like any of these games are doing shit we haven’t seen/played fifty other times.

 

[Mr Hyde]

I like complete editions and remasters because they often come with a full package, patched up and often at a lower price. I have no problems waiting for 99% of the games out there. The only games I buy at launch are mainline Final Fantasy, Zelda and Souls-games by From Software. And maybe the occasional Sony AAA first party banger. Some of these games have experienced launch issues but if the game is good and solid in design, I'm willing to overlook technical hiccups (unless they are downright broken).

 

[Nocturno999]

Diablo 4 has the potential of a masterpiece, but definitely not day 1.

 

[SNG32]

Honestly I stopped buying games at launch because of this. Why pay full price for a buggy mess of shit when a few months later it’s 20 - 30 percent cheaper and games play better since a lot of patches are released by that time.

I mean sure i’m missing FOMO at launch but fuck it I can wait. Especially with the tremendous amount of backlog I have with games at the moment.

 

[fart town usa]

I didn't know that about RE6! I wonder what the changes were

To this day, it frustrates me so much that the PC version of The Evil Within was altered from the Day 1 original version...the biggest changes are visual downgrades, presumably done for performance reasons. It bugs me because I experienced it with the original graphics, like for example in Chapter 9 the Ruvik randomized stalker moments felt much more like Resident Evil 3.5 with intense tint effects when he's actively stalking you and in later patches the effects in the PC version were so toned down or outright missing in other places...it's a travesty. I want to check to see if the Gamepass version is a different build of the game with the original effects intact. What's strange is that other versions like the console versions still have the original effects, it's just the PC version that got downgraded for the worse.

Vanilla RE6 has the Ada campaign locked until you beat Leon/Chris/Jake campaigns, camera is also pulled in really close. Ada campaign doesn't have coop. Other random things too.

 

[ReBurn]

The high cost of game development, increased development complexity, and longer development timelines are the reasons games ship with the issues they do. The financial investment is huge and these companies need revenue to continue to function. Not every developer is flush with cash to be able to wait as long as it takes to make a game perfect. They have to make payroll, honor agreements with investors, pay back loans, etc.

They push preorders so hard because it's how they start bringing in cash as early as possible. They sell $40 GOTY editions and drop prices later to keep revenue from existing games coming in while they work on new content. Most developers won't be able to be like Nintendo and never drop prices because they aren't sitting on a mountain of cash to carry them through the lean times.

Shipping broken games is a symptom of the larger problem of games taking years to make and tens of millions of dollars to make.

 

[cash_longfellow]

PC devs started this shit by charging people for early access. It’s now rolled over to consoles as well, they just don’t call it early access.

 

[killatopak]

I want to play that game.

 

[hemo memo]

I get what you are saying but it doesn’t apply to Nintendo which is why I have no issue buying their games at launch as Nintendo very rarely discount their games and for my experience they launch in a very good state. Nintendo’s own dev studios so i’m not counting Game Freak here.

Other than Nintendo, I agree. I mean you could argue that launch period is where the most discussions and discovery of the game happen so OT discussion on GAF can be really fun but that’s the only reason.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

There is never a worse time to buy a game than to buy it at launch. It goes without saying that everyone knows that games at launch have the least amount of features, the most amount of bugs, and the highest price.

There is little to no incentive in buying a game, particularly a single-player game at launch and I think the industry is going to see fewer and fewer sales of games at launch over time. I'm honestly surprised that people still pre-order games digitally as if there was some digital scarcity. This is especially puzzling when there are little to no pre-order bonuses included.

There are entirely too many games on the market for this pattern to be sustained, to release buggy games at 70 dollars, only to release a DLC a year later, and then release a deluxe edition with the DLC and the patches 2 years later for like 40 dollars.

Unfortunately, I think the industry will take the wrong lesson from this and try to emulate Nintendo and keep their prices high. Hopefully, competition makes that difficult. They still know that the vast majority of people are still going to buy full price within the first few weeks/couple of months.

I guess my question is, why are people (you?) buying these games at launch?

FOMO

 

[diffusionx]

Just saw this on PC Gamer: https://www.pcgamer.com/company-of-...ements-along-with-free-and-premium-cosmetics/

they're also talking about a "full balance pass", lol. if i bought this game day one i'd feel like a sucker.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I think for most of us who have a paying job and don't rely on social services have enough money to pay 20 bucks more than you'd do months later. As a grown up your more valuable resource is probably time. And sometimes when a game comes out you're excited and maybe it's fall or winter and you go out less often and therefore have more time.

Lol at that opener.

Not wanting to waste money on broken software and encourage more games to be released in a sad state isn't something to pour scorn on. If you've only got a limited amount of time, it'd be better to wait until the games are patched rather than waste what free time you have on playing broken software.

There are plenty of things that you can do with that $20 too - you could donate it to a cause that you feel deserves it or just treat a member of your family to something nice. Better that than just giving it to a publisher who'll reward you with an apology and a pledge to fix their product as soon as possible. However, your money, your choice!

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Games are missing features at launch due to time constraints. You as a consumer just have to be aware and decide if you want to wait it out.

FOMO is definitely a big issue for this in gaming and it’s why these companies keep getting away with launching broken games.

If I see a big issue is found from digital foundry or one of the tech channels I will usually hold out until it’s fixed or just wait for the game to get a deep discount, I am not supporting that crap especially at full price.