Whither the Impulse Shopper?

An essay discussing the frustrations of the pre-order graces the pages of GameGirl Advance today. From the article: "I have had explained to me this morning, very pleasantly by an earnest young man, how there will be no PSPs available for drop-in customers on Thursday, and how, because of this, if I haven't pre-ordered, I won't be getting one for months, windfall tax refund or not."

Comments

Re:Stocking is expensive.

[n0wak]

It only helps the big triple-A release companies.

This dependence on preorders HURTS the smaller games and prevents them from getting into gamer's hands. Take Katamari Damacy, for example. This game got a LOT of word-of-mouth buzz after release. BUT, well, you see, the geniuses at EB and other game retailers decided that this was a game that only warranted three/four copies per store. And, just like that, there was a massive shortage of the game AT NO FAULT OF THE PUBLISHER.

I also had a store sell my preordered copy of a game to someone other than me this week, and since everyone ordered only one copy of this game, I can't fucking get it now.

I'm so sick of game retailers and their bullshit (like the new game "warranty" scam that EB has going) that I'm pretty much going to try to rely on the bigger brand electronics retailers for my game purchases (Best Buy and Futureshop).

Gamestop

[miyako]

I've always liked the way Gamestop handles pre-orders (or at least the Gamestop I usually go to, not sure if they all have the same policy). Basically, although you have to put money down to pre-order a game, you are welcome to put down as much or as little as you want, and whatever you put down is taken off the price when you pick up the game. If for some reason they are unable to get enough copies of the game to fill all the pre-orders, then people who put down the most on the game get theirs first.
What I like about this system is that when I hear about a new game that I'm really excited about, I can go and pay for the entire thing, and then forget about it, and the day before the game is released I get a call saying "we have your game, ,$foo, in-stock, you can pick it up starting tomorrow at 10 am. Usually I'm up-to-date on release dates, but occasionally it's a nice suprise, since I've already paid for the game I can go pick it up without worrying about my current financial situation.
Whenever there is a thread about pre-orders, people always mention just waiting until there are more copies and the price drop, but I generally like to get a game soon after it's release just because (except during the holidays) the good games worth playing are spaced out so that generally by the time one comes out, I've finished the last great game and probably played through a couple of mediocre bargin-bin titles.