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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."
I worked at EB for a few years and this is the way their business model is setup. Someone decides/predicts how well a game or product will sell and order a certain number of them for each store. If a game does not have alot of buzz around it, then they'll usually only order 1 or 2 copies for each store, if that many... The preorder system works somewhat independant of this, and any games preordered are guarenteed to come in...blah,blah,blahh... I'm sure you've heard the shpeel before. Anyway, if a great game comes out yet no one pre-orders it and there's not a whole lot of buzz for it, they'll only bring in one copy usually, and because of this it sells poorly and it's a downward spiral/vicious cycle from there. As for extremely popular stuff, because there are limited quantities they require a pre-order so the stores that have more customers wanting one will get one, which actually makes sense...but most shoppers are unaware of this system and get screwed like the guy who submitted this article...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Go to Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, or Target (or a similar store). You'll be able to fine one without a problem.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
Probably doesn't matter. We've all been through Sony launches before, we know the drill. They promise fewer units than people demand, they deliver fewer than they promise, stores weave gloom and doom about it taking months to restock and then two weeks later, we're all playing happily at home waiting until the inevitable disk read error or stuck button pops up to remind us why we told ourselves not to buy the next Sony system for at least three months after launch.
If there were no pre-orders the fanboys would just wait outside at opening and you'd have a half hour of chaos before they were all gone. Pre-orders actually allow the casual gamer to get a particular item they may happen to be looking forward to but not be able to line up pre-dawn like a Dead-head to get one. They're a good thing.
Video games only seem to sell out at video game stores on launch day. I've gotten those 3 titles on launch day (WoW CE even), a Nintendo DS, and various other games/system dating back a good 9 or so years without preordering, ever.
I remember the first time I encountered the idea of preordering. I went to my local EB to pick up a copy of Fighter Maker for the PS (yes, crapfest, I know). They had several copies in the case behind the counter, but wouldnt sell one to me because I didn't preorder. It was rather late in the day, clearly those copies were going to sit there all night, but their only response was to come back tomorrow and buy it. How they could pass up an easy sale on a non-so-hot game suprised me, but they wouldn't budge. In the end, I walked 3 stores down and purchased a copy at a KB Toystore, no preordering, no coming back tomorrow.
My advice to everyone is do yourselves a favor and use EB, Gamestop, and the like for older/used games only. Your local Wal-mart or other retail chain will probably meet all your release day needs, whithout you lining their pockets with your hard-earned money before you can even get what you want.
What does this woman want?
1. An item is in HUGE demand
2. People pay extra to secure an item without having to queue from 3am
3. Game retailer makes more money and provides a service gladly taken advantage of by the customer
4. Customer can look forward to a happy day
It works
If you want something hard to get, you have to play the game. So to speak.
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).
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. ,$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.
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,
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.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"