The Price of a Pre-order

The Price of A Pre-order, Does it Cost Us Anything?

Walk into any GameStop and you'll see it, promotional material for the latest and greatest games. Pre-order incentives line the free-marketing spaces of the walls, of course no more free than just before the posters and products are perched into place. After execution of a carefully guarded game plan, designed to get in and out quickly, you reach the counter. The employees bandied conversations are of no concern to you. "Just pay and leave,"you say to yourself; but there you are and the many hollow benefits of pre-ordering are shoved into your face. 

"Well, are you interested in anything else today. You know that the new "such and such"is coming out, right. Why don't you think about pre-ordering it . . . please, please pre-order something, "begs and employee charged with upholding overbearing policies. You may at first question their motives and Gamestop's business practices, but you cave under pressure--or out of empathy.Then, just like that, your in for a copy of the "Super-duper-exciting-limited-collectors-edition, edition," of the "next big thing" from the next "big thing". 

Now, of course, there are possible arguments for both sides of the spectrum, when it comes to pre-orders. One can argue that they can help the brick-and-mortar retailers to accurately gauge interest, and by extension relay this information to the publishers, in order to produce realistic product numbers and delivery orders. This doesn't, however, address any issues with overinflated, unrealistic sales expectations--just look at the oft-cited SquareEnix Tomb Raider fiasco. Pre-orders possibly do serve to determine the sales expectations for future games in a franchise, but they can't do much to build hype, rather, they gauge it. However, I can imagine that limited editions can serve multiple, other purposes, but, again, I don't think that they raise all that much market share. Instead limited editions  can serve to reward devoted fans and day-one purchasers and/or it can serve as a slight incentive for those who are on the fence about purchasing, said game, early. 


With these incentives laid out though, I can still see some problems with pre-orders. Do game purchasers--fans--truly benefit from pre-ordering? I recently pre-ordered and purchased Shin Megami Tensei IV --and ,yes, it was from GameStop. I was not on the fence about the game, at least not when I first placed the pre-order, but when it got closer to July 16th, lets just say I was starting to get cold feet. That is just it, pre-order does not equate to a bona fide sale, the cold-feet of any consumer can lead to a canceled order. These pre-orders are here not for our benefit as consumers, but it does gauge potential sales and decides inventory--availability. What happens these days when there are a host of unnecessary, shallow offerings as pre-order incentive, every where you go from Target to Walmart: 

   *pre-order now and get this suit of armor or this exclusive mission* 

Oh, but you shouldn't be suckered into pre-purchasing anything because of such flimsy marketing you'd say. Well, we can't speak for everyone, and when someone feels as though the incentive is of value, they have the right to make whatever decision they want on a purchase. There is no pre-purchase, its simply a "pre-purchase"that is really a reservation to pick up what is shamefully portrayed as limited supply. Limited supply, greater demand.

Artificial drip-feeds of content, created with no passion or intention of furthering the creativity of the game or improving it. Instead we are forced to set aside five dollars to further prove that we are willing to relinquish our sense of ownership, and our right to make a concentrated and well-thought-out purchase. We deposit cash to the loan-shark-like retailers (online and off) and the online network services, with little expectations for relative equal value in return. They instead hold our funds hostage and promise "innovation", "quality", extras and preface it all with their care for the consumers rights and the value of their time and money. Well when we blindly spend and give to corporations with-out the demand of quality and care that our dollars attest, we accept the shallow, cheapened process and products that we receive from publishers and their retailer cohorts. More and more the sense of hasty, broken products are being pushed by cheap incentive, much in the vain of a cheap service rather than in the form of a solid dependable product(as is expected).  

Cold feet, remember, I did at one point believe that I would not purchase Shin Megami Tensei IV. This was because I was unsure of some of the previews and conversation surrounding the game before release.  Its not that I thought it would be a bad game or anything, but it started to, through the rumor mill, seem as though the game would not be for me--a long time Persona series fan. I did, however, because of my experience with the products/games I purchased that were published by Atlus ( the publisher--which includes Persona among many other quality franchises--is synonoumous with niche titles and fan service), stick with my pre-order. The limited edition offered with the first printing of the game was not limited to pre-orders, but, regardless, some may indeed consider it a pre-order incentive. I will say after spending sometime with the extras ( including a 176 page art-book/strategy-guide, a CD comprising music across the Megami Tensei Franchises and a slip case, which replicates the front cover of the game box), I can say that I don't wholeheartedly believe that they are worth an extra 10 dollars--as the game has a MSRP of $49.99, in place of the regular $39.99 price-point of 3DS games. 

Regardless of whether or not the game was worth the pre-order or not, I do not believe that this is my contention; because game quality or value can be very subjective, one persons derision of short, action-heavy games may be anthers favorite sort of romp. So, I can see that my point of conflict is focused on the cheapening of the product we buy as game consumers, this, I say, is on both an outside artistic perspective and on an objective, product-quality perspective. Ok, so what am I rambling on about--whats the point--, well, remember, I'm just giving some quick thoughts on what seems to be a divisive topic with, I'm sure, hidden complexity and widespread industry effects.  I guess then my point is twofold; one: the experience offered to the player/purchaser is watered down on an artistic level. What the heck is art, any ways? Well, from my observations it seems practically anything is the answer. Something just has to have enough ambiguity or intention and purpose, and from any given perspective it can be considered as art. What does that have to do with the trampling of the artistic integrity of a video game? It goes hand in hand with the diminished finality of the product, and the incentive to rush out half fermented endeavors that are rife with corporate-market influence. What happens is that the intention and ambiguity of the pieces are lost and out of the artists--developers--hands. Thus we, the many connoisseurs of the works by game developers, are left with unfinished artistic visions. Meaning missed intention and a lack of artistic synergy where there would have been an attempt at such. With the push to manufacture DLC content and flimsy cardboard collectibles, publishers--especially when we buy in--can view the game design process through the lens of instant, continuous service provision.

When the intial designs for the latest model of cars are created and fashioned into working prototypes, I would argue this is art. When that design is complete and sent of to factory production, could one consider this robotic manufacturing, in itself, art. The product that is to say the discs and I will hazard a thought the data, both on the disc and on a hard drive, should  product not a service in provision. Though with the constant flood of DLC and other such additives--and,yes, I understand that expansion packs are not new concepts and that some DLC warrant an investment, but I would argue that expansion packs were intentional artistic journeys in their own right, created with either a need to expand upon laid out artistic values/concepts or to say something more or to improve upon a vision in someway, but not to quickly cash in or drive initial market expectations up, through artificially limited availability (e.g. as pre-order drivel)--we see a much greater emphasis on the objectively incomplete experiences that lack heart and soul devotion, created by the huge blotted expansion of a volatile industry. More, more, more! While some developers/ publishers can push out AAA title after AAA title every year, this doesn't equate to a healthy or creatively full-filled industry. There is turmoil and former publisher THQ is only the latest example of this. Unrealistic expectations, based on poor market research: such as shifting the target audience of a game series in pursuit of the spoils of another, abound the industry. 

Throughout this piece I have used product a lot, but I mean this in terms of the overall artistic production being, with earnest intention, delivered as completely, as the artist can reasonably expect, to the player/purchaser. The consequences of me and others who pre-order (though I don't normally pre-order) is that the value that we have some Sui-genris inclination about, will continue to recede and distort itself, all the while we passively buy into what, in truth, we cannot completely describe--outside of business/market speak--yet know to be true when we experience it.  

It is the something that kept my--extremely rare-- pre-order of Shin Megami Tensei 4 in good-standing, it is the same thing that keeps indie developers/smaller publishers and their fans so rabidly faithful, I argue that it is the act of a concise, concerted natural-flow of innovation and communication between fans and these industry entities. Now, I am sure someone can put a better narrative together on the topic of video game pre-orders, but this was just a quick meander on my part and I do not claim to be a pseudo-expert of any kind. Without this natural motion of innovation and will to create we are left with artificial robotic manufacturing service. A service that doesn't care to express anything fresh, at least not for the long haul, but is, instead only interested in creating too-big-to-fail franchises from any shread or semblance of a new I.P.. With no objection we will be voting for the drive to produce stripped shallow content that encourages impulse purchases over thoughtful, non-coerced, no-strings attached artistic productions that sell you on their inherent quality and your view of the confidence and value it will provide you.

Thanks for reading! I hope I can spark a conversation that proves fruitful and of value.