Yep, agreed. Which is why I don't pre-order from anyone else, and why I tend to rarely buy a game on release: too many have extras, season passes, etc which makes me just wait for a complete/ultimate/GOTY edition and/or a steep discount on the whole package.

This is becoming a trend. I've only ever pre-ordered one game 'the witcher 3' not for any extra content, just to show my support for CDPR and GOG.

More of a concern to me is all these 'Early Access' games that are popping up.

Those comments are wild! :) I'm pretty sure I live on a completely different planet from those folks.

Don't like pre-orders. I'm old enough to remember when it meant "This (physical) game is going to be huge; better reserve a copy so when you show up at the store you can get one."

I guess I just don't understand digital pre-orders. It's not like they're going to run out, so instead they artificially create some sort of "if you don't act now you lose out" approach, which to me is pretty crappy.

No, some people are too stupid to learn. We've all seen it in action before.

Another thing about Pre-Orders is once you get it,you become a Beta Tester to find their Stuffups...
Why?? Because now 99% of games are rushed out incomplete,because people accept it.
All that happens is people doing Beta Testing for the lazy Devs..

And for free. We should get pay for that work!

Indeed, apparently they are all living on planet gullible in blissful ignorance.

What a bargain! They might as well rename it the Monster Price Edition.

Last orders first: Source: http://evolvegame.com/news/the-evolve-digital-versions-breakdown

*Upon prepaid order of the remaining thirty rounds.

Gearbox was once highly esteemed in the minds of many gamers, thanks to their work on Halo PC/Halo CE, and Borderlands. Then came Duke Nukem Forever, and the debacle that was Aliens: Colonial Marines. BioWare was once considered to be almost infallible among gamers -- then came DA2, and the ME3 debacle. Then we have Bungie and the controversy surrounding Destiny and its DLC-heavy piecemeal story.

I'm not saying that CD Projeckt/CDP Red are going to screw up with Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk 2077, or any other game they make. But It's dangerous to simply assume that a product is going to be good just because of the name of the developers.

The problem is that there's no accountability here. The temptation is just too great for a company/publisher/studio to ask for money today, and then deliver a cheaply-made, chopped-up piece of garbage tomorrow. The many failed or underperforming crowdfunded games out there can attest to this. So they lost some good will on shipping a bad game that was a Steam best-seller in the preorders? They don't have to worry. They can count on the customers coming back again and again (all they have to do is prepare some slick marketing materials).

Unless the pre-orders are started fairly early on in development, I doubt that there would be enough time/opportunity for the QA team or others across the other departments (design, art, coding) to see that money. Otherwise, you'd might as well go for crowd funding (FTL is an example of this; the game was almost done when the KS for it was started, and the money all went into testing, fixes and general polish).

Again, there is actually no accountability here. They've already gotten your money. All you have is the promise from them that they'll deliver a good product (or even deliver anything at all, in some cases). As we've seen time and time again, it doesn't matter if they garner anger from their customers for shipping a bad product. All they have to do is issue a public apology, draft some good bullshots or prepare an excellently made vertical slice demo, and they're all set for the next round.

On that note, how much are you willing to bet that in 6-12 months, everyone will have forgotten about Assassins Creed Unity, and people will be rushing to preorder the next Assassins Creed game, on the promise that "No, really, it'll be good this time..."

Glad I never cared about Evolve anyway. L4D2 disappointed me too much.

What makes me always laugh is that game is not released yet, but pack of DLCs are ready to selling ^^
It seems me like strategy. "we will make DLC and then will develop game for these DLCs" :)

Even worse: the customer pays the developer for "the privilege" of doing the beta-testing! mind-boggling

Of course. It doesn't matter what you pre-order, you still pre-order and the same logic would apply.

Witcher 3 as a statement that preorder bonuses are fine, and Hatred as a statement that pointless digital preorders are fine? ... Sure, just remember that statements made after the release are far clearer :D