I gotta admit I was a bit sceptical when I went to check gog.com today and found three pre-orders on the front page with the tag-line "Pre-orders done right" where a pre-order basically would come with a free game alongside it. However the problem with pre-orders has never been that you didn't get enough to justify the cost. The problem is and has always been that you have to pony up cash up-front for a product that you have no idea if it's going to be up to standard. To me gog.com has always been the more consumer-friendly alternative to steam with actual quality control. I can kind of get the idea of early access because you can actually get the games and play immediately. But this is basic turd-polishing trying to get an anti-consumer practice as pre-orders to look like something that you could ever do right. Pre-orders makes sense for physical items where you might have a problem getting them if you don't pre-order. But for a digital good it's basically a way to get consumers to pay before they can get a word from reviewers about the quality of the product.

Eh, just don't buy the game until there are reviews available, pre-oredering is not mandatory.

I know. But that doesn't make the practice of peddling them any more pro-consumer...

I just pre-order because I want to ensure I have the game already when it releases because I don't know if I will get payed on the month of release day.

GOG has been doing pre-orders for a while now.

I agree with you. I can't see the point of preordering a non-physical game (other than supporting the developer so they can finish the game with a crowdfunding campaign). Even worse is this trend of "preorder-exclusive DLC".

But a lot of people seem to like to preorder... so at least they'll get a freebie. Good for them?

Hey don't blame gog for taking money from desperate people willing to blindly buy stuff.

I'm selling land on newly discovered planets by the way, if anyone is interested.

I don't see the point in the rant. Honestly, why should pre-releases be an anti-consumer practice? It's basically a choice for the consumer to make, an option. Especially when we're talking digital games here, at this time when the consumer has access to multiple sources of information and the post-buy option to ask for a refund, it's more a choice than a dark-side trick to make you buy games before you realize the game is bad.

Giving a free game with a pre-order is quite an incentive to buy when a game you like is released instead of buying it when it's on sale. You can basically choose if you care for the extra game or if it's just better to wait for a discount. Why is that anti-consumer? If you trust the developer then it's an option to consider, if you don't, just wait for your trusted source of reviews. Calling this an anti-consumer practice is practically saying all consumers are dunces, and if they are, well, that's their own problem to solve.

Also, let's note that GOG is offering an extra game if you pre-order, this ain't a shady practice like for example what CA did with Total War: Warhammer. The game isn't less of a game if you pre-order it or wait to buy it after reading your trusted reviews.

Amateur. I'm selling land on undiscovered planets. I've got way more to sell, and better prices! And a bonus air guitar with every purchase!

From what I've seen, you're not exactly going in blind on a pre-order. By the time pre-orders are offered to the market, there are often gameplay and beta review videos to check out, to give you a decent idea if the game is something you might enjoy.

Considering the freebies they are offering are worth 75% of the asking price if you have any interest in the free game (and don't own it) then you are getting the pre order at 25% of it's asking price... As pre orders go that's certainly better than an in game hat or something.

I agree digital pre orders aren't great, but this is a better way.

Bah, just land, I am selling space, bottled at source! Mainly due to expanding families always needing more space.

When pre-orders include bonus items or maps, that is the worst.
Anyways beta testing is now called early access, so what can you say.

EDIT: I won't say GOG is doing pre-orders right, but they are doing it better than the others maybe.
However I don't buy any new games, let alone pre-orders. Always wait for the final-goty-director's-mega-complete edition before buying.

My main actual issue with this is New GOG taking gognards for idiots yet again. There is no way the people that actually brought Good Old GOG to where it is right now (namely the aforementioned gognards) are ever going to believe that preorders are a good thing or that they can be done "right" (same goes with price raises, by the way). You gonna do it anyway? Be my guest, it's a free world, just be ready to face the music. Wanna sweeten the deal for whoever fells like buying your snake oil? By all means, go ahead. Just don't try to look good about it, because you can't have your cake and eat it too. You're losing a lot of goodwill, and dangerously approaching the event horizon. Just sayin'.

I always buy pre-orders because I'm afraid they'll run out of copies.