Never: did it ounce or twice with physical games that may sell out at the local store but that is no longer relevant.

I stopped after Cyberpunk.

Never, ever buy anything based on IP. That is pure familiarity bias, a trick to make you think it will be good. In the particularly susceptible, it can even create self-delusion and confusion. (X is good, therefore this other thing that licensed the name 'X' must be good. It doesn't feel good, though. No, clearly it is my feelings that are wrong. X is good so 'X' must be good. It uses the same mouth sounds. How could it not be?)

A change in medium is inherently a different product and can never be the same as the original. As anyone who has seen a movie based on a book can tell you, there is zero guarantee the movie will have anything more than a passing resemblance to the book *coughEarthseacough* and maybe not even that. *coughWorldWarZcough* Oof, pardon my coughing. The bullshit fumes coming out of the marketing and licensing departments are making it hard to see.

There's isn't anything particularly wrong about preordering something you're most certainly going to get day-one, although those are few and far between these days. After all, even fan favorites often come with bugs and glitches day one and you can still encourage producers (and raise kpis) by wishlisting a game instead so they know demand exists. Same for downloading a pre-release demo - they track that.

Early access is usually indie with a few exceptions, so supporting them is good too except when you're a big fan and would rather see the finished work without spoilers. None the less, support can still exist in other forms.

I personally do neither, but this is more because of financial reasons and my already stupidly huge backlog. The only game I might have preordered this year would have been Silksong and only didn't because they didn't permit it. I knew it wouldn't be released with... ahem, bugs... and that I would certainly play and enjoy it.

Every other 2025 gem was a surprise after release, though.

I pre-order games I know I'd buy on launch. Some titles I just know I'll play, regardless of reviews - E.g. Sequels to games I love like the Witcher 3 or any of the Dying Light games.

I'll also do Early Access if I want to play the game early and am okay with jank, E.g. Hades 2, Windblown.

I pre-ordered ff8, they ran out anyways. Lesson learned.

I don’t think I’ve ever pre-ordered a game. I’ve always been a patient gamer.

The only game I can recall purchasing during early access was Vampire Survivors. It was cheap as hell at $3 and was due to launch in about a week or so. There wasn’t a downside to getting it for me.

no, I've never done that. I've never seen much of a discount so I've never had any incentive to

I got screwed over so many times with both pre-ordering and early access, that I never pre-order again and I very rarely buy early access games. I honestly don’t really buy any game at full price anymore and I only buy early access if a developer hasn’t abandoned a previous game and releases regular updates, unless if they have a really good reason to leave a long time between updates (looking at you Detail Valley).

Me personally, I'll never pre-order a game. Pre ordering is different from early access because i actually get the game even in a unfinished state.

All that said, it depends on the game. Timberborn has been the only early access game I felt has been worth it. The Devs are still putting out regular updates and have vastly improved the game since i bought it. Its been very fun to play from the beginning and has only gotten better.

Compare that to something like cyberpunk, yea I'm good. Couldn't imagine how that must of felt to preorder that and get that mess on release. I think the main difference is the studio. AAA games I rarely buy anymore. Indie games though? Thats where I'm at.

Nope.. too much history of initial releases being bugged filled shit shows. It is very rare I buy a game sooner than 6 months after it is released.

Never in my life. I want to read the reviews, at a minimum. Too many games with some booshit on launch day, if not at least several months after. I am incredibly psyched for the new Control game but it'll be at least a few months before I pick it up.

I never pre-order nor pay for early access. Examples are plenty, but a couple that spring to mind are New World and Ashes of Creation. (Even excluding the infinite early access of PUBG, and whatever the hell Star Citizen is).

For the former, their "beta test" was "yeah, it runs: ship it" and ZERO feedback was noted or actioned. The release day was The Single Worst game release I've ever seen, and 4 years later when Amazon decided to kill it, ALL of the beta bugs were still there. To be fair, it was a "pay once" game. With MTX, of course.

For the latter, people started by paying $300+ for "alpha access" and more recently $100 for the same thing. And it's clearly 2-4 years away from being remotely ready for release. Those people are paying to do QA. And it will be pay-per-month on release, as if it was 2010.

If your FOMO overrides your other faculties, and you're willing to put up with all of that, then fine. You do you. 👍🏻

Every pre-order bonus I've seen is a skin, title or other tat that doesn't have any value beyond signalling that you pre-ordered the game.

Me? I'm done playing these financial games with video games. Until a game is released/GA, it's vapourware and non-existent. But again: you do you.

The only franchises I will pre-order are:

• World of Warcraft Collector’s Editions : even though I stopped playing a few years ago now, I still buy the physical copy collector’s editions to add to my collection - I have every one going all the way back to vanilla.

• Grand Theft Auto 6 : I have both the PS3 Collector’s Editions for IV and V, feels like getting the same for 6 to finish off that ‘trilogy’ would be apropos.

I pre-order some games, especially table top, through crowdfunding and do enjoy interacting with developers and their early player base during beta testing / early access especially if I'm able to contribute in some way.

I try not to pre-order or get early access. However I am not perfect, I did pre order Dragon Quest 11 when it came out.

The only game I've ever pre-ordered was FF3/6 but that was because you needed a physical cartridge in limited supply to play it back then.

Preordering a game you can download digitally is the height of stupidity unless you specifically want to give an interest free loan to a creator you really want to support

I don't preorder as a rule because unlike in the past when there was a limited amount of physical copies at any given time...The Digital Age has rendered preordering a pointless endeavor that major companies use as metric to decide success (which is honestly not the best play). However, it has helped influence the major corps when it came to pricing issues, The Outer Worlds 2 for example got a price drop because people cancelled their preorders. Another reason why I don't preorder is because quality and getting a feature complete game is not guaranteed even with a 1.0 release. Cyberpunk 2077 really burned me as it was one of the messiest launches that I've seen (aside from No Man's Sky); the Cyberpunk 2077 launch experience cemented my rabid disdain for the practice of even once in a great while preordering. I will only buy games after reading reviews from trusted sources, if there are too many launch day issues...Then it won't be purchased at the time or at all later on if those issues aren't resolved permanently.

In short: Early Access is a risk, that can often make a game that would've never released, become a feature complete game. However, you must always understand it's a risk. Evaluate the odds, ask yourself if you are willing to burn money in the hopes of getting something good.

At Length: My feelings on Early Access are slightly different. As users can actively shift the quality, priorities, and overall vibe of a game that is in progress. I only buy Early Access games that I believe will succeed and be influenced into excellent games; it's like taking a gamble a Kickstarter, the project, despite such monetary support may never leave early access and becoming fucking shit. While 7 Days to Die is in a redemption arc, it mutated wildly from Alpha to Alpha, and was rushed into a 1.0 state without addressing fundamental gameplay issues. Wholesale removing and changing fundamental elements that make a survival game, well...A survival game. Later getting readded in a weird and not properly balanced way, much to the chagrin of the fans of the game. If you plan on buying Early Access, assess risk first. Then purchase!

I don't pre-order but I do buy early access games. Unless it's something genuinely limited edition and unique there is not reason to risk buying before release.

It is extremely rare - I do it when I have some form of dedication to the developer, or their rare variety of ambitious game. I may not have even done it once this year.

So I think that matches the OP’s feelings of buying early in support. Largely, it doesn’t matter.

I pre-ordered a game twice now. The first one was Stalker 2 and the second Death Stranding 2. I am unhappy with Stalker 2 (I'm still waiting on the preorder physical) but I have the Death Stranding one. If you care about the bonuses I'd say it's a gamble.

House Biscuit. We do not preorder.

This I don't do. If anything, I'd rather have all the content in one purchase, DLC included, before doing so.

I usually do if a game interests me. There's no real downside compared to buying at release.

I used to a lot as a kid. It was pretty much the only way to get some more obscure games.

I pretty much stopped in the mid 2000s except for some collectors editions of games that I was 99% sure were going to be great Halo3, Fallout3, New Vegas etc. I still do the same thing now with the odd switch collectors edition xenoblade chronicles, the final fantasy pixel remasters, unicorn overlord but those were games I was 99% sure would be finished at launch.

The rest of the time I wait a year or so until the game is half priced and finished.

I don't even order games 😂 Deep sale or no buy.