The pre-ordered game is a top bet between players and manufacturers

Game manufacturers are betting on whether their games can sell well, and players are betting on whether they have chosen the right game

Just recently, on September 13, the multiplayer cooperative RPG game “Babylon Falls” published by Square Enix announced that it will be discontinued in February 2023, and all players’ game data will be deleted.

If this is a different game, maybe players can be surprised. But for a game with a single-digit number of people online for a long time, if the game can continue to operate for a year, it can be regarded as the developer’s “due diligence” for the time being.

Today, players’ enthusiasm for pre-ordering games can be described as “gradually turning into ice cubes”. Moreover, not only did they lose the desire to pre-order games, more and more players even began to resist pre-ordering.

In the face of more and more games launching trial versions, along with not-cheap pre-order prices, “Should I pre-order and which game should I pre-order” has gradually become a thorny problem for players.

The sudden bill gave the German game industry a blow

In July 2018, courts in regions such as Munich, Germany proposed a new rule that would prohibit retailers from pre-selling products without an exact release date. According to German media Heise: Prior to this, Germany’s “consumer protection policy” has been aimed at
A dispute over the pre-orders of Samsung phones at Media Markt, a major electronics store in Germany, has been sealed. Today, this rule applies to all goods in Germany, including digital products such as video games.

Of course, this also means that only games with a clear release date can be sold in stores. Games such as “Death Stranding”, “Ghost of Tsushima” and “Cyberpunk 2077” that German players were looking forward to at that time also seemed to have become “bubble”.

In response to the German players’ denunciation, the local court explained: “Consumers have the right to know when they will receive a product after pre-ordering it.

In fact, this regulation is more like a wake-up call with a warning meaning, sounding to warn those fraudulent companies that illegally defraud players to pay, or developers who “take the player’s pre-order money and run away”.

And this decision has also had a big impact on German game retailers.

After game makers release a promotional video for a new game, it is rare to announce the exact release date of the game. However, many games have opened pre-order channels. In order to compete for resources, retailers naturally have to purchase a large number of sources in advance. The decision of this decision directly forced many retailers to abandon this sales channel.

Although this regulation seems a bit inhumane, in contrast to the various “mistakes” that have occurred due to pre-orders before, it still makes us laugh and cry.

10 years of patience finally came to the game’s release

In 2001, a player known as Slash000 was hanging out at an online game store and pre-ordered a copy of Duke Nukem Forever from GameStop.

The game has been in development for more than 4 years, and it is almost close to release, and Slash can only expect to play the game sooner.

As everyone knows, this wait is 10 years. Although the game officially provided a refund service for pre-order players during this period, Slash chose to continue to wait for the game to be released.

A wait of about 10 years has also successfully caught the attention of the game developer: Gearbox Software. After the game was released, they also sincerely expressed their gratitude to Slash000.

More than a literal thank you, they also gave Slash: a developer’s autographed Duke Nukem Forever Collector’s Edition, a gaming T-shirt, a Logitech G19 keyboard, a gaming cup, and a belt.

But the complete receipt in Slash’s hands also made netizens suspicious.

Hearing this, Slash himself immediately posted a picture on the PA (Penny Arcade) forum to prove it.

In this image we see the full receipt, as well as the new one given by Gamestop. Slash explained: “When I nailed the receipt to the board, it started to gradually turn yellow. Maybe this thing is thermal paper? I’m not so sure. I ended up putting it in a
DVD box to keep it from oxidation and moisture. ”

But online controversy continues.

Another Reddit user speculated: This may be a “show” planned by the game’s official in advance.

As for whether the truth is what this netizen said, we will not know.

It is impossible to prevent, the various routines of game manufacturers

In fact, the “painting” of the manufacturers is a business logic, and the entire publicity and distribution process of the game is designed in advance. When to announce the game in advance, when to announce the release time, and the promotional video are all decisions made after careful layout.

Now, a set of more mature game distribution schemes have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Any game work of “lifetime” almost all follows the same set of business concepts:

Since the game’s distribution plan is so mature, in this pre-order ecology, the game’s publicity stage is very important.

As early as 2014, Bandai Namco spent about 1 million pounds just for the release of “Dark Souls 2” in the UK market.

“We really want to make Dark Souls 2 another great entry for fans of the franchise,” said Lee Kirton, UK Marketing Director. “At the same time, we also hope that this work can become a breakthrough point for the series, thereby attracting more mainstream
A purchase for RPG players. “

Kirton also said: “Considering the launch of the new consoles (Xbox One & PS4) at the time, we made a series of optimizations to the game. As for the subsequent release of the game, we also have confidence in it.”

With the addition of more and more game makers, increasing the popularity of games has become “normal”. According to the first popularity of the game, the manufacturer can still estimate the sales volume of the game on each platform, so as to formulate the production plan of the corresponding physical version, and arrange the subsequent distribution and publicity links.

And, from another perspective, pre-order is equivalent to grabbing the first batch of players for the game in advance, thus establishing the number of online players in the early stage of the game.

This can not only make the game appear on the platform’s pre-order list, but also create an unprecedented hot topic for the game, and also lay a foundation for part of the number of players, which can be described as “three birds with one stone”.

Therefore, pre-orders for games are naturally open – even if sometimes the manufacturer does not know the release date of the game.

From this point of view, those New Year’s goods games of “changing the soup without changing the medicine” are considered conscience. At least Ubisoft’s follow-up game framework is to clear the stronghold in the open world; even if the problems of the “Battlefield” sequel continue, EA can guarantee the operation time of the game for more than a year.

Word games, another “ingenuity” trick

For a long time, the player’s situation has always been defined as – relatively passive. This also means that players lose the right to pre-order the game, and all the rules are determined by the game manufacturer.

But haven’t game makers guaranteed continuous operations to players?

In fact, the promise of many manufacturers to players is just a “verbal clause”. As for the duration of continuous operation, it all depends on the available value in the later stage of the game. In 2020, a game called TitanReach caused a stir in the crowdfunding world.

At first, the game launched a project called “Modern MMORPG” on Kickstarter, a well-known crowdfunding website. In the first phase of the project, developer Square Root
Studios hopes to raise $430,000.

However, after the launch of the early demo version of the game, it did not attract much attention from players. When the money raised $200,000, ‘TitanReach’ producer Unravel
It was announced that development of the game would be halted shortly due to insufficient funds.

The real money invested suddenly turned into air, which obviously angered the bottom line of players. But just as the players were about to criticize, Unravel turned around and found YouTube
The game blogger of —— KiraTV came to publicize.

Coincidentally, KiraTV is also doing a series of videos about “MMORPG”. So the two sides hit it off, and KiraTV revealed to players in a video that Unravel had been fully funded by an “angel investor” and indicated that the game’s development would continue.

Things seem to be on track, and players are waiting for the game’s release. However, not long after the development work, Unravel announced that the funds for the development project had been exhausted, and strongly demanded that the NFT be transferred.
Incorporated into all items in the game.

With the thread of the Metaverse, Unravel thought it would be easier to draw a pie. But playing tricks on players so many times, no one will eat this set. It is conceivable that the subsequent crowdfunding of the game is basically the same at this moment.

Since then, the development of “TitanReach” has abruptly stopped, and the $200,000 that had previously fallen into Unravel’s pocket has not gone. But as a game blogger, KiraTV
There must be an explanation for players: After Unravel misappropriated $150,000 of crowdfunding to invest in cryptocurrencies and failed, he used the remaining funds to buy a Tesla.

As for the angel investor who promised to fully fund the development of “TitanReach”, it was revealed that it was South African cryptocurrency entrepreneur Andre Cronje. From this point of view, Unravel wants to add to the game
NFTs are not surprising.

For various reasons, players can’t help but “chop their hands”

Aside from the appeal of the game itself, the process of pre-ordering the game has become a joy. It’s more of a vote – voting for player choices, or aesthetics.

Whether the final quality of the game can satisfy players is another matter. Because in the process of waiting for the game to be released, many players have already used pre-orders as a pure psychological projection.

As early as 1759, Adam Smith published his first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

The “affect heuristic” mentioned in the book reveals that people usually rely on intuition and instinct to make judgments and decisions in the face of unknown events. As for the expected choice, most people will prefer a “psychological projective stress response”.

When serious reasoning meets complex information, we tend to feel that it really “was not worth it” to do it step-by-step. Experience, instinct, and intuition save us the “mental cost” of decision-making information, and making judgments based on stressful emotions is a relatively economical decision-making method.

Also, people tend to respond to stimuli emotionally much faster than cognitive assessments. This immediate emotional response also provides more clues and basis for the decision maker’s choice, and makes the decision maker’s quick decision possible.

A psychological study is also mentioned in the book: people attach preference or emotional labels to different objects, concepts or images during the cognitive process, and these labels can greatly affect the objectivity of their judgments.

Aside from the uniqueness of Smith’s study of psychology, there is one point in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” that intrigues Smith’s teacher, Terence Hutchison.

“Seemingly overriding self-preservation and self-interest are the source of the ability to form moral judgments, including judgments about one’s own actions.”

To this, Smith replied: “What I want to express is that there is an alternate self in everyone. He plays the role of “fair bystander” and disciplines himself and others with a strict standard of criticism. the behavior of.”

Therefore, the inherent psychological flaws of emotional heuristics can lead to cognitive biases in decision makers. From this point of view, then, pre-ordering is not the best option in most cases.

And, whether it’s a digital or physical version, the price of the game will drop a lot after it’s released.

At this point, pre-ordering a game and buying a collector’s edition of a game are somewhat similar—because they both do something in return for a consumer’s expectations or preferences.

However, only the psychological effect is far from reaching the expected sales volume of the manufacturer. In order to further attract the purchasing power of players, the rewards for pre-ordering games are also “co-evolving”.

Excessive rewards will affect the balance of the game, and too few rewards cannot stimulate players’ purchasing power. So in 2014, Konami and Sony launched a cooperation: Anything in PS
Players who pre-order “Pro Evolution Soccer 2014” in the store will have the opportunity to receive “WE2014 Collector’s Edition Jersey”.

At the same time, the official also provides specific DLC keys for those who purchase the limited edition, including four sets of jersey equipment for Benfica, Manchester United, Roma and AC Milan.

In recent years, these gifts have become more novel. Take the recent “Shadow Warrior 3” and “Call of Duty 19”, for example, the former prepares players who pre-order specific weapons throughout the game, while the latter provides players with the opportunity to play a week in advance.

It can be said that this approach not only pleases the core players, but also reduces the level gap between players of different game versions.

Where did the long-awaited game come to?

Gradually, pre-orders feel like a gamble. Players are using money to measure the risk of pre-ordering games, and game manufacturers are thinking about how to get more money from players.

The film industry has a distribution strategy called a gambling agreement, and some game developers can learn from it – after all, in this “gambling game”, everyone wants to earn their own interests.

The TitanReach scam was apparently due to “no definite release date”. But even if the manufacturer promises to give players an accurate date, who knows if they will “bounce”?

Giving pre-order players a trial version with a long process, adhering to the terms of continuous updating, and insisting on the principle of not running away, seems to have become a problem in the game industry.

Whether it is “Star Citizen”, which has the longest “painting” time, or “TitanReach”, which runs away after making money, there are always some people who make a lot of money on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter.

This also makes us reflect, no matter how many promotional films and real machine demonstrations have appeared, nothing can be proved. If you can’t play it yourself, it’s hard for players to know if the game meets their expectations.

Just putting a few promotional videos “named art” does not give players a comprehensive understanding of the gameplay. Only the actual experience of the game after its release and the recognition or criticism of different players can fill in the information deviation during game promotion from a global perspective.

Among them, is a short film that has nothing to do with the actual game, an abstract literature explaining the setting of the game worldview, a “sincerity” that only exists in the text. As for the emphasis of manufacturers – the so-called art form, it seems to have faded into darkness at this moment.

At this time, the game seems to be getting further and further away on the road of passing away the “Ninth Art”.

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