Is there any point to buying on release any more?

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

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With AAA releases like Arkham Knight, Assassin's Creed and Sim City being basically broken on release, I'm wary of paying full price for a game until the kinks have been worked out and the initial wave of mainstream reviews have been supplanted by actual user reviews.

Add to that between Steam, GOG, GMG et al a full price game can be had for less than half price within a year of release, and for a lot of games this will include all of the DLC that can easily double the price of game ownership if bought on release.

Apart from multiplayer games where I want to play with my friends before they all get bored and move on to the latest and greatest game, why would I want to spend £40 + DLC on a game now when in a year's time I can get it for a fiver when they've worked out all the kinks?
 
In my experience it depends entirely on who the developer and publisher is. EA and Ubisoft I avoid like the plague. Even then I wait until it is out and there are reviews.
 
The only real benefit is for people looking to get ahead in multi player games or going through the story/learning the game without seeing spoilers plastered all over the net. (Pre-order bonuses and crap like that ofc)

But personally i'm quite happy to wait now (might be as i'm getting more patient as I get older lol).
 
90% of the time no IMO, the only exception I've made recently was The Witcher 3, I may consider Fallout 4, but going to wait and see what it's like closer to release
 
On-release day, maybe - at least you can gauge by early reactions what state the game is in. Pre-release, no. Just wait until you have more information.

To be fair, a lot of AAA games are seriously cheap on release, if you use the key sites. Thief, Dead Rising 3, even Batman AK were all <£20. That's not a huge gamble really.
 
Jeez, I've been saying it for years. Never, never, ever buy on release or pre-release.

What other area would you buy something without seeing if it works the way it should? With pre-release, you're paying for something that's not even been finished. Until Steam recently started doing refunds, you didn't even have any rights to get back your money for a faulty/incomplete product.

Publishers have proved time and time again that they cannot be trusted to live up to the hype and promises they make for their products, so why would you trust them at all? Make them prove (via reviews and early adopters) that they have made the product you want, and then buy it, just as you would pay someone after they had completed the work you asked them for.

My mantra is that you never buy something for what you hope it will become in the future, you buy it for what it is now. You don't give the publisher money and hope he will fix the big mess he delivered at some point in the future. Once they've got your money, they have no obligation to care (and often don't).
 
Kiyoshi said:
Was there ever a point? Genuine question. At least until non-sponsored reviews are released.
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Yes.

When games were sold as finished games. On physical media. From a shop. And if you didn't buy it on release day and they sold out you didn't get to play for a few weeks while you waited for stock.

I remember skipping lessons to walk into town at 9am and pick up my copy of GTA Vice City on launch. I got the last copy in Pink Planet, and the guy in the queue behind me was rather upset :p
 
Unfortunately marketing is such these days, it has little or nothing to do with availability.

Publishers know their audience, highly subjective to all manner of meaningless tat, bonuses, head starts, extra exclusives ect...

They industry creates the monster, and exploits it all the more.
 
I'm still amazed people pre-order games with no idea what it will be like when it's released, I'm dumbfounded by those that actually pay to play alphas or betas of a game.

I've not purchased a game on or before launched day in many years now, instead I wait a couple of months and buy knowing that the bugs have been patched and it's a lot cheaper than it was.
 
I've been harping on about this for years now. Never, ever, ever, ever pre-order! Wait for honest reviews. Hell, wait six months and you'll get honest reviews, all the bugs fixed, much lower price and a settled modding community.*


*Actual mileage may vary.
 
Very rarely do I pay full ticket for a game, and only when I know its a good Un. Everything else just goes on the wishlist for the next steam sale. There can be some goldies but tbh why would I pay £40 for a game i'll spend 6 hours completing when even at full price i've spent half as much on in Dev or smaller titles that have consumed whole months of my life.

YouTube gamer channels are great, mild entertainment, you get to see the plot (ie the only interesting bit of some titles) with all the tedium edited out and reviews and encounters of gameplay, its like having a demo in an age where demos are so rare
 
If you can avoid getting caught up in the manufacturered hype, you can play one of the many other games that have had a chance to get stable and cheap. A few months down the line, you can get the newer game in the same cheaper/fixed state, or avoid it altogether as a waste of time and money.

Remember, you don't have to buy anything in particular at any specific time, you don't have to get caught up in the marketing department's hype machine. Publishers should be made to work for your money, and be punished via your wallet if they release broken products.
 
It's not like it's any hassle waiting half a day to hear the general feeling for a launch. PC games have always been hit and miss when they come out it isn't anything new.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
Unless it is a game I really want (as in 1 per year these days) then no.
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My attitude too. Though I tend to buy pre-release for games that I really want.

In the last 2 years I can only think of:
  1. Elite Dangerous via Kickstarter
  2. Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns (though that may be a dodgy decision...)

Everything else I just buy on offer as the mood takes me. But I never seem to play them!

The two games I've mentioned above are my staples at the moment.

I never buy games on release (too expensive). But I never seem to play the games I buy cheap either (too much volume - the exception is probably Titan Quest).

I suspect part of the business model is fishing for cheap game trawlers. Though that's a separate debate....
 
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