I usually only pre order when I'm 99% sure I'm gonna love the game and it's made by a company with a good reputation of having games be good at launch Ex: Zelda tears of the kingdom

Cyberpunk was the nail in my pre-order coffin, fuck those clowns and their shitty releases. I don't want the game to be good and playable 3 years after I bought it.

Oh and for the fan bois if the game was so good when released, why did they have to do a complete overhaul of basically the entire game to make it good?

The release was trash and the game released with as little product as possible while charging people full price.

I already pre-ordered both Diablo 4 and Baldurs Gate 3 this year and am quite happy I did both.

misread instructions, preordered all the games for those sick skins

I preorder physical stuff only, especially titles which are going to be in limited quantities due to low interest and number of copy printed.

Where I preorder still has a 7 day return policy as well so if it’s seriously bad or broken like Cyberpunk 2077 then I can just return and get my money back.

Don’t normally do digital preorders since it’s hard to cancel it and usually no point.

I started waiting for like a year after release. I don't have as much time to play anymore.

In my oponion the two recent Steam Demofests have been a breath of fresh air for the gaming world and might be the first good thing in a long time to happen in gaming. Since the early 2000s demos grew mainly out of fashion and have been replaced by Early Access™ and consumer friendly refund policies. If a game had a Demo it was often out of date and a subpar representation of a game. But with definitve events like Demofest, developers have the opportunity to show of their goods through free and up to date Demos without the fear of piracy or location constraints of gaming conventions. If some Indie Dev shows me that the game is 90% done and the release is with a reasonable time, I surley can spend 20$ to help polish out the last flaws before release. Indie developers are often ride or die with their games and could use the income as early as possible.

Ironically the last games I preorded where AAA games. Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remakes, both of which had extensive Demos. I played them and immediately thought "Yep, this is it, that's worth $60."

Demos are an effective marketing tool and can fully justify a preorder.

I don't even play half the games I buy. I just pre-order them so I get the cool goodies that come with the game like art books, metal cases, tapestries, etc.

In general I agree but the transparency level shown by the Cities Skylines 2 team has me rethinking this.

I couldn’t give less fucks about this tbh. I always pre order games I know I’ll play or that look interesting to me, and I’m not going to change it. Every single COD since BO4, every single AC since Origins. And I’m going to do the same this and every year. I didn’t regret it yet and if I would, there is always a refund option 🤷🏼‍♂️.