Talking Point: Do You Ever Pre-Order Xbox Games Anymore?
Are your buying habits changing?
by Ben Kerry 6h ago
Image: Gemma Smith / Pure XboxEarlier today, reports started to swirl about the biggest UK games retailer stopping in-store pre-orders in 2024, and the news has got us thinking about the practice and whether it still has a place in gaming these days.
At one time, pre-ordering new games felt like a much more worthwhile thing to go out and do. When physical discs were the main source of video game distribution, stores could actually run out of copies – especially before online shopping got so big. Then, there was the fact that loads of individual stores would offer up cool physical rewards for nipping in and pre-ordering a big new release.
These days though, most of that just doesn’t happen. Digital distribution is a much larger portion of the overall game-selling market, so running out of discs is never really an issue nowadays – save for companies like Limited Run where that’s the whole ethos of the operation. Then, you have subscription services piled on top of that that eliminate the event of buying a game entirely.
To be honest, we think that in 2024, big hulking collector’s editions — and releases like those from Limited Run — are the only real reasons to pre-order a game, and even then, we rarely do. There’s just so much to go at from the likes of Xbox Game Pass and our great massive backlogs that, well, pre-ordering is just something we hardly ever do these days.
But, what about our PX readers out there? When buying games, do you still consider pre-ordering them? Do you save those pre-orders for really select releases? Or, is it all basically Game Pass in this day and age? Come vote in our poll and tell us more down below!
Ben is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin’ in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he’s not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that’s far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.
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