Pre-order at Amazon, get $10 off!

[SPRINGS02]

Hmm, sounds like an actual reason to pre-order something for once(other than lousy dlc). Whenever i go to gamestop to buy a game they always ask me about pre-ordering something. Often times they've claimed that it's a good idea because it will sell out. I've NEVER seen a game sold out the day i go to buy it, and i've bought a variety of popular games the day they come out(like COD black ops, nba 2k11, god of war 3, infamous 2 smash bros brawl, pokemon black etc.)

Never understood the point of pre-ordering when you can just walk into the store and buy it the day it comes out. All this being said i'm definitely not pre-ordering or even buying it the day it comes out for that matter. Gotta give it a rental first, i'm a little too weary of new silent hill games to buy them right off the bat like i used to.

[Typographenia]

Often times they've claimed that it's a good idea because it will sell out. I've NEVER seen a game sold out the day i go to buy it, and i've bought a variety of popular games the day they come out(like COD black ops, nba 2k11, god of war 3, infamous 2 smash bros brawl, pokemon black etc.)

Never understood the point of pre-ordering when you can just walk into the store and buy it the day it comes out. All this being said i'm definitely not pre-ordering or even buying it the day it comes out for that matter.

Well, that's primarily because most gamestops have a tendency to only fulfill the number of preorders they have, plus a couple of extra copies for release. That way, when a normal customer comes in they can say the whole "well, I guess you should have preordered!" Makes it a much more convincing way of getting a customer to preorder next time, unless you decide "screw you guys, I'm going somewhere else that values my business and doesn't treat me like crap."

Well, except if it's something like a COD or something that's a really big seller that might already be sold out everywhere.

[Skele]

yeah, i only preorder games from Gamestop when certain things are being offered. example, i preordered Gears of War 3 for the life size retro lancer, and epic edition of gears 3 which comes with a Marcus statue, along with a bunch of other crap.

besides that instance, i never pre order because if gamestop sells out of it, you can just go to bestbuy, target, walmart, or in my case the other 6 gamestops i have within like 15 miles of each other.

[Mr.FLOOT]

The only reason I pre-order something is that it's usually cheaper to do so, and you sometimes get it a day early if you order online. But lately I just go out and buy the game instead of waiting for it to be posted, and I doubt Silent Hill will be sold out on release day.

[jdnation]

Never understood the point of pre-ordering when you can just walk into the store and buy it the day it comes out.

Pre-ordering is more to benefit retailers.

There's the practical reason to gauge customer interest and therefore only order X amount of copies for a game they are feeling 'iffy' about.

And there's also a monetary incentive for them. By getting X amount of your money early, they invest it and make more money in the long run as it accumulates. Very few people request their money back. Heck a good amount of people even forget that they pre-ordered and therefore it's occasionally free money for them! Though of course you're still entitled to getting it back...

The only incentive for customers is if there are a limited amount of copies of the game being distributed, or there's a very Limited Edition, or it's a high profile item that's likely to sell out and remain sold out and difficult to get for awhile in the case of new game consoles, or because of some incentives where you get free stuff or access to something else early like a Beta. Or because of some kind of pre-order sale where pre-ordering will save you money that you'd otherwise pay more for if you walked into the store on release day, though these are mainly online. These incentives are offered to customers mainly for the above reason for retailer's monetary gain to invest your money early.

Or there are cases like that of Catherine where Atlus itself finds that they cannot reduce the price for an obvious niche game, so to spur sales at the start they offer such incentives to push fence sitters or those that would only consider getting the game after a price drop to make an early purchase, or like retailers to gauge interest so they have a better idea of how many copies to print.

Otherwise, there's no point in pre-ordering the grand majority of games.