After the debacle that was Destiny 2, which I pre-ordered for $100 (which was a lot back then), I swore off ever pre-ordering games ever again. However Starfield is out soon, and I have been dying to play it it’s the whole reason I bought my Series X. So, do I preorder it?
Why not just get a month or two of game pass instead?
No. You don’t preorder it.
The only reason why preordering was a thing to begin with was to secure last minute funding for small devs to buy the infrastructure they would need to support their game after release.
Starfield is not made by a small dev studio. They have billions of dollars behind them and preordering will not impact the course of its release, nor will preordering ‘reward the developers’, as they are paid in fixed wages and have no financial stake in its success beyond maybe a tiny token bonus. (This is also why we consider Piracy justifiable for non-indie games. )
There will be no material benefit for you to preorder vs buying once the game is released and public opinions on its state become available.
P.S, you’re on Lemmygrad. You’re not going to get a different answer.
Physical: Only something with limited availability. Basically collector’s editions of stuff. Even then, you are paying a premium for an art book and some odds and ends. I have a friend that preorders all the FFXIV expansion collector’s editions, which is a faily safe bet because they already know they like the base game. Personally these are never worth it for me.
Digital: Never. There’s the whole crowdfunding-for-indie-games argument (which starfield is decidely not), but that is totally different discsussion in my opinion.
In the event there is some kind of digital preorder bonus that you actually want, you can always wait to an hour before release to “preorder”, after reviews have already circulated.
