Bioware was a ghost of its former long before their staff was cut.

Early access reviews are notoriously unreliable these days. Think Cyberpunk and DAV just to name two. Sure, you can’t get a refund if you purchase two weeks later. But even though that’s the case, you can still make a more informed decision than going in blind by preordering. 2 weeks later, authentic community sentiment will drown out most of the deceptive marketing and paid-for reviews. Heck, you can even find playthroughs on YouTube to judge a game against your own personal tastes.

Saying that there’s no upside to not preordering just isn’t true.

Not anymore. Mostly for 3 main reasons.

• The only reason I’d ever preorder something now is if there’s a significant risk of stock running out quickly. That’s not a thing with digital games, ask there’s no need to consider it.

• I’ve been burned far too many times by getting shitty games on day one, after having fallen for all the fake hype, deceptive marketing, sophisticated astroturfing, and paid-for reviews. Now, as a rule, I’ll wait for about 2-4 weeks at least to see what the community sentiment is before I buy something.

• And finally, games are fuck all expensive now. 70 dollars is already a bridge too far for many of the bug-riddled, unfinished slop big corpos push out these days. And then there’s “speculation” that RockStar will price GTA6 at a 100 dollars, giving all the publishers out there the precedent to do the same with their own titles. I’ll just take my time and wait for them to go on sale for at least 50% off before I consider getting something. (P.S. I say speculation, but I’m almost entirely convinced that it’s a deliberate industry psyop to get people primed for this insane price tag and reduce the sticker shock-induced backlash)