With recent reports coming in that Germany has banned online retailers from offering pre-orders of video games with unspecified release dates, expert Egor Gurjev has provided a comment. As the founder of Playkey.net, a cloud gaming platform that allows games to be launched on all popular devices, including notebooks, low-power computers, and even devices based on macOS, Egor believes that the law might massively effect excitement around newly announced titles in the German market.
“A huge part of any latest AAA release is the atmosphere generated through devoted fans being able to pre-order their most anticipated games. The idea that lack of announced date somehow affects the costumer in a negative way is flawed. The law can have a negative impact on many hardcore gamers who enjoyed following news and announcements around their favorite releases and enjoyed the option to pre-order their long awaited titles, regardless of the date being announced or not. To name a few in recent history games such as the Last Guardian and Uncharted 4 suffered delays yet still were a tremendous success. It can also cause publishers to announce dates too early in development which historically affected dates being pushed back and cause frustration among fans.”
“Additionally during the development stage it can be almost impossible to determine the precise dates of the release beforehand as many unpredictable things could occur during early stages as well as the testing stage that could affect the release dates considerably.”
“From the business perspective publishers also use pre-order information and statistics to establish the excitement around a title and whether it’ll be a success. Each publisher, especially the ones with huge AAA releases, have a strong community support. This is fueled by additional content, announcements and the opportunity to get hands on unique editions which coincide with pre-orders. Even looking at Playkey platform and our community, questions around latest announcements and whether we plan on including upcoming titles on our roster happen often and we welcome them as it allows us to give our customers what they want and also fuel the excitement further.”
“Looking at a larger picture, the power to decide whether or not preorders are allowed should remain with the consumer. In reality it is still a smaller pool of fans who order their favorite upcoming releases months in advance, but ultimately it should remain their prerogative to do so.”
