What Makes a Game Worth Buying at Launch?

[robometal cowboy]

What Makes a Game Worth Buying at Launch?
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I absolutely love video games. They are, without a doubt, my number one hobby. If I have expendable cash, it is going to go towards video games. It's less a hobby and more a passion, actually! It's why I run this site, it's why I play games of all types. I'll buy a game at launch when it tickles my fancy, and my fancy is tickled quite often!

Article here

[Mirr0rR3flection]

For me knowing the quality of it thanks to whos making it makes it worth buying at launch.

[Maxram0]

1. if it is made by Nintendo, those games never drop in price

2. if it has a special/limited edition where it comes with an awesome statue

generally, me and my partner have a 3 month wait rule when we buy a game. usually, after 3 month the game is half price or lower, we want to support the industry so we buy it brand new, but we cant afford to buy everything at full price, thus we wait

[Johnny2900]

1. If Nintendo releases it, because it never drops in price.
2. It is a limited release (ex: The World Ends With You at first, Xenoblade was rumored, Metroid Prime Trilogy)
3. If I really want to support this title!
4. I love the franchise

[MrGameBoy]

Wow, Pereira did a great job writing this article on purchasing games early. For me, the key factors into buying a game at launch are

1. Potentially rare, exclusive, "limited edition" content (Games with niche appeal may also be hard to find later on too.)
2. Little to no paid DLC involved (I don't want to see "Game of the Year" editions later on at a reduced price...)
3. Ratio of gameplay time to price (Though I hope developers don't shoehorn multiplayer modes and other padding gimmicks.)
4. Developer quality (I'd sure love my purchase to be free of as many unwanted bugs/glitches as possible.)
5. "Price durability" (with Nintendo "evergreen titles" being strong examples)

My games as examples? The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Xenoblade Chronicles.

[kdognumba1]

1. Quality - The number one thing I look for when I buy a game at launch. It has to excel in every area.

2. Quantity - It has to have the right content and enough of it make me satisfied. If it's a RPG, even though games this gen are shorter then games last gen, I still hold it to the same standards set by games back on SNES and PS1 (which a game like Xenoblade fits just fine mind you). If it's a multiplayer game, I'm looking for both local and online and preferably a game I can take my friends online with me which is a bar set by Halo 2 that many console games for whatever reason struggle to achieve (though both SSBB and MK Wii both do which I love). Also games need to be fully featured without day 1 DLC (good example of a fully featured game is Kid Icarus Uprising).

3. Collectors Editions & Limited Editions - I don't buy every game I get new as a collectors edition or a limited edition however when stuff like the GOTY Edition for Oblivion, Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition, Metroid Prime Trilogy, or the collectors editions for Blizzard games come out, I'm likely to get those as they have all DLC bundled in, all games in the series bundled in, or come in an amazing package with a lot of stuff.

4. Game finally gets localized - there are a lot of games that have struggled in recent times to get localized. MHTriG, TvC, FFCC:CB, Xenoblade, The Last Story, Fragile Dreams, and others all took convincing from dedicated fans to get brought over her. For me, if publishers are willing to take the chance and bring over these titles, I want to show support as many of these titles are high quality fully featured games that I either get a substantial amount of playtime or a really unique experience from.

[WesFX]

A combination of interesting ideas, and/or old ones that are still very appealing, my desire to support the people behind the game, and any savings that might be had from pre-ordering.

And price, I guess. So rarely (never, IIRC) has a launch price outweighed my interest in a game, though.

[Hamr]

One that people always miss: Online leaderboards. For some, being there first is the only hope they ever have of placing in one of the top spots, however short said placement may be.

Also, though we might pretend otherwise, a lot of games* are treated less as consumer products and more as mass short-term cultural phenomena**. You buy and play a game to socialize and take part in the experience of everyone buying and playing said game. Sure, you can always get the game later for a lot cheaper, but ultimately you will have missed your chance to participate in the event. You do not get the same sense and feeling of belonging to a cohesive group once a couple months pass and sales dwindle, players stop joining multiplayer matches, and discussion on message boards and in real life shifts to something else. (You can see this by how the overwhelmingly majority of sales for most games come in the first month or two).

For instance, I might not care for the Mass Effect series, but I still rented 3 in the first week so I could play through it and know about/participate in the dialogue over how epoch-definingly crap the original ending is.

Encouraging this sort of thing is especially the model for high profile games (because that is ultimately the only reliable way to generate that kind of sales), and the big developers are doing everything in their power to discourage and destroy that model for reasons of stupid.


*That is not to say that this principle is only applicable to videogames here; most popular media works like this. Major television shows, blockbuster movies, various book series, et cetera.
**see: Call of Duty, Ass Creed, most first-party games. And on the other side of the Pacific: Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Monster Hunter.

[BubbyJello]

It has "Zelda" in the title. But that's just me.