Germany Bans Pre-Orders for Games that Don't Have a Set Release Date

It's a good thing I think, but I fear it'll lead to publishers attaching unrealistic release dates to their products just to get the pre-orders.

i dunno i don't see the harm in places that don't charge until dispatch doing it, you know like Amazon for example and it does let publishers know what kind of interest their game has

maybe they should stop the charging of pre-orders instead of the pre-ordering itself?

I agree with it in the instances of taking money/deposit.
If not, pre-orders are essentially registering an interest you can cancel at anytime.

yup man, nice job.

Yep. This should be the case everywhere.

Good thing? Depends. Are they fining companies for changing their release date? If not, then there's nothing to stop them putting in a placeholder date, then changing it later, which is already pretty standard practice. This might be a meaningless move.

Seems sensible.

This is why i never pre-order more then a month out from release.

Wouldn’t we just start getting a bunch of placeholder dates instead?

Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 1 31st, December, 2030. Preorder now!

You shouldn’t get charged until dispatch or when the game becomes available for pre-load.

I think this is great. I will never pre-order where i need to pay a deposit again after game tried to shaft me out of £15 when i was forces to cancel my preorder of final fantasy 15 (and i will never shop at game again). Only times i will pre-order now is of i want something like a vita physical release where the print run is very low, otherwise there isnt that much point. Like tbere is no chance i wont be able to walk into a shop and buy red dead 2 on release day for example.

I think this is a good move by germany and wouldnt be against it in the uk

I only ever pre-order games from ShopTo because they only take your coin a few days before shipping your order.

Good, this is totally valid.

Good choice, would hate to be like those people who preordered Dead Island 2 on the PS Store years ago.

@FullbringIchigo "let publishers know what kind of interest their game has"

What you said. The problem isn't with placing pre-orders to establish demand - see Octopath Traveler - the problem is companies taking money for it. I'm ok w/ charging $1 to a credit card to establish the pre-order, Target sells those pre-order cards for $5, but nobody should pay full price for a game months, or years, out.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/07/square_enix_issues_apology_after_underestimating_huge_octopath_traveler_demand

I think a good compromise would be if all game sellers dont take money from you until either the game has a locked in release date or until its actually shipped

Personally on the rare occasion I pre-order, I'll do so a week or so before release. But maybe it might help for some customers.

Many of us shop around for decent deals but, for some folk, they have no option but to use a single retailer. If that single retailer has a seemingly-nefarious pre-order policy, then any extra layer of protection for the consumer is welcomed by me.

This seems like a relatively minor tweak in day-to-day existence for us, but you can bet games publishers and retailers will take notice.

Well i buy at a Dutch store i only need to pay €10 ahead with the Special Edition thats the €100 plus editions and i understand why. Sometimes people order them and never pick them up and then the cant sell them so they have to sell them at a loss.

This is good, preordering digital games is weird, just buy it after the reviews is out.

It makes enough sense to me, though I wonder why anyone would pre-order a game before a release date exists.

Honestly the amount of pre-ordering I've done over the years has declined. I'm more likely to wait for review scores and user reviews to come out before just throwing my money at a game that could be terrible. (Agony, anyone?)

Should be law everywhere

Yes it's a good idea; very sensible. Well done Germany

Seems fine to me... Its not as if its banning pre-orders altogether...

Seems silly that there had to be a ban on this in the first place.

When you could pre order online with Tesco in the UK (since they are no longer having a direct website anymore only for 3rd party) they would ghost transaction your pre order. Basically take the money out straight away then 3 to 5 days later you'll get it back one of the worst systems ever. Now you pay £5 to pre order in store the the rest in release which is better but you can always get a copy with tesco they never sell out.

Can't say I agree with it. I mean, if people want to spend some of their money that way, why stop them?

@wiiware Then you may lose the pre-order bonus.

@naruball Then publisher should open the preorder when the games release date is already known.

I don't really see the issue so long as the retailer doesn't actually charge your card before the item ships.

I'm not sure I see a need. Sometimes I want to pre-order stuff before a release date is there. I think the better idea is pre-orders are always cancelled and refundable. I pre-ordered The Last Guardian for the PS3, as a I realized it wasn't ever happening, I just switched it to something else.

It just means companies will make up a release date and just bring forward/back as required.

Therefore pointless policy.

@Tsurii CE get sold out a lot so yeah i preorder but i only make a small deposit.

Definitely a good move, but companies will no doubt find a way around it.

I wonder if this affects kickstarter? Essentially if you back a kickstarter you're pre-ordering a game before it's even in production.

Good intentions, but I feel a lot of companies, to get around this, will start doing the whole “Release Date: December 31, 2018” kind of thing as a placeholder to get around the issue.

My opinion would be: if I want to pre-order something when I don't know the release date, that's up to me; it's my money, and the government should mind their business.

I doubt it will change anything though, as a loophole has already been mentioned: apparently you can bring release dates forward, but not push them back... so give it a placeholder date beyond when you reasonably expect to release, and then bring it forward when you're ready to release.

Also... does this mean that Kickstarter and the like are now 'illegal' in Germany, then?

I don't really mind it because I never preorder anyway, but I don't like it because no one is forced to preorder, and in a free society I think people should have the choice to take the risk if if they wish.

I think it's a good thing in all honesty, for games without a release date you could register your interest (anyone remember that) rather than pre-order. Games that are 12+ months away shouldn't be able to pre-order, I personally think 6 months tops

@Kidfried Thats in youre country, dont assume its the same everywhere!

@FullbringIchigo Thats a good idea. All they need to know is how much interest there is for a product so they can efficiently manufactor and distribute, no need to charge!

@ShadowWarrior Whats so good about that? You still paid.

@Flaming_Kaiser That makes no sense, why wouldnt he be able to sell. The next customer is as good as the 1st!