Companies should not pressure gamers to pay ahead of launch

Sep 3, 2015 20:40 GMT  ·  By
Square Enix has a controversial pre-order system for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
   Square Enix has a controversial pre-order system for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is one of the most expected video game launches of the coming months, the first sequel to a successful reboot for the franchise that has both long-term fans and new converts, all of them eager to start experiencing the new adventures of main character Adam Jensen and see how the augmented world evolves around them.

The developers at Eidos Montreal and publisher Square Enix could have simply announced that they are aiming to launch the title on February 23 of next year and that they are ready to offer a range of extra content and physical world goodies for those who are planning to pre-order the title.

But someone inside one of the companies, most likely in the marketing department, decided that they could make the actual launch date a part of the bonuses that could be delivered.

So Square Enix revealed that, as long as enough of the fans placed a pre-order, they were willing to launch the game as early as February 17.

Basically, the community faces a choice between placing a pre-order in order to get the game a little sooner, with no guarantee for the quality of the experience (although Deus Ex: Mankind Divided looks solid at the moment), and accepting that this is an abuse of the pre-order system and therefore should be countered by gaming fans.

Launch dates, pre-orders and trust

The gaming industry might be the only major one that generates almost no consternation among fans when a company announces that its product, which previously had a clearly established launch date, will be delayed by a number of months or even one full year.

This happens as companies also tend to aggressively promote the idea that the most dedicated of fans should pre-order the video game they are dedicated to, paying for it ahead of time in exchange for some bonuses.

These can be extra missions, some exclusive cosmetic tweaks for a character, or early access to some coming downloadable content.

When a title gets delayed, the people who have pre-ordered are not compensated in any way, even if it is easy to see that they have been harmed by the fact that a product they have already paid for will not arrive when it is supposed to.

What Square Enix is now doing with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is basically taking advantage of fans by reversing this process, showing them a closer launch date for something they want while making it clear that a solid group needs to pay in order for it to become a reality.

There are only four days between February 19 and February 23, but I am sure a ton of fans are tempted, like I am, to simply pay to bring the launch date closer.

Pre-orders should come with guarantees

There are many prominent members of the fan base for Deus Ex who are calling for a boycott of the most recent Augmentation pre-order drive launched by Square Enix, and their arguments are solid.

On one level, pre-orders should simply disappear as a tool in the video game industry, but given how entrenched and widely used they are, this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.

What players could try to do is get publishers like Square Enix to attach some quality-focused conditions to the process, promising to return the money paid if the game fails to deliver the quality it was expected from it.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided looks very good, and the development team at Eidos Montreal has been saying a lot of good things about the mechanics changes they are introducing.

But I am sure fans would be much more interested in placing a pre-order to move the launch date to February 19 if they knew they had a way to get the money they pay back if the title fails to deliver the expected experience.