MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The vocal criticism of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s tiered pre-order scheme has led to its cancellation. The ‘Augmented’ pre-order system was revealed last month, leading to a fierce backlash. Many were unhappy that in forcing customers to choose between pre-order gifts, certain content would remain inaccessible to all but those …
Read More »‘Pre-order problems could deter the most valuable consumers in the industry’
Consumers who pre-order spend twice as much on games as the average player. Research firm Kantar Worldpanel says that consumers who pre-order spend – on average – 235 on games a year. The statistic acts as a warning to publishers following recent consumer dissatisfaction over pre-order issues. These have included …
Read More »Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gets release date, tiered pre-order reward system
Square Enix has accompanied the announcement of the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided release date with the announcement of a tiered pre-order system. The game itself will be released on February 23rd, although it might arrive a little earlier depending on what happens between now and release. That’s because an earlier …
Read More »Steam hardware early release stock sold out
Valve has announced the ‘get it early’ stock for its upcoming batch of Steam hardware releases is sold out. Pre-ordering to receive the Alienware Steam Machine, Steam Controller and Steam Link on October 16th is now closed, though pre-ordering for the official launch date of November 10th has begun in …
Read More »Rare Replay is Amazon’s most-pre-ordered game announced at E3
Amazon has revealed the Top Ten most pre-ordered games revealed at this year’s E3. On top are two Microsoft titles – game anthology Rare Replay comes in at No.1, while Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is second. Then its two titles from Bethesda – the new Doom title and Dishonored …
Read More »GameStop: Metacritic to blame for game pre-order problems
Pre-orders are falling because gamers are paying extra attention to review scores, said GameStop international boss Mike Mauler. The retailer said that – much like in the UK – pre-orders have started to dip in America. But insisted that the number of consumers coming out day one remains healthy. Pre-orders …
Read More »The Witcher 3 surpasses 1m pre-orders
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has amassed more than 1m pre-orders ahead of its launch later this month, developer CD Projekt Red has announced. The milestone was reached across PC, PS4 and Xbox One platforms. CD Projekt Red didn’t provide a breakdown for how much each platform has sold, though …
Read More »How can we stop the pre-order rot?
In August last year, Activision’s CEO Eric Hirshberg told investors that its upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was suffering from ‘an industry-wide downturn’ in pre-orders. Many commentators dismissed Hirshberg’s comments, insisting that Call of Duty’s problems were its own, not an ‘industry-wide’ issue. But in Hirshberg’s defence, leading …
Read More »Why are consumers losing interest in pre-orders? Find out in this week’s MCV
Last week MCV reported that pre-orders were in decline in the UK; this week we find whether this is an issue for the industry. We speak to the members of the industry, including 505 Games’ SVP of global brand and marketing Tim Woodley, to find out what can be done …
Read More »Opinion: Pre-order? Why bother?
Is it really any surprise gamers are becoming more reluctant to pre-order? Over the past 12 months, there have been several examples of games that just didn’t live up to their expectations; games that launched full of bugs, and online games that couldn’t actually connect online. We can recall at …
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