I would never pre-order a game. It is better to wait until a few weeks after launch. Then you have enough information from those that already bought it to know if is is worth getting or not.
I learned this the hard way with Cyberpunk 2077. Expectations and cool YouTube trailers is not enough, you need to know the quality of the game when is launches before knowing if it worth the investment or not.
eh they were never that practical tbf.
they didnât age well if used a lot (scratches over the years killed some of my ps2 games).
and if you lost/broke it youâd better hope you had a replacement policy.
True, they are more trouble than they are worth, especially for games.
The only reason I still use some physical media is that Netflixâs DVD library is much, much bigger than its streamed library, so there are still things you canât easily stream. Also, the DVD version of Star Trek: DS9 looks much better than the streamed version for some reason (go figure). And there are still some cases where the 4K Blu-ray looks better than the streamed 4K version due to bandwidth issues.
In general, though, digital is the way to go. Itâs always the way to go with games, I think.
Oh, and DVD extras. Still need the physical media to enjoy those, most of the time. That will probably be less of an issue in the future, though.
Yeah I would almost never preorder a game. I make very, very rare exceptions for games I want to support, and AOE4 is one of them!
In my opinion, the AoE 4 pre-order in the basic version makes sense, especially since it includes DLC for AoE 2 - a nice bonus.
The problem is the price of this game, which seems to be a bit on the high side - at least in countries with low or average earnings.
The Deluxe Edition is pointless, as it offers cool stuff like soundtracks and artbooks - unfortunately in a disgusting digital version. I will get over the soundtrack as PC files, but the artbook as PDF is crap. I would rather have a beautifully printed (hardcover) artbook and a soundtrack CD (+ digital version).
The cool thing is the monument (the only numerical thing that is an interesting bonus).
Other âattractionsâ offered by the Deluxe Edition are crap - I do not want to pay extra PLN 75 (almost $ 20) for several dozen WAW files, one PDF file and multiplayer and forum crap.
I would be willing to pay extra for the Deluxe Edition if it offered physical content - an on-CD soundtrack, a book artbook, and potentially: steelbook, coins with campaign heroes, a double-sided poster with a map on one side and descriptions of civs and their tech trees on the other side, civs banners or Joan dâArc figurine.
to show support tot he devs that you are interested in playing the game
If the creators do not want to think about the physical version of this game, then let the Deluxe Edition at least contain something really worth attention - an exclusive DLC for people who purchased this version of the game adding, for example, 2 civs: the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
For this money, I prefer to have food for a half-week, rather than crap that I will never use - seriously, artbooks as PDF are a rip off.
By pre ordering a âAAAâ game you make the devs feel less pressured to deliver a polished product at launch.
Do not do that.
Pre order if you wish to support a small indie dev who needs that money to work more on the game
Iâll admit that the DLC as a pre-order bonus was enticing because Iâll at least have something to play while waiting for the launch. But even without the bonus, just having the game already in the library and ready to pre-download (if the time comes) is convenient.
Besides the free DLC pack for AoE2DE, you also show early support for the developers in this product. And if you know youâre going to buy it regardless then why not just pre-order it anyway?
Other than that not much really.
early support for developers? Itâs a huge company and no one of the devs will get paid more or less if a few thousands more buy the game 
My point is that we show them that we care for their product, meaning that they can give us hopefully more content post-launch for this game as Microsoft will most likely approve that.
I just say it.
You should never Pre Order a game where you dont damn sure about that you want to play it.
I stopped a long time ago pre ordering games for any bonus. There were too often bad games in between that looked good in trailers but were trash at release.
So i only pre order games when i now for SURE that this game is something for me.
Remember, no preorders!
I agree that pre-ordering games is a bad idea.
If a company gets lots of pre-order they know that the can release a game with lots of problems and try to fix them later on with patches.
If you avoid pre ordering you are telling them they should deliver a a polished game that is actually release worthy or face the consequences.
100% agree. Preordering games that seem to be in terrible state very close to release is a bad idea.
That way you encourage companies to save manpower and release games in a trash state.
Therefore, a better option is to release alpha version of games so that the community will find bugs and give developers suggestions to improve the entertainment.
An even better option is to actually WORK ON A GAME that you announce 4 (?!) years in advance and not just idle the project until release and then make your FANS do your work while charging 60$ for a tech demo.