If promises were crackers, most gamers would be fat; because a lot of them are so fed up with the promise of preordering games. Preordering is the act of paying the game's publishers/developers before the game is even released. To be fair, preordering games back in the day (before the boom of the internet age) was somewhat justified because most games circulated as physical copies.
In this day and age, however, preordering games has a stigma attached to it (one some people don't seem to mind). A lot of the preordered titles (even the ones from triple-A studios) come out undercooked or disappointing. As a result, it has become a running joke for a certain percentage of gamers who resisted the FOMO preordering urge and are thus not suffering from buyer's remorse. These memes sum up their half-joke sentiments.
10 There is an impostor among us...
Okay, maybe a disclaimer is in order; not all people who make fun of preordering games didn't preorder some games themselves. The human mind, after all, is a fickle thing. It sometimes contradicts itself and clicks on that preorder button while debating on Reddit about the drawbacks of preordering in another Chrome tab.
There's every possibility that the people who made and laughed at this meme could have also preordered Cyberpunk 2077 or Anthem, etc. In any case, though, complaining about the game after preordering is a bad case of buyer's remorse. It's also like a hangover where people promise not to drink again, but they do anyway.
9 Let's call it a work-in-progress
Back in the Stone Age, video games were released in a complete state. One of the reasons for this was the fact that the internet wasn't as popular or ubiquitous, so publishers and developers had to ensure the product was finished. Nowadays, some of the most shameless big video game companies will commit to the problematic business practice shown above.
They've gotten so notorious that there's no need to drop names anymore. Red flag bearers already come to mind fast. Ultimately, this could lead to a select number of players choosing to pay even more for content that's usually not worth the price.
8 You will not listen, boy!
Video game trailers sadly don't mean much anymore, since released products can often disappoint. Certain big video game studios are quite notorious for this. The trailer shows all kinds of next-gen bells and whistles along with buzzwords, but none of these will be present in the final game.
The funny thing is, the imaginary Kratos scolding Atreus here is right. While the preordered game can still be refunded depending on the store, money really isn't the only investment a preorder gamer pours into a title. Months of anticipation, excitement, and even hope go down the drain after a promise fails.
7 Yes, but maybe the tenth time's a charm?
And then there are some who will resort to cognitive dissonance (cope, in internet slang) and delude themselves that the poor game they preordered isn't all that bad. Such a gambler's fallacy in action might actually be doing more harm than good for the industry as a whole.
Imagine if there were players who kept defending something like Battlefield 2042 at launch. They might as well just teach EA or Dice to get away with any bad business practice they can. Games like that remain a cautionary tale that, sadly, not many gamers heed.
6 When you preorder a game from Wish...
The funny thing about game trailers is that players can somewhat already predict what's going to get downgraded or removed from the actual release version. Take The Division 2, for example. The game looked like nothing before in terms of fidelity and visual aesthetics in the trailer.
The release version painted a different picture, however. It was considerably less interesting than the trailer advertised. The same can be said for the first Watch Dogs or even other games that run on multi-generational platforms. If a gameplay trailer looks too advanced or clean, then there's a chance it's not representative of the final product.
5 What about remasters? Collector's Edition? DLC? Microtransactions?
The sad (or hopelessly hilarious) part about preordering a game is that there's no guarantee the costs will end there. Some players might be excited to play their game a bit earlier and with all the features except they don't get all the features, especially with some game studios.
Microtransactions, trickle DLCs, and even exclusive content sometimes get in the way of enjoyment. Such a case even happens in competitive multiplayer games. As usual, this doesn't help consumers feel great about their purchase as there are just too many hidden costs.
4 Plenty of time, my dear, plenty of time
Then there are some hardy veterans who have survived and learned much from their buyer's remorse (or from others). These gaming community misers wage an uphill battle against anti-consumerist agendas and game studio greed where they get the most out of their game by barely spending anything.
But in reality, that depends a lot on what gamers value more. Some value their time more than their money, while others are immortal beings with unlimited recreation time. The latter, however, tends to be less victimized by game studios.
3 Typical AAA publisher meeting
With how widespread these memes are, one might wonder if the targeted game studios have actually seen the sentiments of a percentage of the players. Because the "greedy game studio" stereotype is quite rampant now. They have to notice this, somehow.
Too bad they'll never be transparent about their proceedings, so fans can only imagine what goes on behind those closed doors. The meme above could be it; one outlier who cares more about consumers than how much profit can be wrung out of them probably gets labeled as "not a team-player."
2 From 'breathtaking' to 'suffocating'
While on the topic of preordering games that have sorely fallen short of their promises, Cyberpunk 2077 comes to mind. Right now, it looks like it still holds the crown as the biggest disappointment in the gaming industry; at least for this decade, anyway. It's a shame because they even got Keanu Reeves to advertise their game.
Even then, though, they didn't do his in-game character justice because Keanu's digital rendition in Cyberpunk 2077 looks less than stellar. So now there are memes like this that will forever immortalize what went down on December 10, 2020; when many console players' holiday season was ruined.
1 That's a lot of damage!
It's fairly common for video games to release in a half-baked state, and it's even more hysterically comedic when this happens to games that can be preordered. Players would think that the game studio is confident with their game since they're already charging way before the release.
Then reality hits, and it's just like any other game that comes with a plethora of release problems at launch. That preorder income that supposedly helped improve the game was nowhere to be felt. Of course, that doesn't happen to all games that can be preordered, but it's quite alarming when it happens to the big ones and keeps happening again and again.