I will freely admit that I'm a raging hypocrite when it comes to preorders. I talk a big game about how they are unnecessary. I get irate when Gamestop employees threaten that if I don't preorder now, even my future children might not be able get a copy of game X. But secretly, when no one is watching, I log onto websites and salivate over the "preorder bonuses" and the promises of mythical Limited Limited Editions that exist only in cyberspace warehouses and available to the select few forward-thinking enough to invest upfront and bypass the use of a carbon-based retail systems.

I'm the battered spouse of videogame preorders.

The problem is, I keep expecting the system to live up to some idealized fantasy about how this retail mechanism should operate. Call me crazy, but shouldn't people who preorder a game--people who have locked in their choice of retailer and price on the promise of a good that doesn't yet have a tangible form--get some sort of bonus other than some game trailers already released months ago on Xbox Live, or a handful of uninspired gamer pictures? In my mind--and I admit that I live in a fantasy world where orange juice doesn't taste horrible after brushing your teeth and everything runs on nougat--you should be given some sort of tangible and worthwhile reward for locking in your sale with a retailer. Ideally I think this would be first crack at a game--the opportunity to play it as early as possible, ala the midnight release strategy sometimes employed by usual suspects.

And yet, at least in terms of online preorders, this is hardly the case.

About two months ago I complained numerous times about not receiving my preorder for Halo 3. Best Buy, the company with which I had entrusted a sum of cash as well as my hopes and dreams for Master Chief fueled mayhem, let me down in a huge way. Halo 3 was officially released at Midnight on Tuesday, September 25th. I watched as my friends all popped online with their newly acquire copies fresh from the store shrink wrap. At my PC I furiously closed my browser after seeing that my copy hadn't even shipped yet. I finally received my copy of Halo 3, ostensibly the biggest videogame release ever, late on Friday the 28th. So, in exchange for getting my money and business up front, Best Buy took almost 4 days to get me my preorder, something that I could have just bought from a brick and mortar Gamestop, Wal Mart, etc and had been playing the night of release. I held out for a couple of days because according to the Best Buy website the Special Edition I had purchased was "Limited Availability" and "Only Available Online" but as it turned it was not only readily available in stores but Wal Mart, whom I eventually bought it from so as to not give Best Buy more of my business, had a plethora of copies.

So, needless to say I'm through with preordering from Best Buy, at least if I want to receive my goods in a reasonable amount of time. It certainly doesn't help that they are using some back-assward, convoluted shipping system now that involves them, a shipping company, AND the US Postal Service. "Getting you your package sometime before the end of time". I think they may also be employing those Baby Delivery Storks and possibly a mid 20th century pneumatic tube delivery system.

Oh, and I returned my copy of Halo 3 that I bought from them, when it finally did arrive, even though it meant forfeiting a discount on Microsoft Points that they were offering with the package.

I titled this post "A Tale of Two Preorders" because I recently preordered Mass Effect from the online front of a gaming retailer, Gamestop in this case. Once again I was lured in by exclusives (which are hopefully cooler than, say, a tongue-in-cheek router tutorial). This time, though, I didn't care so much about getting it at a specific time, because I wasn't itching to play it online with friends (and strangers) at the stroke of midnight. But I wanted the bonus stuff, so there you have it.

To Gamestop's credit, and as much as it pains me to say this, the game actually arrived at a decent time: today before noon. It was released yesterday. I still could have had a copy sooner had I just stopped off at a physical retailer, but a one day delay isn't horrible, especially compared to Best Buy's piss-poor delivery schedule. And this was without paying for special shipping. Colloquially, I've heard Amazon is pretty good at getting you games, etc., on the actual day of release, but I can't personally confirm.

So, in these days of Internet commerce and global shipping, why can't we get our games delivered to us early when we preorder, or even the day of release? Are companies that concerned about breaking the "street date" that they don't want to risk shipping off a package a day or two early so that it arrives the day of "release"? The alternative, of course, is to interface with digital content delivery systems like Valve's Steam, which is certainly a viable option, though their selection is limited and is only appropriate for PC users.

Game Companies: You have my money. I want to play your game as soon as it comes out.
Game Retailers: Make it happen.