Friday Night Shots – Pre-Order Extravaganza!

Welcome back! Belly up to the bar and let me get you a drink of some kind.

Doesn’t have to be booze.

It’s Friday again.

The week has kind of flown by, though that could be because it feels like I have a million things to do before my month-long vacation starts after next Friday.

So I’m sitting here sipping my whiskey and Diet Pepsi, getting ready for dinner, and thinking.

What am I thinking?

I’m thinking “what the heck am I going to write about tonight?”

Then it hit me, of course.

I had just written this morning (ok, last night, but it posted this morning, and you’re welcome for the behind the scenes blogging glimpse) about the latest GMT newsletter, and how excited I was about the new P500 orders announced, as well as the status of my other P500 orders.

Why don’t I write about pre-orders?

I remember back in the day, before “regular” (i.e. non-wargames) games had become popular, when games just came out when they came out.

Sure, if you were an Avalon Hill grognard (or some of the other companies which I didn’t have any familiarity with unfortunately…shut up, I was 12!), you might have heard about upcoming Avalon Hill releases in the pages of The General magazine.

But you certainly couldn’t do anything about it! You just kept bugging your local game store guy (because back then, it was a guy…)

Nowadays, there are tons of games that come up for pre-order rather than just appearing out of the blue. It’s not the majority, but that’s probably because there are like a million games coming out every year (slight exaggeration).

Not only are there a bunch of games available for pre-order, but there are so many different ways that companies are doing pre-orders.

The most obvious one, of course, is Kickstarter (and Gamefound and other crowdfunding platforms). Yes, they aren’t technically “pre-orders,” but for a lot of games, they basically are.

Some smaller, independent companies and games may decide to not go forward with a game if it doesn’t reach its funding goal.

But the big companies? Like Alderac or CMON or Bezier Games?

First, there’s no question that games from these companies will fund. The only question will be how high the number will be.

So that’s not even something to consider.

Secondly, they are almost definitely going forward no matter how badly they do.

These are essentially pre-orders.

Sometimes they offer exclusive (or semi-exclusive, anyway) promos to make people want to back them rather than waiting for retail.

Sometimes they don’t.

I love how Garphill Games does it.

They offer promos, but those promos will always be available from the Garphill store (at least until they run out, anyway). If you want to wait until the game comes out at retail, there’s nothing stopping you. You won’t miss out on anything.

The benefits of backing Garphill games on Kickstarter?

You’re giving money directly to them (and probably far cheaper than order from them directly). You’re getting the promos for essentially free. You’re going to get the game sooner than if you had waited for retail.

That’s it!

So Kickstarter is one method of pre-order.

Then there’s the GMT Games P500 system.

This system is really great because you are essentially stating an intention to buy the game.

However, you’re not charged until the game is ready to be shipped to you.

If you decide later that you really can’t find yourself wanting this game, you can cancel it at any time.

Maybe your game group has changed and you’ll never get it played?

I probably shouldn’t talk about buying games that I don’t think I’ll be able to get to the table.

That’s the neat thing, though it’s also kind of insidious because you can find yourself putting in an order for a game because “hey, I won’t have to pay for this for another year or two!”

I’m very conscious of what I have backed on the P500, but it can be a chore sometimes.

However, this is how I’ve had to pay for a game almost every month this year, going into at least July.

Yikes!

I’ve never pre-ordered a Compass Games game until I did Western Front Ace: The Great War in the Air just recently.

Compass Games has a two-tiered pre-order system.

You can pre-pay, paying as soon as you order the game.

For some games (or maybe all? I haven’t explored the Compass site that much), there is also a “pay later” pre-order option.

That’s what I did.

There’s also a third option, because Compass puts games that are about to come out up on Kickstarter as a last minute hype boost.

What determines the order of how these games get sent out?

I haven’t a clue.

But it’s another option!

Even retail stores (or at least the online ones) are getting into the act.

A game is announced, and it’s soon available for pre-order on their site, either Boardgame Bliss or 401 Games (the two Canadian sites I buy from). Of course, there are tons in the States, and maybe in your country too!

Of course, you have to pay ahead of time because they are literally reserving the game for you from their allotment.

That’s not an issue.

I do like it when these online retailers allow you to add to your pre-order, so that may be you can eventually get up to the free shipping threshold before your order actually ships.

I have two Marvel Legendary expansions (both of the 2023 ones) and the Smash Up expansion on pre-order at Boardgame Bliss. When the Smash Up expansion comes out in July, that will ship, and I added a couple of other things as well!

Like David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin’s Resist! solo game, which looks amazing.

One day, I’m sure we will reach the Pre-Order Singularity and the space-time continuum will collapse upon itself.

(I’ve pre-ordered this game! Wait, it’s already come out…no, it’s coming out tomorrow…but I already own it…but it’s shipping soon…arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!)

But in the meantime, let’s just enjoy what we get, and pre-order to our heart’s content!

Though that could be the whiskey talking…

This post brought to you by Canadian Club, the letter ñ and the number 12345