Has ‘Pre-Ordering’, Gotten Out of Control?

I haven’t pre-ordered anything in awhile. I mostly am able to get a game, console or accessory online, and now they even send the items so that they are in your house either on the release day or before. ‘Exclusive Content’ ~ Yeppers, there really isn’t any of that going on (…for the most part!) because it’s not the stores which give you the content it’s the item’s developers. Right now the only exclusivity I’ve seen, is the relationship that Microsoft has with XBox Live with COD title games arriving first and other console owners having to wait at least a month later ~ Boooh!

Lately Gamestop has been promoting the  ‘pre-ordering’ of DLC, even using the word ‘exclusive destination’ for the upcoming “Annihilation” DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops. They did it with Halo: Reach’s ‘Noble Map Pack’, offering ‘Free stuff’ ~ a Flaming Mark V Spartan Helmet for your Xbox Live Avatar.  Yay, free stuff — but that’s beside the point. The point is, GameStop is taking pre-orders on DLC (downloadable content) as Exclusive, but I thought the reason for pre-ordering was to secure a copy in case the store runs out of stock?

That’s not the case for DLC. It looks as-if GameStop’s strategy for dealing with a scarcity-free market…is to hope nobody notices the lack of scarcity. Well I’m sorry to say that this just isn’t true. Let’s make a general comparison to the ‘exclusivity’ of DLC and the proceedures for it’s apparent ‘scarcity’ of availability:

To pre-order DLC from Gamestop you’ll have to:

• 1) Visit the store and pre-order it.
• 2) Wail until the actual release day (not ‘before’ but on that day!).
• 3) Recieve a download voucher in your e-mail then enter code and play.

Whereas, to get your DLC through XBox Live, all you have to do is:

• 1) Order it on release day and play!

Now I’m not a lazy guy, but for there NOT being any advantages and NO scarcity of availability…I’ll take my chances in ‘ordering the DLC from my sofa’ ~ lmao! In my experience the only things worth pre-ordering are new consoles, since they tend to be in short supply. But DLC? ~

Looks like Gamestop is blowing something up our ___’s. They’re making us start to think that DLC might one day be ‘out of stock’ (Forgive me but this is really funny stuff here ~ lol!) In closing I’d like to say to ‘keep your eyes open to the hype’ and, ‘The whole World’s a Circus, but just don’t be the Clown’. DLC is never scarce in demand that you have to go to Gamestop, to get it. Let us know what you think? Reply to this thread…