I love sale prices. In fact, I might go so far as to say I live for them. There have even been instances when the simple act of buying a game on a deep discount brought me so much joy that I didn’t even need to play the game to justify the purchase.
That being said, there is still a stigma — at least in my eyes — for games that go on sale months before they even launch, especially when said sale runs right up to the game’s launch date. It just feels like the publisher isn’t confident in the marketing, quality, or longevity of the game, so they worry sales figures might otherwise not meet expectations.
But maybe that’s just me.
Given my already lukewarm impressions of Deathloop, a 10% pre-order discount on both the base and deluxe editions just portends doom and gloom in my book. Of course, you need to be a Plus subscriber to access this discount, but come on, who owns a PlasyStation console without Plus these days?
This is the point where you, the reader, begin to doubt that I actually like any video game at all, considering how much I rain on the parades of so many games. And that’s fair. In my defense, however, there are so many mediocre-to-bad games these days that it’s hard not to give into the dark side.
But in this instance, with so much promotional material that fails to sell me on Deathloop, the pre-order discount just smells fishy to me.
Of course, in the event that I’m completely wrong, I’ll gladly eat my words. I actually own a PS5 now, and I’m starving for PS5 content, so I keep eyeballing Deathloop despite my hesitation to pull the trigger on a pre-order. If it ends up actually being great, I’ll be kicking myself for not getting in on this Plus price.
But that’s just a day in the life of a video-game naysayer like myself: Complain if you do, complain if you don’t.