October 9, 2024: Pre-Order!

Seeing as how we're in the business (literally!) of coming up with the latest and greatest in gaming goodness, we talk about pre-ordering a nontrivial amount around here. We normally offer our humble suggestion for what to pre-order, but not today. This time, I want to talk about pre-ordering in general. (Okay, fine; I've got the Munchkin Shadowrun box right there. But it's just an example, honest!)

I worked retail at a friendly local game shop for a number of years . . . and, of course, I can often be found frequenting my own FLGSes as a customer, at least until I'm shooed away with a broom. The past however-many years has seen a number of changes to our hip-and-happening hobby, but one of the biggest has been the shift from a perennial to a periodical model. That is, in the old days, it'd be straightforward to go into a game shop 6 to 12 months after a game's release and still see it on the shelves. Nowadays, new items might only remain on shelves for a much smaller number of months . . . or even weeks.

This is generally because most stores don't restock as much as they used to, and they do so much more selectively. From a certain perspective, this makes total sense; when (say) Settlers of Catan was one of only a couple dozen new big-ticket games to come out in a year, the store would keep restocking it because they knew it would sell out within a short time. But when there are that same amount of new big-ticket items in a month (or even a week at some parts of the year), there just isn't inventory space or discretionary store money to stock everything forever.

That's why pre-ordering is so important. If you know for certain you're going to want, say, Munchkin Shadowrun and you'll pick it up from your FLGS, then see if you can pre-order it. A lot of stores welcome insight into guaranteed sales for two reasons: It lets them gauge initial demand for forthcoming releases (an almost-impossible task for stores), and it helps ensure they can meet the demands of customers who don't pre-order. If a store only thinks it can sell 10 copies of Munchkin Shadowrun in a month but 20 customers show up to buy it on its release day, everyone's going to be unhappy. (Well, except those 10 folks who actually got their copy of Munchkin Shadowrun . . . they're going to have a boatload of cyberpunk-fantasy fun.)

If you're a super fan of a line of games, see if a store offers "subscriptions" or other ongoing pre-orders. I have a few of those at my local shops, and they certainly enhance my gaming experience. I don't have to keep track of what's coming out or when; I just get a call when something new arrives and they have it waiting for me.

I know everyone can't necessarily take advantage of pre-orders, but when they work, they're magical for customers, local shops, and humble game companies alike.

-- Steven Marsh