When the game is announced and when we see first trailers, hype around the game usually starts (if the game looks interesting, of course). That hype helps developers and publishers to sell their games straight at launch Grand Theft Auto V is a great example of this. Months before the game's release the whole internet was talking about it. That helped the game to break six world records (Guiness World Records page about it) and made tons of money.
All that hype (and marketing department) affect your opinion about the game itself. Since everyone would be talking about the game you'd get "shrinked" into it's world too and would, therefore, enjoy it more.
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| One of the games that was very hyped was Titanfall. I can't say you if the hype was real or not, beacuse I haven't played it (yet, I hope)1 |
The game community is as active as it will probably ever be at launch. Discussions are the most active, multiplayer has the most players and the developers are more receptive for bug fixes, patches and implementing community's ideas into the game (hovewer after game's release we rarely see that). Later on, when the game isn't selling that well, it's less likely for developers to focus their time on already released game instead of making a new one (which would bring them money).
Some developers are more willing to listen to community, players than others, but that's another story.
If you're fan of a game and have to have special/limited/collector's edition of the game that's coming out, you should consider buying it at launch, beacuse later on price of these editions (if unopened) may increase drastically.
If you're interested in collector's editions then you might want to check http://collectorsedition.org/.But there are also bad sides of getting games at launch. One of them are bugs. Even though, some games have early access or beta, the amount of bugs at the release probably is larger that later on, when developers (with a help of our, gamer's, feedback) make the game even better.
Another reason why you could postpone your purchase is that the hype, built around the game might not be true. The game could also turn out to be something completely different that you've expected. It might have looked pretty on the trailers, but when you get to play it, it looks something quite different (don't get me wrong: graphics don't have to be ultra high, but showing some sort of graphic at the reveal and downgrading them later, that's not fair. A lot of people complained about Watch Dogs graphics that turned out to be worse than expected. I did not play that game so I can not judge about that).
The last and likely most important factor for not buying a game on launch day is full price. Hovewer, if you pre-order a game for full price you usually get some sort of bonus (skin, weapon ...) but keep in mind that those bonuses can be bought later on (if you realize you enjoy the game so much you just have to have them). Also, excluding bonuses, why would you pre-order games? Isn't it better to wait a day or two, read some reviews and then device if game is worth buying or not? That way you make sure you don't buy a bad game + you don't really miss anything.
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| If you have pre-ordered Battlefield 4 you also got China Rising DLC (that can now be bought for 14.99 €)2 |
Later on, after some time passes and all the reviews are out you can get better view of the game. The developers have also make their game better and the price of it is smaller (this might not be always true, but Battlefield 3, for example, was even free for some period of time. This happened around 3 years after it's release). But there are also downsides. Game is not discussed over forums so much anymore (unless it was featured in really popular sale/bundle and everybody starts talking about it again) and player base is smaller (less active multiplayer).
This might be just me, but when I buy a game in a bundle or something like that I look at it a bit different than if I buy it for full price. Maybe the full price and the hype colors my opinion about the game, but I tend to spend more time with the game if I buy it for more money.
I hope this article helps you to decide if the game is worth getting at launch. I normally wait until some time passes and I see if the game really is what it's trying to be and if it's worth the money.
Image source:
1 http://info.ea.com/products/p1452/titanfall
2 http://info.ea.com/products/p1429/battlefield-4
