You Can Now Cancel Switch eShop Pre-Orders Up To One Week Before Release

This is much better than it was before.......will this be available in Europe and UK tho?

Thats nice if I got digital games

@Itachi2099 Yes.

It would be useful if a game's physical edition is announced shortly before digital release, but other than that I don't see the point. It would be much more interesting if, like on Steam, people could try a game for 24 hours and then decide if it's worth it.

About seeing the remaining days of an offer, that is interesting enough.

@Moroboshi876 it's 2 hours playtime or 2 weeks (purchase / release date) on Steam (whichever comes first)

That’s just great. Finally compliant to the law..

@sanderev Thanks, I don't really use Steam, but what I meant was you can decide after trying. I think 2 hours is plenty of time to see if some game is not for you anyway.

2 entire weeks is even better in case you buy some digital game and then its physical release is announced, which happened with Streets of Rage 4.

Making it only with pre-orders is something I can't see the benefit of.

Steam still is way better for refunds. Light years better. It is shameful the way Nintendo (and Sony) handle refunds today.

A step in the right direction at least

Does this hold DLC? I think you were able to pre-order the Pokémon DLC long before it released as well.

Wasn't there some countries that were in debate with Nintendo about if this was a legal practice or not?

Good job Nintendo, now time to add a refund policy too.

@Moroboshi876 I bought four copies of Overcooked 2 to play local wireless play. It's the only third party game I have tried to play wireless play with and after a few matches it kicks people out of the game. I wish I could get a refund.

That's good. Though perhaps should have been so in the first place?

Awesome that they finally added this

That's nice, I suppose. Still don't understand folks wanting refunds for something they've played already, with exception to a legitimately broken game that won't play or load.

It's nice that Nintendo finally allows cancellations of pre-orders on the eShop, but I've got to ask: why do people pre-order digital games in the first place? It's not like they can run out of stock, can they?

Meh, I want to be able to refund a ***** game. Happens rarely but I’ve paid good money for some waste of memory and that isn’t OK.

@Shulkalot I think you can download the game early and on release day you download a patch that makes the game playable. It lets you play immediately on day of release basically. Sometimes, if Nintendo has a pre-purchase promotion you can earn extra gold My Nintendo points which can be used to buy other games at a discount and they can be redeemed for other things on https://my.nintendo.com/

Baby steps Nintendo. Maybe by 2029 you'll actually issue refunds for games no matter what

@Moroboshi876 2 weeks would be really easy to finish the game and then get a refund for a game you finished. So I can see why they wouldn't want to do that.

@TheFrenchiestFry Only if its required by legislation...The same reason they've done this.

Great. Finally Nintendo falls in line. Never made any sense not being able to cancel a pre-order.

Step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.

@Tao They actually won that lawsuit from what I heard so I don't know if that's related to this

@HobbitGamer I suppose there's percent for it in theaters with audiences from plays, concerts, etc being upset with a performance and demanding their money back. However effective or not they were in getting their money back, and it had to be kind of a mob-win rather than per-person, I suppose there is prior precedent in the entertainment industry for a disappointed audience being able to claim their admission back for a substandard performance.

@sanderev Of course. 2 weeks without beginning to play (enough time to regret a purchase for whatever reason) or a maximum of 2 hours of gameplay, as I understand. That would be reasonable and what Steam does.

wait... when do reviews for games come out? how far ahead?

@NEStalgia I don't personally agree with it. Once folks have their employer start trying that with their 'work performance' and demanding retroactive pay reductions, then they'll understand.

I bought Momonga Pinball Adventures on the switch and its actually a completely broken game. Nintendo refused to refund me.

I still don’t understand why anyone would pre-order a digital game more than a week in advance in the first place.

I understand they had to do this for legal reasons but I don’t like it at all. The reason I prepurchase games is to get the unpleasant part (paying money) out of the way as early as possible

@Tourtus
Double Gold Coins always last until a couple of weeks after the game has been released. It's an early buyer incentive, not a pre-order incentive.

Personally I'd argue preorder culture as a whole needs to be reassessed. Maybe even legal limitations placed. There's no need as far as I can tell for a digital item to be preorder-able anything longer than (at most) a week before launch. Allow time for preloading to help out those with limits in their download speed, and to allow companies to absorb the high bandwidth demand.

I mean, look at Sony right now vetting consumers to ensure a positive launch for their PS5. The whole idea is ripe for abuse, and if the video game industry has proven anything, it's that if they can abuse something, they will.

To the writer of this article, @GavinLane . Does this have to do with some European countries investigating pre-orders customers rights last year?

@HobbitGamer Aren't there plenty of industries that do do that? For that matter, anything commission-based, tip-based, etc, where the real value of the labor is determined by the customer post-consumption? This more or less works like that, which is a wide-range of industries from beauty to food to sales. And games, if seen as a service (which the publishers want us to) or an art (which many gamers do) fits that. As a service, most industries are tips/commission based, and as an art, most arts are tip and patron based. In that sense the consumer determining the value post-consumption would actually be in-line with other similar industries, not an exception.

Not saying I like it, the concept, personally, more than you do, probably just because this is "what I'm used to." But I'm just saying it's not entirely that rare a system that having an adaptation of it for entertainment/performance doesn't really stand out as so odd. If we think of a game as a retail product, most retail products have a satisfaction guarantee that you can return it if you're not satisfied (either from the mfr or the retailer.) And if we think of a game as performance entertainment, then there are precedents for other service and entertainment industries to offer a similar satisfaction guarantee of sorts. And if we think of it as a service, the service industry operates primarily in a post-service value-setting environment (for better or worse - I'm not saying I like the tip/commission system at all, either.)

In that regard, media is the odd exception where everyone accepts it as a "consumable" and no matter whether you're satisfied or or not you're considered to have obtained your money's worth. Instead of treating it like foodservice, we treat it like packaged meat (games, film, and books, alike.)

@Richnj I'm not against "pre-order culture" technically. But what astounds me is that it hasn't actually been used to serve any purpose at all for a decade or more. The ENTIRE purpose of pre-orders was to know how much of a product to produce for JIT manufacture to not have shortages, and to ensure enough production that everyone that wanted a product at release could get it (so long as demand didn't massively outstrip production capactiy.)

Instead we have companies taking preorders for physical products and still massively shorting demand, running out of pre-orders during the pre-order period etc. What's the point of a pre-order if you're not going to produce enough to fulfill the preorders? You're just producing whatever arbitrary number you were going to, anyway, and then telling people to line up first.

It also doesn't make much sense for digital and seems, to me, like the only purpose is to guage the need for marketing spend and obtain demographic information.

As for the PS vetting...that one is really odd, and really troubling. On paper, it makes sense. Scalping is a problem. Retailers don't control it, and it's predictable. Having a sign-up to preorder based on PSN id makes a lot of sense, it ensure real existing customers get first crack at upgrading. On the surface, I don't have a problem with it at all. Reward your current customers by giving them first access to the new machine is perfectly fair. Until we get to the vetting. "Selection based on previous interests and PS history." Huh? Is it even legal to sort through your existing customers and only pre-offer the new model to ones you handpick based on their demographic metadata? It's one thing to randomly select among registered customers....but are they going to offer only to whales that spend the most on new games and/or new DLC? Are they only going to offer to users who have connected their account to a social media presence with many followers? Is it just for customers that have paid for Plus consistently for so many years, but without saying so? Does a player without social media followers, or even just a high friends list count as less of a customer to offer it to than Pewdiepie? Can they ensure that only Asian-Americans between ages 18-29 can get one first? Is this a beta test disguised as a product launch? That's really, really troubling and is the first example I can see where a company's general launch is openly stating that the initial retail launch is going to be offered only to specific customers of their choosing after they filter through your years of meta-data. Shouldn't they be providing them for free as evaluation units if they're using it as a marketing/testing distribution? There's a lot about that that doesn't sit right (and I strongly question the legality.)

The part of me that wants to be optimistic is what they really mean is that they want to evaluate the PSN account to make sure it's not some shell/stolen account being used, and/or isn't an account made up or resurrected by scalpers just to get at the units first rather than actual real players who's account data shows that they're actual game players and existing customers.

But my cynicism that says humans innately will always choose the most vile path, automatically, says they want SPECIFIC types of people to be the first to own as PS5 for their social marketing (or beta testing) purposes, and they're only disguising it as a sign-up for everyone.

Why would you preorder a digital game before the preload time? Seems pointless to me, just put the money in your account and the game on your wish list and wait until the day before to see if you still want it so you can have it ready to go by launch time.

For the preorder people, great. But why on Earth would you preorder something more than a week unless it's something that takes time to deliver? I may or may not have done that for AC because I was so excited

@NEStalgia A game is a product. That is all.

@MeowMeowKins I don't get it either, the game will just sit around on your home screen teasing you until it's out anyways.

@HobbitGamer And most products have satisfaction guarantees/return periods, if not provided by the producer, provided by the retailer as part of its service to win customers.

Again, I don't have a horse in the race, and I understand the argument on both sides. If you've already played it, you've already "consumed" it, OTOH, if it's a product, then if I bring my end table home and realize it clashes with my decor and I don't like it, I can return it. If a game clashes with my expectations, why can't I return it?

That actually matters even more in digital, where for physical, once you "consume it" you can resell it - for digital, you're stuck with useless bits if you find out it doesn't match your lava lamp's hue, exactly.

I can see the point for, say, Uncharted. You saw the film either way, and it's not like there's much interactivity, anyway. OTOH, when I remember I bought Fallout76, I start to really think you should be able to get a refund, even digitally. What was inside that box was not a complete product, not a quality product, and clashed with expectations of anyone that's ever played Fallout (and was mostly just an IOU and a sheet of payment tearoffs....)

5 REASONS FOR DIGITAL PRE-ORDER:

1. A game you absolutely know that you will purchase anyway.
2. A reduction in price if you do so.
3. Getting double golden coins.
4. Getting a thank you pre-order in-game present.
5. A game that it is many Gigabytes in order to reduce waiting time when the game launches.

@NEStalgia This gen has really opened my eyes to how scummy companies will be. Starting with Destiny and MCC. Preordered both. Paid £90 for Destiny, and got royally shafted with the DLC content. Paid £50 (I think) for MCC and it was just utterly broken for years. And neither company much cared for the state of the product they released. They just moved on to the next profitable release.

I preordered Halo Wars 2 as well, and then MS decided to launch DLC outside of the season pass. I fought MS tooth and nail to get a refund on that. I've only just rebought the game, with all DLC, years after launch and for a fraction of the price (a practice that is now standard for me).

Then we could talk about probably a hundred games launching broken and extremely content lite since then.

They really have taken a customer who was almost always buying on launch for games and such, and just beat the positive out of me. It's such a shame too. I had a work friend text me today because he's excited for the new avengers game, and I'm torn between ranting about why he shouldn't be excited for the game, and just leaving him to his bliss (I responded with a type of cautionary optism).

I think for me, the weirdest part is how people can still be optimistic or positive after such a anti-consumer generation.

@Cosats

1) Not really a reason, and a poor one too. You could still buy the game at launch. Preordering wasn't needed still, and there weren't any benefits from doing so.

2) Not all games offer preorder discounts, especially not the big ones.

3) On a £50 game, double coins turns out to be a £2.50 reward, or an extra 5%. You get the game on sale or physically, and you'll probably save a lot more money. And money that can be spent on anything, rather than just more digital games on Switch.

4) Again, not all games do this, and it's hardly a bug incentive. Preorder bonuses are just another issue with preorder culture.

5) Most games don't allow preloading until right before launch, maybe a few days. It's still not really a defense for being able to preorder a game months before it launches. Again, like I said earlier, you could offer preorders just a week before launch and still get the best benefits from such a system without all the negatives.

@Richnj Not that companies weren't always scummy, but I do think this gen what really changed beyond knowing they can get away with it is simply the type of investors pouring tremendously more money into gaming and expecting certain behaviors and certain returns has fundamentally changed the industry. More importantly, the cesspool of human degeneration that is the mobile gaming economy has fundamentally shifted how investment in gaming works, and what investors expect to happen now. Without mobile I don't think we'd have gone down the hole of endless monetization. Investors learned of the endless casino in your pocket and expect that to be applied to all things.

Destiny, sadly, was predictable before it ever launched, though. Activision being the publisher, alone, was a red flag. Kottick makes EA look user friendly. At least Bungie wrested Destiny away from them, finally, but I dont' know that Bungie has the finances to really salvage much of it. The game was built around Activision's business model to its core.

MCC....sadly (or thankfully?) I don't see that as companies being scummy so much as 343 being perennially incompetent to the max, but eventually making good even if they lost bucket-loads of money doing so. That I can give a pass to. They eventually delivered a remaster of 4 games, plus one more for a net of 55.... It just took them forever to find their rear ends....or at least approximate the location and draw a sketch. But that's probably the only example of incompetence over scum and an example where eventually they over-delivered on value without soaking you for more money (and apparently did so at the cost of their next game.... )

But yeah, on the whole, I totally agree. The amount of selling partial games and then selling the rest later that has begun this generation is a disgrace, and that people are excited for more of it, and ever worsening forms is baffling. We have our two shining beacons this gen in FFXVII where the game released...then DLC, then more DLC, then more DLC, then the Complete Edition which then wasn't the Complete Edition because it then had more DLC (and eventually the company pulling the plug on some MORE planned DLC.)

And on the other end, the poster child for all time, FO76, which screwed the preorderers, screwed the collectors edition (the canvas bag was a nylon bag and then you had to pay more to fix that.) - the store gouging, the re-buying, then they eventually turned the whole "not an MMO" game into an MMO with continuous payments....and then somehow people started celebrating it. I honestly can't see buying another Bethesda Game Studios game until they prove they have moved beyond this. Elder Scrolls Online, a game by Bethesda's parent company Zenimax, who ONLY does MMOs managed to make a less payment-forced actual MMO, with more single player story content than FO76.....

Do you still get gold coins for preordering the games or does that happen when the payment gets processed?

@NEStalgia @HobbitGamer If you compare games to films, music, etc., every game should come with a demo. It is equivalent to a trailer or an audio sample (as game trailers are not sufficient - lacks interactivity and can be full of CGI). I think if a game does not have a demo, it should have a refund policy. I don't know why Nintendo does not address that but it is definitely anti-consumer. Even a company like Google has a very solid refund policy, which I find very commendable.

@San_D I don't compare interactive media to static media, though.

@HobbitGamer But doesn't "buy before you try, all sales final!" kind of make all video games inherently a gatcha?

@NEStalgia Sure, if someone didn't see commercials, see ads, see reviews, hear word-of-mouth, and have people watching people play them on youtube. I guess if everyone lived in a vacuum, yeah.

@HobbitGamer Commercials and ads don't convey the game much. Many many such ads going back to the 80's ring hollow once you actually have the game. Same for word of mouth hype. Reviews do count to make an informed decision but it's still different than hands on. And normal human beings don't watch other people play video games.

I could tell you all about the great reviews this here baseball glove has. It fits great, feels great, the leather is great, it's so flexible, and really improves your game. Until you buy it and find it doesn't fit your hand great, doesn't flex like your old one, and overall just disappoints your taste despite all the great reviews, ads, and hype. Even if you watched me catch a ball with it you Youtube and it seemed great in the video.

Again, playing devils advocate, here, I've never actually returned a game, but the more you argue against the idea, the more you're convincing me that it actually should become normal

@Cosats if I preorder a digital game it's usually 1 day before release. You still get all the benefits, but you don't have to pay right away.

This new system actually makes that really easy for me. I now can just pre-order and it will be charged a week before release.

@HobbitGamer Exactly what @NEStalgia said in his last comment. Games have this interaction element to them which, unless you play it, you won't know whether it suits you. I have been burnt by Hollow Knight, which almost nobody said anything bad about, but I found the controls incredibly clunky, which I could never understand from a YouTube let's play or reviews or word of mouth. This is why we need demos for games, or refund policies.

@NEStalgia @San_D I respectfully acknowledge your individual opinions.

And all of a sudden developers start pre-orders a week before release....

Welcome to the 21st century nintendo🙏🙏🙏

With the switch's nasty track record with poor quality control, game breaking performance issues and lack of refunds - I will never preorder.

@NEStalgia Even since I was a child, stores always excluded video games/computer software, music and movies from their standard return policies with "once opened, no returns unless defective" legal disclaimers.
Also, rental stores were how we "demoed" games back in the day.
I'm guessing those were excluded BECAUSE they were the items customers were most likely to use the store as a rental service instead of an actual rental store.
(I'm thinking it was only later that stores like Best Buy began charging "restock fees" for non-defective returns. I guess as a means to make people who wanted to essentially rent the merchandise essentially pay a rental fee for it.)

What is dumb however, is how Nintendo now likes to release demo versions days, weeks, months AFTER the full version.
I understand with Pokemon they have gotten burned before releasing early demo versions because Game Freak can't delete the non-demo content (is it hard to overwrite the remaining Pokemon/item/move/Ability/etc. data with generic/null data?), so dataminers will spoil the **** out of the game before release. But same day as release at least?

@KingMike Agreed, in the US, at least, it's mostly always been an exclusion with a "no returns once opened" policy, though a few retailers made their own return policies available as a service. I think it comes more from the other side of the pond where returns have been semi-common at different points for games.

But just because it's always been that way to prevent customers using it as a rental services, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best solution. The problem is two fold. Everyone is scummy. The entire human race is scummy, and everyone simply tries to use everyone else. The companies will hide behind "no returns" to churn out garbage and rack up sales with no consumer recourse. But reversed, the consumers would abuse it and treat it as cheap rentals, then boast about it on social with a 100,000 Youtube videos titled "Don't pay for another video game before watching THIS!" with some angry guy in sprial glasses in the thumbnail. Every time I see some pro-consumer anti-corporate policy happen, I almost end up sympathizing with faceless evil corporations against the public.....I always underestimate just how sleazy the public is, and how they feel it's their right to do so!

Everything relies on either an iron fist or an honor system. Now that western society has degenerated to fully lose any sense of honor, iron fist it must be!

So, yeah, demos are probably the best solution (though only for people with good internet, which excludes a lot of people. Especially on PS/XB/PC where a "demo" may be 20GB+

But I've also noticed the weird "demo after release" policy going on. I guess it's a rock and a hard place for them in that, if they release before, the dataminers get at it. If they release release day the servers will get decimated with everyone getting free content of the new popular thing while the real customers are buying it and trying to download it.... but release it after, and it kind of defeats the point.

The dataminers is a whole other problem. I really don't understand why anyone actually needs or wants to do that, why anyone needs or wants to read about what they did, why companies can't secure their archives better to make datamining difficult if it matters - or why for most games it really matters much, anyway. I mean I can spoil the plot of the next Pokemon game right now, be at least 70% accurate, and I don't need to datamine a thing, or for the content to even have been created yet. What is there to spoil in Pokemon?

Much more logical.

Hey I was just wondering. If you are under 18, you can’t set a payment option. I preordered Super Mario 3D all stars, and the payment should be happening today, but I have no idea how it will work. Can someone help me?
EDIT: It worked! If funds is your payment option, and you have insufficient funds, the pre order will cancel. Then you preorder again and pay as soon as you pre order. Also, you didn’t lose any money, since you only paid once, and this only happens a week before the game releases.

I’m thinking I need to add funds right now to my account, but I’m not sure that adding 60 dollars to my account will work. Can someone tell me if this is what I need to do?