I make it a point to pre-order games that I'd like to support and hopefully increase shipments for, like Z&W, Dewy, Phoenix Wright, and Trauma Center. But yeah... it'd be nice if I didn't have to think this way.
I think with pre-orders, we basically blame Gamestop's profit move, and all retailer profit motives to begin with. They don't want unsold stock on shelves, so they can probably reduce their financial risk greatly by UNDER-ORDERING the occasional game instead of over-ordering most games, and thus they can use pre-orders to gauge the demand for games better and allow them to adjust their shipment orders downwards in many cases.
Also, there's the increasing push from retailers like Gamestop to sell used games, and extra brand new titles available do nothing to help this profit stream.
... but now that we know that brick and mortars are to blame for this, we shouldn't take it too hard on them. They;re corporations intent on making money, it should be expected. We can't simply lay blame on them, label Gamestop the great Destroyer, and expect anything to come of it: they'll continue to do what they do until the economic reality makes them change, the same economic reality that's making them use the pre-order system to the detriment of small publishers right now.
Basically, I don't see much of a way out pre-order game market dynamic until the games business model changes, and games can be sold under a more
consignment-like business plan with less risk for the retailer (aside from shelf-space, of course)... or there's always the possibility of brick and mortar stores being ultimately marginalized once we move to full download distribution...
Until then, I plan to keep pre-ordering third party games at Gamestop... and pre-ordering the rest of my stuff at Familyvideo.com...
Edit: In fact, didn't Nintendo have to sell the NES and its games in toy stores under a deal similar to consignment? That if stock didn't sell, Nintendo would have to buy it back from the store? Or did Nintendo just have to account for any official price drops that happened?
Yup, to get the NES off the ground Nintendo actually had to risk buying back its own stock:
Quote
They called the US. version of the Famicom the 'Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)', and designed it to look less like a videogame console and more like something that would fit in with other home entertainment appliances. Nintendo took steps to make the system seem like a computer or a VCR. Nintendo even agreed to buy back all unsold inventory in order to get retailers to take a chance on them.