“Fallout 4”, “Call of Duty: Black Ops 3”, and “Batman: Arkham Knight” were all among the most highly anticipated and best-selling video games to be released this year, and they all share two things in common. The first is that they all were available to pre-order, which is an option given to customers to purchase the game before it is released – typically incentivized by small in-game bonuses such as an extra weapon or an otherwise unplayable level. The second is that each of them suffered from massive technical bugs and poor performance upon release, especially in the case of “Batman: Arkham Knight” which poorly optimized to the point of being unplayable on Personal Computers. It’s not hard to see the connection between these two things.

“There’s no reason to pre-order a video game that has unlimited digital copies, you won’t even know if it’s good” said senior Joey Cardoza. Video game companies know that they can get away with releasing unfinished products if they can get people to buy their games before those games are even released. It’s in the customer’s best interest to withhold his or her money until after a game is released, so he or she has the opportunity to read reviews, hear others’ experiences with the game, and especially know if the game works properly first. You never have these opportunities if you decide to buy the game before it’s released, and game publishers know it. What reason do they have to make a good game if it’s not required for them to make a profit?

Don’t be so quick to spend your money on things you cannot be sure are up to standards. An extra gimmick like a bonus gun is not worth the risk of spending $60 dollars on something that doesn’t even work. If you want developers to make good video games that run well with minimum bugs, you need to say so with your wallet.