Pre-Order, Pre-Load Upcoming PS4 Games

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Pre-Order, Pre-Load Upcoming PS4 Games
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark

Last week during E3 2014, 10 PS4 games that were announced or featured at the show had pre-orders go live on PlayStation Store, and I’m thrilled to let you all know that each of those games will take advantage of PS4’s automatic pre-load feature.

Automatic pre-load on PS4 allows you to download pre-ordered games before the release date, so you can get into your games after they’re released faster than ever. We all know that some of the biggest games can take a while to download, and with the pre-load functionality, you’ll be able to download and install those huge files up to several days in advance. And don’t worry if you forget: any titles you’ve pre-ordered will be automatically pre-loaded and auto-downloaded to your PS4 system by default. All you have to do is pre-order the game, make sure your PS4 remains in standby mode, and sit back and relax.

You won’t have to wait long to try this new feature out – Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, which launches on June 24th, will be the first PS4 title to take advantage of automatic pre-load. Additionally, all titles made available for pre-order on PlayStation Store on or after May 20, 2014, will be pre-loaded. Here are the titles available for pre-order and pre-load:

Title Pre-Order Price
Battlefield Hardline $59.99
Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition $69.99
Bloodborne $59.99
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare $59.99
Destiny $59.99
Dragon Age: Inquisition $59.99
Dragon Age: Inquisition Deluxe Edition $69.99
Far Cry 4 $59.99
inFAMOUS First Light $14.99
Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare $39.99
LittleBigPlanet 3 $59.99
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor $59.99
The Order: 1886 $59.99
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark $59.99
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End $59.99

Also, if you’re the type that likes to know exactly how long until you can play, we’ve even included a countdown timer to let you know the moment you can start playing!

One more thing: we’re focusing on all our new PS4 pre-orders, but note that the ability to automatically pre-load your game is also available for PS3 pre-orders. Watch for each week’s PlayStation Store Update for all the latest pre-orders!

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100 Comments

5 Author Replies

  • Sweet. I think I’ll grab Infamous First Light right now. But that’s the only one — I still like to have physical copies of the big games like Uncharted and The Order.

  • Will you be able to cancel pre-orders if people want to change their minds?

  • No discount for preordering inFamous First Light like with Festival of Blood…. =(

  • Does this mean The Last of Us Remastered will not be available for pre-load?

  • We should be able to cancel our pre-orders anytime. If you want us to pre-order,get rid of this shady practice, I and many consumers feel that it’s unfair that Canadians are paying $70 instead of the regular $60.

  • @2 – This was going to be my point. Every time I see a AAA title up for pre-order on the Store, it looks like someone went cruise control on their caps lock key:

    “YOU MAY NOT CANCEL A PRE-ORDER AT ANY TIME AND REFUNDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDERS, SUBJECT TO APPLICABLE LAWS.”

    This needs to change if pre-orders via the Store are going to take off. Steam allows us to cancel digital pre-orders, and as of January of this year, we don’t have to call in to do so; we just do it right through Steam itself.

  • What about The Last of Us?

  • I should have assumed – but for those that don’t know – when you pre order a game on PSN they will charge you the full amount for the game immediately. I assumed the policy would be the same as it is in the European PSN store where they charge your card about a week before release.

    Had I known, I wouldn’t have pre ordered The Order: 1886 which isn’t released until February :( Ah well!

  • @2 I contacted Customer Support bout pre-order cancellation and they said it depended on the publisher, and that the two I pre ordered – Destiny and The Order – wouldn’t allow refunds.

  • @4 – No, The Last of Us is not one of the titles that support this feature.

    @5 – That’s what happens when you’re Canadian. The exchange rates are different. Every country pays a different amount. Considering value differences, it’s ridiculous to compare the prices to another country because your dollar does not equal someone else’s.

    • Thanks Matsudaira! Since pre-order for The Last of Us Remastered started before May 20, 2014, this title will not support the pre-load feature.

  • If only these were the Canadian prices.

  • Should been available for all PS4 titles at launch! The best place to play? Maybe in the future for digital games :D

  • @10

    Canadians have been paying $60 for as long as I can remember last gen, regardless of the currency exchange rate we had always had been shelling out $60 even during those horrid economic years back then. The sudden increase to $70 does not make any sense.

  • Who in the world is pre-ordering a game like Uncharted 4, which won’t be out for at least a year and hasn’t shown a single gameplay clip? To each his own, but there’s something weird about paying for a product, sight-unseen, with absolutely no benefit over waiting a year. I’m sure the game will be good, and I’ll buy it the day it comes out, but just out of principle, there’s no way I’m giving Sony an interest-free loan out of the kindness of my heart.

    “Will you be able to cancel pre-orders if people want to change their minds?”

    Nope!

  • Seriously scratching my head here.

    Get charged the FULL price NOW for a game that may not even come out for another year, with no chance to cancel in that time.

    Also it’s digital, so it’s not like your locking in a copy that’s going to sell out…

    Seriously, there are NO benefits to you for this and ONLY negatives.

    WHY would anyone do this?

  • Predownload and midnight unlocks are nice, but they are not “pay in full over a year in advance with no refunds” nice.

    If you want to make preordering games digitally that far in advance a thing. You need to offer proper incentives.

    How about a 30% discount for buying this early (Awesome Canadian Bestbuy, Futureshop and Amazon.ca E3 preorder deals what! what!)?

    How about not requiring paying in full?

    How about a fair refund policy EG preorders can be cancelled for a full refund up to 7 days before release or whatever?

    What you are offering is terrible for consumers.

  • @15 Yea, in the future I’ll only “pre-order” a week before release to get the pre load benefits (and any possible pre order bonuses). Pre-ordering this far in advance doesn’t seem to have any benefit at all.

    I hope as this grows in popularity they’ll change some of these practices.

  • @krae_man
    “What you are offering is terrible for consumers.”

    Welcome to the gaming industry. Everything is terrible.

  • With no incentive to pre-order, no refunds and getting charged immediately, why would anyone take advantage of this service.

    It seems more like Sony is taking advantage of people who don’t know any better.

  • “Also it’s digital, so it’s not like your locking in a copy that’s going to sell out…”

    Yes, this too. There are literally infinite copies of the game. Just buy the thing a week in advance when the pre-load starts. You’ll get every benefit, plus you got to keep your money for an extra year! You win!

  • @HoeRak

    Canadian Gaming retailers are awesome! They have done “Preorder 3 or more games, save 30%(give or take) sales the past 4 E3’s!

    So some people know how to do “preorder games 12-18 months out from release” right.

  • If im able to play the game at midnight eastern, i may pre-order a game at some point, like infamous. But thats only cuz its not availablein stores . Your current practice of charging full price with no refund is a severe turn off. I do hope more psn games get preload treatment, if only because the store updates so freaking late.

  • Here’s a question:

    Will these be automatically sent to BOTH of my PS4s, or only my Primary?

  • That’s a great feature for those that want to buy digitally. However, I can preorder a physical copy at many retailers with release date delivery/pick up and not get charged until the release date. For the same price, with a physical copy of a game, I retain my rights to lend, trade, or sell my game. Until digital services can offer me those same rights, or a substantial discount on the price to compensate for the loss of those rights – I don’t see why consumers would be incentivized to switch from physical to digital.

  • First up, inFamous First Light. Might go ahead and dump money into some other games just cause why not.

  • Anyone know if (and when) NHL 15 will be available for pre-order on PSN?

  • OK, so when does this actually start? I preordered Transformers for my PS4 and would prefer not to leave my PS4 on for several days in standby mode when I’m not using it. Please be more specific

    • If you do not want to leave your system in Standby Mode, you can turn on your system any time after the pre-load starts on June 19, 2014 and the file will automatically download. However, Standby Mode allows you to set your PS4 to automatically download files, patch titles, download firmware updates and charge your controller while consuming very little power. Hope that helps!

  • While I like this feature can it be disabled? For some that may have an Internet cap being able to decide when to download or not can be a cost issue or quality of service issue depending on the ISP.

  • yeah it can be disabled – go to your library, select the game, then click on the first box highlighted

  • Not preordering anything that far in advance, especially if I can’t cancel it for a full refund.

    Also, it’s bs that we have to wait until 3am on the east coast to play these digital copies. It’s easier to go to the gamestop 5 minutes from my house for the midnight release

  • @13

    Actually we were paying $69.99 for a good portion of last gen, when our dollar was low. Game prices didn’t drop down to $59.99 until late 2009/early 2010, where they stayed until recently.

    Fluctuating game prices according to dollar value is nothing new. This isn’t even the first time prices have done this in the past decade.

  • I don’t know why anyone would pre order a game that comes out in 2015. The preload stuff is neat, maybe for a game like GTA V where everyone is going to be downloading it and you want to play at midnight that night. But even then you just preorder a day or two before it’s release and you are all good.

    It’s unlikely, but what happens if The Order is bad and reviews for it come out the week before. You just blew 60 bucks for a bad game.

  • i got my 5 games pre order :)

  • Remember North Americans, SCEA does not let you cancel or refund a pre order! The moment you click the “pre order” button, your card is immediately charged in full and any request to cancel or a refund will always be denied. Preloading is nice, but Amazon is really good on release day delivery. Don’t let SCEA keep on with this horrible practice, grab the game somewhere you, the gamer, are still in charge.

    On a side note, SCEE has a MUCH better system that doesn’t charge you right away and lets you cancel before the game is released. I thought this was the policy for all of PSN but I found out the hard way.

  • How do I preorder the Ratchet and Clank Collection for the Vita here in NA? Oh wait there’s no release date for NA yet. Ok sorry for the bad joke but I would really like some info on this because I have been looking forward to it ever since it was announced for Europe.

  • This is another gimmick feature that only a hand-full of diehard users would consider adopting.

    For the amount your company charges for software (that is leagues away from release) there is little to no benefit for anyone to cut out the middle man. I would much rather take my cash to a physical retailer, put 5$ (a fraction of the full cost) get a physical copy plus pre-order bonuses and worst comes to worst if for whatever reason i change my mind im not out 70$ or even my deposit, which transfers to another product of my choice. Until your digital service in the very least matches this system (and includes discounts for digital products –don’t be scammers–) than there is very little to no reason for majority of users to adopt it. Not to mention the digital catalog is always sub-par compared to physical retail releases.

    Ive been a playstation user since day1. and yes i mean PS1. My gaming life and experience has grown and evolved along with your products but i would be flat out lying if i ever said i reached a point of satisfaction regarding your digital service.

    Take this feedback however you please, i kinda hope its digested as an insult. At least it would mirror what were feeling as consumers.

  • @Chieh Chen Will The Last Of Us preorder date be updated on the playstation store? Currently it still says 12-31-2014.
    Also it doesn’t say preorder anymore it just says add to cart.

    • @valourbaby – the release date for The Last of Us Remastered will be updated soon. :) The pre-order set-up for this title is a little different, which is why it’s showing up as Add to Cart, not Pre-Order. Sorry for the confusion on this one!

  • Is this part of the greatness you brag about? This is not great or beneficial to gamers at all. And not being able to cancel is shameful! People too fat and lazy to visit a store on release day?

  • #38.. I understand why you feel this way. Having a choice is awful. Luckily, there is another console for those of us that enjoy not having choices :) [/sarcasm]

  • I didn’t get how early can we start to pre load the games? As soon as they are up for pre order? What about games that are ready for pre order but are not 100% finished developing the game?

    Could you please explain a little about it?

  • Canadian Pricing is the same?

  • 40, just a guess but no, I really really doubt you can pre-download the game before it is even finished and gone gold. My guess is that it happens days or a week in advance to release.

  • @38

    What are you talking about? If you can download a 15+ GB in 5 minutes, great for you, but a lot of people take hours to download a game, and having the option to download it before makes it better for them. Also, it’s beneficial to Sony and us gamers, as the servers don’t get too busy when a game is released so it doesn’t affect the download.

  • “I didn’t get how early can we start to pre load the games? As soon as they are up for pre order? What about games that are ready for pre order but are not 100% finished developing the game?

    Could you please explain a little about it?”

    From a casual glance on my PS4 PSN screen, it looks like most of the games have the pre-load date listed on the displayed box art in the PSN Store. It seems to be roughly a week before release.

  • you promised all games will have a demo

  • Complain much? Sheesh! This is awesome news, just like Steam! For those crying, why don’t you wait until there’s a solid release date before pre-ordering? Say for example if The Witcher 3 is available for pre-order today, how about you just WAIT until a few weeks before the game comes out, THEN pre-order and pre-load in one fell swoop?

  • Hey Chien Chen, when does Madden NFL 15 available for pre-order in PSN Store ? i want pre-order it in PSN store with preload feature.. this is amazing news ever i read and it make me happy to download games i already pre-ordered .. i can’t wait to pre-order The Order 1886, Madden 15, NBA 2k15, NHL 15, AC Unity, Farcry 4, The Evil Within, Dragon Age Inquistion, Bloodborned, The Witcher 3, Dying Light, LBP 3

  • This is great and all but…. Where is Diablo 3? Also when are you guys gonna kill that download speed cap?

  • @24

    Said it all…

  • Stereoscopic 3D for LBP3 and you got a game that will last a lifetime for me…also by the way digital downloads suck so lower the price or your ripping people off!

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