Personally, I still preorder games but look to use retailers with easy cancellations that do not bill until shipment, and have lowest price guarantees. I’ve occasionally saved a decent amount of money by preordering on say Amazon because a game I had an order on momentarily dropped right down in price before being bumped back up, and I payed the lower price. Collectors editions for less than the standard, and the like. In more recent times as an example, I got Far Cry 6 Gold Edition (with season pass) for $79AUD day one where the retail was $149AUD for that edition.

It’s quite predatory, but sometimes the preorder bonuses are alright too.

If it’s looking like a game will suck, or my preorder price isn’t good, then I may cancel approaching the release. I do try and stick to developers or franchises I trust...Nintendo and the like.

I’m ordering physical games here rather than digital. In Australia Day one or week physical sales are often cheaper, and then the games jump back up. In the case of Nintendo published games, they then often stay high for a long time and almost never drop dramatically, so I see no reason not to grab those titles early if I’m confident in the game itself, as I won’t save much or anything waiting.