I'm fully in the camp of not buying games upon release.  I know I miss out on the initial buzz and such, but I don't think this will affect my decision.

I'm not that big in to multiplayer, so picking up a game a year or so after release and having no one to challenge online doesn't bother me.

I am currently knee deep into the new Star Wars: Empires At War, SW:EAW, demo. So far so good, if a little difficult. I'm hoping that's just because I don't have full access to all of the units yet.

Taking over that last planet is a monster of a task. It took me 15 days of game time and 3 attempts to do it, and barely at that.