this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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Financially, preorders without a “preorder bonus” are a zero interest loan to the developer. Preorders with the “preorder bonus” are a loan with the bonus as interest. Even if the game were guaranteed to be good, you could most likely be doing something better with the money until it comes out. Since the game is not guaranteed to be good, it is a risky loan as well. Without any of the protections you get when you make an actual loan.
I'd say a 100% refund when requested with less than two hours of use within the first two weeks is a pretty good protection, and it's pretty much the standard policy on PC.
That's certainly true. I'd still say that for the online stores, for which that policy applies, there isn't a lot of upside to preordering. Because the purchase is digital, you will always be able to get a copy on release day (unless the publisher artificially limits how many games it will sell, but I've never heard of a publisher doing this).
I would also guess the people doing preorders comparatively aren’t the ones who are the harshest critics of the game and are more likely to enjoy the experience.
The caveat being that this would not be true if the game is a buggy mess that isn’t uncommon on launch these days.