Preorders on Steam?

[dgdgagdae]

I understand that preorders are used at Gamestop to gauge demand, and sometimes you get a little figure of Simon Belmont for your troubles. But what is the point of preordering a digital distribution of a game?

Assassin's Creed was a preorder, and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is, too. It's not like you get a discount for preordering; they're still selling at full price.

Why?

[Borman]

So you can download most of the game before it comes out, so when its officially released, a few small files later and youre ready to play

[roushimsx]

It's not like you get a discount for preordering; they're still selling at full price.

Depends on the publisher. Valve commonly offers a 10% discount on the games they publish if you preorder through Steam, as do a few other companies (Introversion did for Defcon and Darwinia, IIRC). Some publishers also offer special bundles that you can only get via digital distribution, such as if you had preordered Half Life 2 w/ the Silver package. For the price of the boxed retail release (which was available digitally as the "bronze package") you got: Half Life 2, Counter Strike Source, Half Life, Half Life Source, Opposing Force, Counter Strike Condition Zero, and eventually Blue Shift and Day of Defeat Source.

So yea, just dump on Ubisoft for being a bunch of ass clowns.


So you can download most of the game before it comes out, so when its officially released, a few small files later and youre ready to play

This is an awesome bonus, too. Within minutes of Half Life 2 Episode 2 unlocking (and hours before retail stores were open), I was stomping grubs and flinging garden gnomes.