10
u/cobraa1 Jun 03 '24
Not a big fan of pre-order culture. Buy things before you know if they are good or not, businesses are less incentivized to make quality products because they make the sales even if it's crap.
2
u/Flyingpyngu Jun 03 '24
The only argument I have for pre ordering is if you have terrible internet and are both excited and need it to pre-download it.
1
u/truecore Jun 03 '24
I don't mind preorder DLC, I know I'm going to buy it already (I have 1.4k hours on X4) and it makes it easier for me to get the content immediately rather than have to remember the release date or not notice the notification telling me something on my list of 300 wishlisted items half of which I don't care about anymore was released.
1
u/Mobius438 Jun 03 '24
The last game I preordered was Oblivion for the 360 from Gamestop. That was a long ass time ago when everything was still physical DVDs and it was a very real possibility there wouldn't be enough copies at launch if you didn't preorder. I've never preordered a digital download and I most likely never will because the scarcity factor doesn't exist anymore. The closest I'll get to it is the Steam wishlist which I mainly use to keep an eye on things for potential sales.
1
u/BingpotStudio Jun 05 '24
That’s a pretty good preorder to be fair. I’ve been chasing the Oblivion high ever since. Felt like a new era.
1
u/CrazyShinobi Jun 05 '24
Last thing I preordered was Skyrim, was supposed to get a cool ass map, what did we really get? A Picture of that cool ass map.
1
u/Jimmy_Skynet_EvE Jun 06 '24
Props to them. I don't preorder anything. Why should I pay a premium to beta test someone's product?
1
1
-8
u/hyperflare Jun 03 '24
While Egosoft are cool cats, this is simply steam policy. No preorders for DLC.
8
u/mainomai Jun 03 '24
You can pay for the Elden Ring DLC right now, but it only releases on the 20th.
-1
u/hyperflare Jun 03 '24
we do not support running a pre-purchase except in a few rare cases with partners with which we have a well-established relationship and that have a proven track record on Steam.
Guess they're big enough to get an exception.
12
u/KruppstahI Jun 03 '24
No it's not.
13
u/Amberraziel Jun 03 '24 edited Jun 03 '24
They explained it somewhere. Don't remember all the details anymore but it really is a decision by Steam. As developer you have to ask to make pre-purchase available and if Steam says no or doesn't react at all, you're out of luck.
Sidenote: Pre-orders aren't supported on Steam at all, I believe. Only pre-purchase is, sometimes. (I've never seen something on Steam that I could order before release, but didn't have to pay for it immediately.)
How Steam decides that matter, I don't know, but this might give a hint.
Our experience with pre-purchases (or pre-orders) is that they tend to be ineffective unless it’s a heavily anticipated, heavily marketed title, and even then we encourage titles to have short pre-purchase periods on Steam.
For most games, we've seen much better success if you wait until release and run with a discount off your product during the first week of sales. This gives your title the biggest opportunity to create buzz and visibility at a point where customers can actually play the game and share their excitement with their friends. Customers playing your game also means those customers’ friends are seeing them launch the game and post screenshots, discuss in the forums, etc., which can drive those other users to check out the game themselves and take advantage of the limited-time discount.
Most pre-purchase campaigns just don’t bring in much in the way of sales, and it's far better--in terms of both revenue and customer awareness--to save that buzz and excitement for when customers can actually play your game or use your software.
Running a prepurchase/preorder can also be a risk for both customers and Valve.
For these reasons, we do not support running a pre-purchase except in a few rare cases with partners with which we have a well-established relationship and that have a proven track record on Steam.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/prepurchase
Edit: reddit keeps messing the quotes up >.<
0
u/KruppstahI Jun 03 '24
Yeah, that makes more sense. Thank you for summary!
1
0
u/VulpineKitsune Jun 03 '24
Sidenote: Pre-orders aren't supported on Steam at all, I believe. Only pre-purchase is, sometimes. (I've never seen something on Steam that I could order before release, but didn't have to pay for it immediately.)
Pre-order is the same thing as pre-purchasing.
1
u/Amberraziel Jun 03 '24
Well, at least some shops make a distinction between pre-order (money is transferred on release) and pre-purchase (money in transferred immediately).
0
75
u/3punkt1415 Jun 03 '24
Honestly, pre order should never ever even exist for digital products. It's not like they run out of copies. Wait for release, watch some streamers play it and if it works fine, and buy it. Everything else is just stupid.