Why offer pre-orders?

[Drolyt]

When a new book, movie, game, or whatever comes out, often you are allowed to pre-order. What is the advantage of pre-ordering exactly? Why would the company do it?

[Jair Barik]

Well from the point of view of the consumer it means you get the product at the earliest date, in some cases a day before release, with extras/freebies and 'generally' guaranteeing you get a copy before it sells out(of course if it doesn't sell out quickly the last point is moot).

From the retailers point of view the preorder guarantees them some sails from pre-orderers, often at the full retail price (as opposed to discounts from special offers, second hand or a reduced price over time) and (from a more cynical point of view) they can start selling the product before it is reviewed meaning they could sell a product that then gets a poor review despite posititve previews of it.

[Gamerlord]

When a new book, movie, game, or whatever comes out, often you are allowed to pre-order. What is the advantage of pre-ordering exactly? Why would the company do it?

Insurance in case of a critical flop. You make at least some money.

[Keld Denar]

It helps them gauge quantities to order. If a store orders 5000 copies of a book, and only sells 2000 of them, they have 3000 left that they've paid for, but aren't making proffit on. If 2000 people preordered the book, the store can estimate that they'll sell 2000, plus some percentage, say 50%-100% more, and will then order 3000-4000 books, depending on past trends in book buying.

Also, in many cases, when you pre-order, you also pre-pay, either partially or in full. This is good for the store for 2 reasons. 1) It garuntees that the person will buy the book from you, and you make whatever markup you have on it, or they don't buy the book from you, and you keep whatever % the preorder amount was. 2) Time value of money. Money in hand is worth more than the promise of money. You can invest money you have in your hands. Its REALLY risky to invest money you don't actually have. If you do, and it comes time to pay off that investment, if you haven't recieved the money you were promised, you are screwed.

[Yrcrazypa]

The only time I ever pre-order games is if I get them on sale for doing so. Like in the case of Starcraft 2, I managed to find a sale that made it cost 15 dollars less than normal. There won't be another sale anywhere near that good for at least a year.

[Drolyt]

Thanks for the replies guys! Some of it does make sense, especially the part about getting money sooner rather than later. To clarify, I was wondering why the producer might offer pre-orders, I understand perfectly why I as a consumer might want to.

[KuReshtin]

Like Keld said, a lot of pre-order offers are likely so that stores will get a feel for how many copies to get from the distributor, and also the fact that if they get money at the point of pre-order, that means they can stick it in a bank account and start earning interest on it, or re-invest it.

I believe you could pre.order StarCraft 2 from Battle.Net and download the game before the release date, but couldn't activate it until the go-live date, and I think that a big reason for that was to give their servers a bit of relief from tons of people trying to download the game on the day of release.

[Tirian]

Thanks for the replies guys! Some of it does make sense, especially the part about getting money sooner rather than later. To clarify, I was wondering why the producer might offer pre-orders, I understand perfectly why I as a consumer might want to.

The producers want to make as many sales as possible on the release date. If the product is great, then they want their fans to be able to spread the good news by word of mouth instead of "Grrrr, I couldn't buy it because Company X didn't release enough." If the product isn't great, then at least they have the guaranteed sales.

Of course, there are other reasons. For instance, if a webcomic decides to publish a book, they might sell pre-orders so that they can gain enough capital to afford the printing and shipping costs for the entire printing before the release.

[Winter_Wolf]

Of course, there are other reasons. For instance, if a webcomic decides to publish a book, they might sell pre-orders so that they can gain enough capital to afford the printing and shipping costs for the entire printing before the release.

Yah, this. Well at least one of the reasons. Some places use the money for pre-orders to fund the completion of the project. Mostly this happens with software or smallish businesses getting the printers' fees.

Personally I never pre-order because I have never, NEVER seen a project that I had an interest in pushed out at the promised date. It's always been 2-3 months later than the apparently random date that they pulled out of a monkey's rear end. Then there's vaporware issues. :smallannoyed:

[Krade]

I usually don't preorder. I think I've only ever preordered something (http://www.apocalyptica.com/us/pre-order) once, and that was because it was totally awesome. It comes next week I'm so excited:smallbiggrin: I got the expensive one that comes with signed original sheet music.

[Tirian]

Personally I never pre-order because I have never, NEVER seen a project that I had an interest in pushed out at the promised date. It's always been 2-3 months later than the apparently random date that they pulled out of a monkey's rear end.

Heh, I'm glad to see that you've never been interested in The Fool and His Money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_and_His_Money), which would be about six and a half years behind schedule if he hit his currently estimated release date, but you can see a scroll of everyone who has pre-ordered it. If it weren't for the fact that he wrote The Fool's Errand which is the greatest computer puzzle quest game ever, it would be easy to write off as a highly transparent hoax.

[Drolyt]

Well, I occasionally pre-order video games. Only one I can remember off the top of my head though was when I pre-ordered Wind Waker to get the bonus OoT disc.

[Knaight]

Thanks for the replies guys! Some of it does make sense, especially the part about getting money sooner rather than later. To clarify, I was wondering why the producer might offer pre-orders, I understand perfectly why I as a consumer might want to.

Its also worth noting that if you start the pre-orders flowing soon enough you can use the money from the pre-orders for the game, inflating your budget. Its a gamble, but could be worth it in many cases.

[Pyrian]

I know a guy still holding onto his official Duke Nukem Forever pre-order. :smallbiggrin:

[Don Julio Anejo]

For a consumer, there's really no reason to pre-order unless you can get a sale on it or it's likely to be out of stock during the release (i.e. Harry Potter). The whole idea of pre-ordering, while quite useful to the publisher, is a way to capitalize on the "OMG I WANT IT WANT IT WANT IT NOW NOW NOW" people. There's really almost nothing that's sold out very soon after the opening date (I can only think of Harry Potter 6, Playstation 3 and the original iPhone), meaning there's no point buying an "anti-sell out insurance."

[Drolyt]

Sometimes you get extra stuff though.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Which is almost always a marketing gimmick. "Pre-order now and get a special Pre-Order Edition black drink coaster!"

[Rowsen]

I only do it for games that I believe will sell out, so I can guarantee I get a copy. Also in the case of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, it gave me the option to upgrade to the collector's edition.

[Quincunx]

I know a guy still holding onto his official Duke Nukem Forever pre-order. :smallbiggrin:

What vintage? :smalltongue:

[Moonshadow]

I pre-order if I feel the added crap they give you is worth more than getting the same item for usually cheaper and earlier off eBay :smalltongue:

[Douglas]

From the publisher's perspective, pre-ordering is good because it allows stuff like this (http://twitter.com/BrandonSandrson/status/21451597411):

The Way of Kings is in its 3rd printing. No, it's not out yet. Orders have been so high Tor has gone back to print twice already. Uh...wow.

Without preorders, they would have launched the book with their initial quantity estimate, sold out in short order, and then had to scramble to do another print run to satisfy all the angry and impatient people who didn't make it to the store in time.

[CrimsonAngel]

If you pre-order GuildWars games you get special items in-game that are now going for several hundred-thousand gold peices ._.

[Cyrion]

Pre-orders have also been used by some bands to fund the writing of the music. For example, as part of the process of breaking away from record companies and retaining full rights to their music, Marillion did a couple of albums that were partially funded by pre-orders.

They basically said, if you have faith in us to write music you'll love, pay us up front a year in advance; that will support us while we finish the album, and in return you will get a double album while the rest of the world gets a single album. That was quite successful for them for two successive albums, though they've not done it for the last couple.

[Comet]

Pre-orders have also been used by some bands to fund the writing of the music. For example, as part of the process of breaking away from record companies and retaining full rights to their music, Marillion did a couple of albums that were partially funded by pre-orders.

They basically said, if you have faith in us to write music you'll love, pay us up front a year in advance; that will support us while we finish the album, and in return you will get a double album while the rest of the world gets a single album. That was quite successful for them for two successive albums, though they've not done it for the last couple.


On that note:
The upcoming ninja rabbit fighting game Overgrowth, by Wolfire studios, is funded in the same manner. You pay for the game now, they deliver a finished product in the future.
While you wait, you can play around with the various editors and bare bones mechanics of the game. Which Wolfire updates once a week. Basically, you can see the game grow in a really concrete way.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Becuase most of the time it costs money to pre-order. Thus, you spend even more money. The company makes more money, the sotre does, and you get a (hopefully) good product even sooner.

[Karoht]

On that note:
The upcoming ninja rabbit fighting game Overgrowth, by Wolfire studios, is funded in the same manner. You pay for the game now, they deliver a finished product in the future.
While you wait, you can play around with the various editors and bare bones mechanics of the game. Which Wolfire updates once a week. Basically, you can see the game grow in a really concrete way.

Isn't that basically a paid-for alpha cycle/beta test?

[Pyrian]

And now you know why testers are overworked and underpaid. You can get people to pay you for the privilege of doing their job! :smalltongue:

[Drolyt]

And now you know why testers are overworked and underpaid. You can get people to pay you for the privilege of doing their job! :smalltongue:

There are companies that actually bother to pay testers?

[Comet]

Isn't that basically a paid-for alpha cycle/beta test?

It kind of is, yeah. Still, being able to play around with the physics, level editors and such way before there is anything even resembling an actual game is kind of fun.

It's a relatively small company doing a relatively small game. Then again this "open development", as they call it, has gained them quite a lot of fame around both the indie and corporate gaming scenes. It's easy to see a lot of potential in this kind of marketing.

[Pyrian]

There are companies that actually bother to pay testers?Technically, yes. :smalltongue:

[Karoht]

Technically, yes. :smalltongue:

Many companies have paid testers. Yes, it's a 9-5 job. No, it isn't as fun as it sounds. Penny Arcade did a bit on it in their weekly show. Sums it up pretty good.

Paid testers also work along side the programers.
Unpaid testers typically do not have all that much feedback with the developers, and even if they did, because they typically aren't programmers can't really offer much in the way of constructive criticism, so much as they can complain a lot that something isn't as fun (Re: Overpowered) as it should be.

I was in on the Cataclysm alpha. It is very, very different from the Beta. In the Alpha it was expected that you give them feedback on pretty much everything. The 'wah, you changed something now it sucks' feedback which is so rampant in the Beta pretty much got you booted from the Alpha.

[Knaight]

On that note:
The upcoming ninja rabbit fighting game Overgrowth, by Wolfire studios, is funded in the same manner. You pay for the game now, they deliver a finished product in the future.
While you wait, you can play around with the various editors and bare bones mechanics of the game. Which Wolfire updates once a week. Basically, you can see the game grow in a really concrete way.

They might also have the pre orders slightly cheaper than the full game. I haven't been following it very closely. Largely because my computer choked up a bit on Lugaru and probably can't handle it.