Explanation from one of the devs on why there is no Steam preorders (he left this info on Codex):
"A word of explanation about the preorders: one of the biggest factor of sales on Steam is the top sellers rodeo. The longer you can hold out, the more it sells. Many people pick games up from top 10 top sellers. Eg. if your game holds out for 3 days - you've got a massive success on your hands. Top selling list is a self-fulfilling prophecy, basically. (Hard West was on the ferris wheel for about 10h, if I recall correctly)
Now: preorder sales don't count towards top selling stats; you have to be selling a lot and very recently, and most sales before launch are too distant to count. That's why it makes sense to build up a push for the moment of release.
Actually it's exactly the same with press embargos. The main reason you want that (except for cases when game is clearly shit) is to have your game all over the place at the same time. You want to flood the channels (sites, social, steam) with news of your game so players buy it at once, get you in the top selling moshpit.
ps. I'm sorry if anyones feels got hurt when observing how the sausage is made"
"A word of explanation about the preorders: one of the biggest factor of sales on Steam is the top sellers rodeo. The longer you can hold out, the more it sells. Many people pick games up from top 10 top sellers. Eg. if your game holds out for 3 days - you've got a massive success on your hands. Top selling list is a self-fulfilling prophecy, basically. (Hard West was on the ferris wheel for about 10h, if I recall correctly)
Now: preorder sales don't count towards top selling stats; you have to be selling a lot and very recently, and most sales before launch are too distant to count. That's why it makes sense to build up a push for the moment of release.
Actually it's exactly the same with press embargos. The main reason you want that (except for cases when game is clearly shit) is to have your game all over the place at the same time. You want to flood the channels (sites, social, steam) with news of your game so players buy it at once, get you in the top selling moshpit.
ps. I'm sorry if anyones feels got hurt when observing how the sausage is made"
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