if you pre-order a videogame...

Technology and Gaming
#1

…where does the money go?

Provided the pre-order is placed several months before release, is it invested into the game’s development? Does Amazon or Gamestop take the money into their own accounts and forward it on after the game’s release? is the money invest in anything or does it actually “go” anywhere? Perhaps it floats in escrow or some kind of financial limbo.

Who knows?

-Kawai Tei-

#2

It doesn’t go anywhere. The store holds on to it until you make the purchase. Retailers are the driving force behind pre-orders, they think it will make you a regular customer. It also helps them predict how many units to order.

#3

I give them five bucks to pre-order, I come back on release day to pick up the merchandise, they give me my five bucks back when I pay for it.

#4

…so…limbo then?
it just sounds kind of silly though that the money you pay is just sitting in a waiting room until the game gets shipped. it’d probably be in the game companies’ better interest to TAKE the money and invest it in the game’s development.

…until the game you pre-ordered gets cancelled.

-Kawai Tei-

#5

Normally they don’t let you pre-order games that aren’t essentially done.

Preorder MK at gamestop for vintage Scorpion and his skull, or preorder at amazon for a not-adorable version of Reptile?

#6

I’d flip a coin on that one.

Edit: Actually the Reptile one is a bigger change so I’d go with that.

#7

considering the fact that all the money the game development consumes(the budget) is provided before the game development is started preorder money won’t go in there. It’s just money that goes to whomever sells the game to you. The time when you buy the game is irrelevant, even if you buy the game directly from the producer/publisher(ignoring the fact that this isn’t the case, because that would make it a little more complicated). It goes into some big pool where it is spent for whatever the company thinks it’s rightly placed.

Hoping the sentences make sense

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