No one is making you buy anything. It's not evil.

Preordering simply shows how much people want the game.

If 2 million people preorder a game it's an indication that people are excited about the game. It can basically give you a floor of how much money the game will make. It's good for publishers and developers.

What triple A company do you work for?

Only put your money down when you're sure the product is worth it. Once your money is out of your pocket, you have no control over what happens. Only a fool would rely on promises from a game company.

People need to understand that most preorders don't even charge you until launch day, or the day it ships. Preorders also aren't even accounted as revenue until those days either.

The company does not see any financial gain until the day of launch, regardless of if you preorder or buy day one.

Do you have an example of a preorder that didn't charge before launch?

I also have a hard time believing that developers don't see revenue on preorders.

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I've pre-ordered many times and very rarely am I charged in full before the game launches.

I pre-ordered pokemon Sword & Shield from Best Buy a few years back and was not charged until I picked up the game. Same thing when I pre-ordered Scarlet and Violet. Didn't charge until the order shipped.

Also source: me. An accountant. Sure you can see units pre-ordered but the company cannot report prepaids as revenue until the order is fulfilled.

Preorders overall are not good because they subsidize bad development practices. A tremendously large portion of a game’s lifetime revenue is day 1 of purchasing, after which point there’s significantly less money to be made from further development. I think this ultimately diminishes the quality of the final result because executive priorities can shift earlier in the game’s lifecycle.

It’s also a symptom of an extremely bloated industry. These studios and publishers have gotten too big for them to afford to build a product in a reasonable timeframe, so they have to resort to tactics like crunch, pre-orders, and week 1 overhauls to sustain themselves.