Magnitus: Unlike many pervasive industry-wide practices (like Eulas, know anybody who reads that brick of legalese and understands it? No? Know that they are considered legally binding contracts in many courts? Know that traditionally, in law, a contract is supposed to be a binding engagement that is not entered lightly and that both parties are supposed to fully comprehend as it would be utter non-sense for any concerned party to give their word on something they don't fully understand?), this one is pretty clear and really a customer choice.
Games are available pre-order because people choose to pre-order them rather than wait (the game will still be available on release, people literally choose not to wait knowing full well what they are getting into).
If GOG doesn't jump on the wagon, the pre-order crowd will just buy them elsewhere and GOG will lose those sales.
Pre-orders work from a business perspective for a few reasons. One is that some people are just so excited to get a game that they want to lock it in right away, or perhaps in some cases they want to show their support the publisher and/or developer ahead of the game's release. They may thus buy a pre-order whether or not it comes with any incentives over waiting for the game's actual release. Another is that someone is interested in the game and the companies often if not usually do offer some kind of bait in the form of pre-order bonuses, whether it is simply a discounted price, or bonus goodies/DLC of some sort that is exclusive to the pre-order, or a combination of the two. Companies know that by dangling this kind of bait out there that a lot of people will purchase emotionally either because they are excited to get the game when it is available and/or they're excited about locking in the exclusive content for themselves that wont be available after the game is released likely. This allows the publisher to have great sales figures on the books before the game actually ships and to measure sentiment and potentially even affect pricing, plan out future DLC based on demonstrated interest etc.
Since the tactic is so highly successful as it brings in results because people buy into it, they keep doing it. It plays directly to human nature by catering to human desires and cravings. Some people are immune to it but I think it is probably the case that a large enough portion of gamers will always exist to fuel this practice as being economically successful. Gamers by and large are moved by convenience and flashy things they desire.
Political movements that are pro-consumer are great, but sadly I think that they will never reach and convince enough gamers out there to have any meaningful impact on the industry's bottom line. That should not prevent people from engaging in such movements to make their opinions known of course however because change does have to start somewhere.
I myself have never pre-ordered a game in my life until The Witcher 3, and the only reason that I pre-ordered that game was because of the pre-order discount and loyalty discount for owning the first 2 games in the series. Since I knew 100% in no uncertain terms that I would be buying this game no matter what, the pre-order discount saved me a worthwhile amount of money. I may not like the practice of pre-order that lots of companies use, but not to the point where I'll protest it "for the cause" by paying 20% more for the game I want and not really have any material effect on that company nor the industry. In the case of Witcher 3, the pre-order was IMHO actually good for consumers who knew they wanted this game and did not need or want to know review scores ahead of time. For myself, I waited until the last day or two before the game's release to pre-order it to get the bonus discount as there was no incentive for me to buy it sooner.
Essentially, people who buy preorders are consciously choosing to say "I have weighed the odds and in my gut I think this game is going to be a good game based on what I know about it so far. I have chosen to forgo waiting for industry reviews and gamer sentiment as I do not think they're necessary or useful to me personally as I've already chosen to want to own this game already, and the bonus items I get for spending the money right now are of higher value to me." That's a real individual experience and I think people will continue to do so no matter how much one can show them the harmful side of it for the games that do screw people. They've already said "I'll take my chances on being screwed because the incentives to me are higher than my instincts that the game will be sour."
I trust CDPR at this point, so when CP2077 is in pre-order if I feel towards that game like I did towards Witcher 3, based on the game's trailers and other available information, if I know for sure that I'm going to buy the game and they have pre-order discounts on it that will save me money I'll probably buy it the day before release or so also to save that money as public reviews/etc. wont be of any significance to me too and I may take that risk if I feel it is low enough. If I am concerned at all and unsure, then I'd probably forgo the day before pre-order and exercise patience waiting for the first sale on the game.
At the present time though, CDPR is the only company I personally have a level of trust for to do this. Any other games coming out from any other publisher, no matter how excited about the game I am - I will wait at a minimum until the first post-release sale most likely before buying the game. Companies need to work hard and earn our trust, and if they perform in a way that keeps our trust then they retain it and our sentiment toward them. Trust is hard to earn and easily lost so they have to work hard.
