My buddy and I were talking about preordering games on steam and how they have incentives to do so.

Like with Bioshock Infinite and it's pre-purchase bonus.


I understand why they do it in brick 'n mortar stores, but whats the reason for doing it when there is no physical product?

Maybe to help spread out the bandwidth usage. If everyone downloaded on the day the game came out servers could go belly up. Pre-orders could download early but not activate until release date.