I used to preorder for the extra physical stuff that came with it. Never if its just the game. Some came with a strategy and hint book a decal and some odds and ins. Had one come with bonus maps and extra info. Also a miniature of one of the characters, and junky some stuff. My favorite was getting a characters mini box set, but them days seem long gone. The games that came with a story book as a bonus, the book was much better than the game and made it a worth while purchase even if the game stunk. Ya used to check out the extras and order if I see something I liked besides the game its self. Usually for 10 to 30 bucks more unless I knew the game and wanted it for a physicals collection.
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Miss those days of physical releases because you could get soundtrack, tech tree and a cool handbook. Digital games pre orders are def not worth it.
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You pre-order to get access to the secret Walachian Vampire civilization.
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as mentioned previously you will get an AOE2 DE DLC for free if you pre-order AOE4
also when you pre-order a game digitally on steam sometimes you can install it the day before launch so you can play as soon as it come out
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If I am to guess you might get next new civilization free if you preorder and most likely every new civilization will cost about 3 or 5. It would be very similar to Civilization 5/6 business model.
Maybe the developers are planning a similar DLC model for AoE 4 as the Season Frontier Pass for Civ 6?
You can turn that around: When pre-orders are high, they think they did good with whatever was shown prior release. No improvement needed post launch.
If anything, they try to set the bar even lower for the next product (higher price, less content, less polish and quality control), to test how much the consumer is willing to pay (maximizing profit is the ultimate goal afterall).
If it launches badly, they either cut their losses and let the thing die on the roadside (DoW3) or improve it to still pay off long term (by selling us additional content as a revenue stream).
So as a consumer you actively make future products worse for yourself by pre-ordering. The effect you want (showing them that you like the game) can still be fully achieved by wishlisting (shows them acceptance of whatever they presented pre-release) and then buying around launch.
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