Speaking on the Activision earnings call earlier this week, Publishing president and CEO Eric Hirschberg explained that pre-orders are on a downward trend and should no longer be solely relied upon to gauge interest in future releases.
"You guys can see the same thing we see industry-wide, which is that there's been sort of a secular downturn as it relates to preorders," he explained. "We think that's happening due to a number of factors: Things like increased digital consumption, particularly on the next-gen consoles; titles being widely available on day one; and the decline overall for demand of software on the previous gen consoles."
He mentioned that pre-orders are no longer the gold standard for gauging the potential success of a project, saying that "it's also important to sort of reset expectations as it relates to preorders overall." Hirschberg said that measures such as awareness and purchase intent have become more important in helping gauge potential interest in a game than pre-orders.
Coincidentally, this rides in the wake of Activision and Bungie's upcoming shooter Destiny setting records for its high number of pre-orders. So high, in fact, that special edition pre-orders have been cancelled due to scarcities. Hirschberg himself even points to this, noting that Destiny also has the highest amount of purchase intent and awareness of any new IP this far ahead of release.
