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Pre-order GA's

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Revenge187

Quick question... how do I do a GA for a pre-ordered title such as - dishonored 2 or Civ VI? When you pre-order a game, do they give you a steam key at time of purchase? Please pardon my ignorance on this topic as I would be grateful for an answer.

7 years ago

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16 Comments
doctorofjournalism

Depends on where you buy it.

If you purchase directly from Steam, you will have the pre-order as an inventory item to be sent or activated immediately. If you buy from a third-party retailer, you usually only receive the key on or near the game's release date (meaning the winner of the giveaway would have to wait).

7 years ago
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Mully

if it's from steam, you get a gift the moment you buy it.

resellers give you a key on release day (at least that's what i heard in some giveaways for preorders i entered). please correct me if this is wrong

7 years ago
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Jiseru

sounds generally right. if you're lucky, you might get the key a day or two before release. Only ever ordered from GMG for a pre-order and the key was available before release date once and I think another time it was on the day of release.

7 years ago
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Revenge187

I prefer to do the bulk of my purchases over the humble store (for the charity contribution). I have never purchased a steam gift before so that is a good thing to keep in mind but I would much prefer the humble store.

7 years ago
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doctorofjournalism

In that case, just be sure to make it clear that the winner of the giveaway won't be receiving the game within 7 days. Most people are fine with that, we're an understanding lot.

7 years ago
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Shindo

Since you said you never purchased a steam gift before, I think it is worth mentioning, if you do your gift will be region locked and you will have to make a giveaway for only that region.

7 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

7 years ago
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TheLuckyShamrock

On sites, you usually get the key when the game is released. On steam, you just get it in your inventory. And thank you for all the giveaways. I think we both like the same games. :D

7 years ago
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Revenge187

my game tastes are quite odd (or so my friends tell me - I can do 200+ hours in a prison architect or rimworld and still have a huge backlog of AAA titles that I havn't even opened)

7 years ago
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TheLuckyShamrock

I was thinking that because of some of the games that you are giving away. xD Well, strategy games are good. They are the reason why I started gaming (Age of Mythology, Age of Empires, Settlers, Cultures, Civilization, etc.).

7 years ago
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Revenge187

My very first pc game was Dune 2... then came along warcraft and C&C. Before that it was Commodore 64 pixel games!!!! I do love me some strategy!

7 years ago
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TheLuckyShamrock

My first game ever was Age of Mythology (well, I don't count Pinball, Freecell, Tetris, and similar games :P ). I was also playing at that time a Tomb Raider game and a motorcycle game. xD I also had a colorless game boy. :P

7 years ago
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Domazo

All Westwood games I've played had really nice soundtrack and that helped immersion a lot. They had 3 games in the Dune universe and all are among my favorite RTSes (the books are awesome too, if you haven't read them). Too bad they got destroyed by EA.

7 years ago
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Golwar

I simply wouldn't do any GAs too early. My only pre-order GA finished about 1 week ahead of release and by that date keys are usually ready,

And there really isn't a point of doing a GA months ahead. There are enough other games to gift now and people will be as happy to see a pre-order GA shortly before release, as they would be now. ;)

7 years ago
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doctorofjournalism

It also doesn't hurt to do a pre-order giveaway. You either wait a little bit longer than normal, or if that bothers you just purchase directly from steam. I recently did the latter with NECROPOLIS.

Contrary to your post, I personally find it quite exciting to see a pre-order giveaway months in advance of release. SimGive had a lot of them this year, they were certainly some of the most popular giveaways.

7 years ago
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Golwar

Just that he already said that he prefers to use Humble Store instead of Steam. And the average user is slightly ... different to those that participate at events such as SimGive. I wouldn't want a level 0 winner asking me daily if his key would be ready now. ;)

And there really is no difference if you own a game now that you can't play yet, or sometime later when you still can't play it.

7 years ago
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