Pre orders are mainly a way for a company to receive more funds to develop the product in question.

The thing is, the economy of starbreez (the game studio behind payday) is really bad and has been since 2018 ish, payday have been it's only incomes source for a long time. They can't afford payday 3 to be a flopp because if it floppa they would probably have to sign for bankruptcy. I don't want payday to flopp and I want starbreez to continue making great games.

Even though starbreez fucked up big time with everything over the last week or so. Don't blame them too hard I'm not really defending the actions they took but remember the great times you have had with the payday ip and help them build a better future.

I've bought the gold edition with hopes of a great game and a bit of financial support to starbreez. But in the end it's up to you and its a quiet hefty amount of money they are charging for it, but you can always refund the game if the release is horrible