The games I’m going to talk about here are Powerwash Simulator and Stray.  Both of these games are rightfully getting excellent reviews.

I’m not focusing on that right now.

Both Sony and Xbox hyped both of these games up and failed to follow up their marketing plans with the ability to purchase either of these games.

With Powerwash Simulator they started the marketing campaign and didn’t even have the game available in the Xbox store for purchase (image above).  When Powerwash SImulator was finally in the store, there wasn’t any way to pre-purchase it prior to launch.

When you put marketing efforts into a software product, you want to cover all avenues for purchase or download (via Xbox Game Pass)…WHEN THE MARKETING GETS PUBLISHED,

With Stray it gets even worse.  This game had a trailer dating back to June of 2020.  When Stray was first posted in the PlayStation Store there was the ability to follow the game for news or put it on your wish list (see the video below).

Here's video of @HKdevblog's #StrayGame not being available for pre-purchase just a few days prior to launch. @PowerWashSim had the same exact thing on @Xbox @SquareEnix marketing both were/are not available for pre-purchase at all after heavy marketing. Article later today. pic.twitter.com/BYcBjXmLPC

— dolemitedawiz (@NoFilterGames) July 18, 2022

There was no way to pre-purchase the game.  None.

That was a LONG time ago.   That page is still up today without any pre-purchase options especially after getting excellent reviews as of late.  This is lost potential revenue dating back almost a year.

Why am I focusing on this?

If you get people hyped and interested in a game and want to purchase it, you need to make it available right then and there, not on launch day.

It’s not rocket science.  People want to give you money and you don’t give them the opportunity to give you their money.  That’s not good business.