new games and their patches
new games and their patches
Those who buy games beforehand on Steam are directing their funds to the creators, roughly speaking.
The certification steps for games with Sony and MS essentially confirm your assumptions. A game cannot be released on a console unless it meets their certification requirements. Therefore, your point stands—once pre-orders are confirmed, they won’t simply proceed regardless of location or payment. This would disrupt the submission workflow, which involves submitting to Sony and MS in the tens of thousands. Not submitting leads to delays (typically 2–4 weeks) and increases development costs. The same applies to patches; they must go through approval before release, not just based on sales performance.
Back when online gaming was just starting out, there wasn’t much that could be done to improve them. Now the games are larger and more polished, requiring additional support and updates to make them better.