Whats the point of it.Follow

It's just a pre-order.

You're correct, it's very rare a game sells out, but in the old days it happened often enough. Pre-orders have been around for years now, but before that, game-sellers had to be more conservative with their orders as they didn't know how many people would want to buy a game. No one wants to order too much product and be stuck with it. Pre-orders though give retailers a better indication of how many people want a game and they can better order accordingly. It's actually because of this system that you don't really see games sell out anymore.

The advantage to the gamer is that they know they have a copy of the game sitting there waiting for them. According to "GMR" magazine, WoW is #4 of the top five pre-ordered games. EQ2 is actually #5. If pre-orders weren't taken, this is very likely a game that would have been sold out the day it came out.

That's largely due to the fact that pre-orders have been around at least as long as MMORPGs. ;)