Pre-order Crusader Kings II live!

[cccino]

PI should not have allowed The Hut and its affiliates to go so much below retail that one could have pre-ordered from them a week ago for 18 Euros (the going rate now is 26) which means that they were 50% off.

It's out of their hands. The way retail works is the distributor (or publisher) sells the boxed copies to the retailer at some wholesale price. The retailer is then free to set whatever price they want on it. They own the boxes now. They can sell it at a loss if they want. (Or sell it less than other stores by operating out of a tax-free zone like the channel isles.)

In other words, boxed-copy retail is functionally different to digital distribution.

Its simply unfair to the customers that pay full retail to pre-order from GG or Steam.

It's capitalism.

EDIT: I suppose it's easy for me to say, since I'm paying in Dollars. I do sympathise with you guys paying 40 Euros.