How to configure a pre-order product

Important

This topic describes features that are only available to Managed Creators with appropriate permissions. For details, speak to your Microsoft contacts.

Important

The product configuration described below can be accessible via “web scraping” (or data scraping) technology before the first scheduled date. If this isn't your intent, please utilize the Private Audience or Disable Store Presence options to protect your product’s listing up until the first scheduled date.

With Private Audience, your Product Details Page (PDP) is only visible to a user group of your choosing, and it offers the ability to schedule when the product’s availability transitions from private to public. See Visibility - Audiences for more information.

With Disable Store Presence, the product won't have a PDP, be testable, or be redeemable via token until your first scheduled date. See the Disable store presence section for more information.

This article explains how to use the Pricing and Availability page in the Partner Center portal to configure pre-order products.

Before you create a pre-order product by using the following instructions, we highly recommend reading Pre-order overview and Plan and manage pre-order products.

Configuration options

This section explains the options in the Visibility and Schedule sections on the Pricing and Availability page that can be used when configuring pre-orders.

Visibility

Configure the Visibility section the same way for all use cases.

Audience selection: use Public Audience or Private Audience. See Visibility - Audiences.
Discoverability selection: use Make this product available and discoverable in the Microsoft Store.

Schedule

The Schedule section is slightly different, depending on the use case.

Note

Only Bundles and Add-on Bundles have a "Pre-order unlock" field that can be configured. The other product types don't support this field. For the following scenarios that don't mention the pre-order unlock date field, but where the field is visible in the Partner Center UI for a product being configured, configure the Schedule as follows.

If Release Date isn't configured, the expectation is that Stop Acquisition will be. In this scenario, for Pre-order unlock date, select Stop Acquisition.
Because the Pre-order unlock date field only shows if Release Date field is set to Not Scheduled, there are no other scenarios where the Pre-order unlock date needs to be set.

Seeing the pre-order option

The Pre-order dropdown list will appear only if all the following are true.

The product will be available only on PC and Xbox.
The product is an app, Game, Durable with its own Store listing, Durable with Packages, Game Bundle, or Add-on Bundle.
For Game, Durable, and Durable with Packages products, the release date must be configured.
For Bundle and Add-on Bundles, the release date or pre-order unlock date must be configured.

If you can't see the Pre-order section, complete the steps below.

Confirm that your account has permissions to configure pre-orders. For more information, see Assign product level custom permissions to account users.
Make sure that the Release date has been set in the Schedule.

If the Pre-Order section still doesn't show in the UI, do the following:

Configure a date for the Release section (any date, even if the final configuration won't have one configured).
Configure the pre-order date.
Save.
Go back into the Pricing and Availability, and then remove or edit the Release date.

Configuring the pre-order option

Here are the options for Pre-order.

not available: The product won't be available for pre-order.
starts at: The product will be available for pre-order at the specified date and time. Make sure the date is before the release date.
unlocks at: The product will be available for use by customers at the specified date and time. This only applies to Bundle and Add-on Bundle products. This only applies if the Release date isn't configured. It must be before or the same as the Release date.

Package management

Products that support packages must have a Certified package before they can be made available for pre-order. If you're publishing a placeholder package with your pre-order, select the This submission contains placeholder package(s) to enable pre-orders checkbox on the Packages page and then provide the estimated maximum file size for your final packages. For details, see Packages—advanced settings.

When configuring pre-orders, publish your final release packages at least seven days before the release date. This allows some time for pre-order participants' devices to start downloading the package. The product will be unlocked (playable) on the release date, and customers will be able to use it.

Planning considerations

With pre-order, a confirmed release date is required. Don't publish a pre-order for a product if the release date is unknown or unconfirmed. It might not be possible to change the configured release date or pre-order unlock date after you've started the pre-order. After you publish your product for pre-order, you can't change the release date if the current release date is in 14 days or less. In addition, if the pre-order period has already started, you can't change the pre-order's start date or remove pre-order altogether because some customers might have already pre-ordered the product. Finally, if the product has already been released, you can't update or remove the pre-order schedule because customers can already acquire the product.

For pre-order bundles, you can't add Consumable products to the bundle after the pre-order has begun.

Additional considerations for Game pre-orders

All Game products made available for pre-order in the Microsoft Store require:

A certified Package. Speak to your Microsoft contacts if you're not ready to submit a game package for Certification, or consider setting up a Wish List page instead of a pre-order.
Published Xbox services. The Xbox services configuration includes your Achievements, Presence and Multiplayer settings. To prevent unintended exposure of this information, configure Xbox Embargo.

Additional considerations for Bundle pre-orders

If you're configuring a pre-order bundle, the pre-order unlock date or release date applies to all the products that are included in that bundle.

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Last updated on 2025-09-18