preload

When a piece of software, a game for instance, is offered for download by the developer before the official release, but it can't be played yet due to a protection, this is called a preload.
Usually this service is only available for people who preordered the game.

Half-Life 2 could be preloaded from steam.
Crysis could be preloaded five days before the official release, from the EA servers.

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