Pre-orders are the most flexible game-purchase category in the U.S. — up to a point. On Steam and most storefronts, a pre-order is refundable any time before the game releases; once it launches, the standard purchase window (Steam's 14 days / 2 hours, Xbox's case-by-case review) takes over. Xbox specifically lets you cancel a pre-order up to 10 days before launch.
The pitfall is the switch at launch. Players who pre-ordered, then waited a few days after release to try the game, sometimes find themselves outside the post-launch window or over a playtime cap. If you pre-ordered, decide early — the refund is cleanest in the pre-launch window. The platform pages spell out each store's exact switch.
Nintendo is the outlier: in North America its eShop treats digital pre-orders as final once payment is taken (~7 days before release), with defective-content exceptions only. If a Nintendo pre-order is the problem, your real levers are the federal dispute rights and your state AG, not Nintendo's policy.
If a pre-ordered game launches broken (always-online title that won't connect, game-breaking bugs), that "not as described" angle can support an FCBA dispute even after the standard window closes — document the launch-state failure with dates and error codes, and run the chargeback calculator before the 60 days lapse.