by Gregory Gay - 08.06.09
I caught wind of two new collector’s edition announcements this morning. Normally, I would probably just ignore them and move on, but both of them reflect what I see as worrying trends in the gaming market.
The first is the new Operation Flashpoint, which is apparently taking a cue from Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 by including a full-size army helmet. If you buy both, you’ll be pretty much ready to start killing people in real life. Seriously, I’m expecting the next big war game to just toss a gun in the box.
The trend that this collector’s edition represents is excess. The Modern Warfare goggles, the Halo cat helmet, and the Operation Flashpoint helmet all represent this gaming industry arms race. They symbolize this rush to find the most ridiculous thing possible to put in a box and charge over a hundred bucks for. At least in the Fallout 3 and Halo 3 cases, they included an item that is distinctive enough to display on a shelf. What are you going to do with this helmet? Wear it? Who buys these things? Do the publishers actually make any money on these collector’s editions? My guess is that they don’t, and that their continual push to one-up their competition will ultimately come back to bite them.
Of course, that’s relatively mild compared to the Assassin’s Creed 2 collector’s edition.
At first glance, the Assassin’s Creed 2 “Master Assassin” edition contains the usual collection of extras. There’s a soundtrack, an artbook, and a statue that is actually pretty awesome. The part that really bothers me about this edition is that it comes with exclusive single-player content. The “maps” term is a bit misleading, the UK ad confirms that these are new areas for the main game that contain new story content. Why does this bother me? Because you need to pay extra for in-game content.
I’m sure that these areas will be sold as DLC later on, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better. Withholding content from the game, content that was clearly developed pre-release, is an increasingly common trend. Excuse my French, but it is frankly a dickish move. Withholding content from the people that are already willing to pay full price for your game unless they hand over another twenty bucks? Yeah, that rankles me a bit.
My other issue is that to get this collector’s edition (and the in-game content), you have to purchase it from Gamestop. Yep, it’s a retailer exclusive. I admittedly may be blowing this out of proportion, but I’m not entirely thrilled that to get the full game, I have to (a) buy it from Gamestop and (b) fork over eighty dollars. Retailer-exclusive bonuses are nothing new, but the double-whammy of retailer-exclusive and in-game content worries me. Gamestop basically controls the brick-and-mortar retail market. They have a ridiculous amount of power, and I am afraid that they are going to use it more and more to dictate that the publishers can put on a disc.
Am I full of crap? As full of crap as some of these collector’s editions? How do you feel about some of these trends? Do you actually want that helmet?
The only collector’s anything I’ve been enjoying this year are the Atlus spoils goodies, mostly because they are artbooks and soundtracks, which naturally expands elements I enjoy about the game. These other things excite me about as much as the Halo helmet, which is very little.
Jamie Love - 08.06.09 2:44 pm
Yes, and further down the road I can see this falling into the trend of just sticking any terrible piece of crap in the box and charging you for it. Then you have a box full of total shit and one cool thing that you wanted. Bah.
Nick - 08.06.09 2:49 pm
You mean you’re not going to get the Modern Warfare 2 set with night vision goggles? I’m getting that just to watch Edgar at night.
Shaun Hatton - 08.06.09 4:41 pm
I love this trend, its an extra incentive to buy a game NOW, and the inclusion of art books in particular is a huge draw. Depending on how interested i am in a game,If there are no special goodies,especially for pre-order, i’m more likely to wait until the price drops.
I have the same attitude with DVDs, toss in a couple of art cards and i’ll buy it on the spot. Dont even bother to include a directors commentary and i’ll wait until its so cheap it might as well be free.
Resi 5 gets my my vote for usless/crappy special editions of games i was looking forwards to spending more on though. A metal case and a makings of disk for the UK, a huge collection of goodies for the US. Boo
ALH - 08.06.09 5:17 pm
I love my Fallout 3 Collector’s Edition, and I loved my Warhammer Online CE. BlazBlue also came with a useful DVD, and the soundtrack. It all depends really, some CEs are stupid, some other CEs are awesome. The Batman Arkham Asylum CE, for one, looks great. If you like gadgets, memorabilia, etc. it’s cool. Of course, I prefer when a CE is available at regular price. BlazBlue’s CE is basically the first run of the game, just like you’d get Prince of Persia CE if you pre-ordered the game, at the regular price.
Jeff - 08.06.09 5:36 pm
“Gamestop basically controls the brick-and-mortar retail market.”
Well… the NPD numbers are little help, but I believe the general consensus is that Wal-Mart is the main seller in the retail space.
A shame to let anti-GameStop bias tarnish an otherwise thought-provoking article.
bighouse - 08.07.09 7:28 pm
As long as they don’t include “exclusive in-game levels” I’m fine with CEs.
Retailer exclusives are a pain though, but if the CE is overall good (artbook, poster, statue, OST, etc), and is only a tad more expensive, then I’m all for it.
Consider this: artbooks and OSTs alone are usually around $20 a piece, and with AC2, that’s not so bad a deal (I agree that the exclusive content, later to probably be DLC, is a dickish move).
And you’d be surprised how many people would collect that helmet and do nothing with it (other than putting it on their shelf, still in the unopened package).
Bob - 08.09.09 11:54 pm