Limited Collector’s Ultimate Special Director’s Cut Edition with exclusive content
About the title: I know… long title is long… but the long title could be longer since there are plenty of other words I could’ve added in there such as “deluxe” and “hardened” or whatever… you know, to make it sound more important and make you seem more awesome for reading it.
I like “special” edition versions of games as much as the next guy. After all, when a game I like comes out that comes in a really nice case with exclusive art comes out, I think it’s a pretty cool thing to get since it’s relevant to my interests. After all, greed isn’t such a bad thing if you have the means to pursue what you want… even if a lot of what you get in the Special Edition packs is pretty useless or will be thrown into some dark corner a week after you get it.
Some are great, others start getting ridiculous and then there are those that go beyond ridiculous with multiple tiered versions of their special editions, each more special than the last.
In the past I found it easy to choose from with these kinds of things. You either got the regular version for a standard price, or you paid a little bit more and got a nice steel book case with some nice exclusive art and maybe even an extra disc with a “making of” video on it.
Nowadays, it’s an entirely different business with many different kinds of versions of the same thing except different… kind of like how there seems to be many different versions of the same console released over a period of time with different price points to confuse and infuriate people who have an older inferior version to the superior release that they just happened to come up with…. *chokes and almost passes out as he tries to take a breath*…
There are a lot of games that do it, but I think the two most recent that come to mind is Assassin’s Creed II and Modern Warfare 2. Black, White, Hardened, Prestige… it is ridiculous, but out of the two, I think AC2 is worse because of its exclusive in-game content that people who buy the regular edition will probably never see… unless they’re released as DLC later on.
In-game exclusives piss me off, and it doesn’t matter if they come from special editions or because it’s some console exclusive. I don’t particularly like the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV has all of the DLC on the 360… Hell, even the Episodes from Liberty City version is 360 only.
I worry about what else they’re going to do to segregate people into different classes depending on how much they choose to spend on buying what should be the exact same game…
As for collector's editions, I like them but rarely spend the extra money for them. I think the only collector's editions I own are the WoW: Wrath of the Lich King CE as it really was worth it (an awesome box, soundtrack, making of dvd, exclusive in-game pet, and the best part was an awesome hardcover art book), and then the GTA IV limited edition or w/e it's called, but only because I found it for the same price as the standard edition was at the time. But things like the night vision goggles are just ridiculous and are only out there to make an even bigger profit on the game than they would with the standard edition.
I love collector's editions and I don't mind that they charge a premium for all that bonus material. Figurines, artbooks, soundtracks, all that jazz, I love it cool swag to go along with your vidya. Plus it's all optional and outside the game, by not having any of that stuff you don't miss out on any of the game. I'll tell you what I hate though, special editions with exclusive in-game content, because then you do miss out on a part of the game, no matter how small it may be. Or in the case of Assassin's Creed II it's a whole area of the game right? That is just ridiculous.
The other thing that goes along with this is when there is exclusive in-game content for pre-ordering at different stores, GameStop is largely the biggest asshole in this aspect. I mean, if you get in-game content for pre-ordering it should be global a.k.a. it shouldn't matter where you order from. Still pre-order bonuses should be limited to items outside the actual game itself.
The best examples of pre-order bonuses/special editions that I can think of come from ATLUS games. Demon's Souls came with a Deluxe edition, it came with an art book, soundtrack, and a full game guide, also regardless of whether or not you got the Deluxe edition, if you pre-ordered you got a free copy of the soundtrack I believe. Almost all of the ATLUS games comes with the soundtrack for free if you pre-order actually. Another good example of cool swag is the MPT steel case. So some people do pre-order and specials right, and some do it to gouge for money and it sucks.
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