By John Walker on July 27th, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
We had thought Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III six separate releases was confusing. The plans for the game everyone at RPS is most excited to play this year, Dishonored, now makes that move look positively bland. In a display of eye-rolling pre-order bonus alchemy, Bethesda have announced a divisive and flat-out bizarre set of retailer-dependent exclusives. It takes the form of a handy guide for publishers to see exactly how they shouldn’t promote a game, as you can see below.
This has been a superbly promoted and hyped game – and given the design team behind it, it’s a game we’re all ridiculously eager to play – but what we learned this morning revealed some of the most ludicrous shop-pandering nonsense we’ve ever seen. Seemingly designed to make the purchasing decision for customers as pointlessly confusing as possible, Bethesda have done deals with Game & Gamestation, Tesco, Shop.to.net, and Amazon.co.uk (and presumably similar in other countries), that make us not want to buy it from anywhere.
Let examine the mess.
Game/Gamestation have the Special Edition, containing a fucking tarot deck, along with the Arcane Assassin Downloadable Upgrade Pack. In that you get the Void Channel power, the ability to consume white rats for mana, a statue of whale in the game that means you get an additional slot for bone charm bonuses, an “unhidden book” called Filed Notes: The Journal of Granny Rags, 500 bonus coins, and, er, white rats in the game won’t be hostile to you.
But if you pick Tesco‘s Shadow Rat Downloadable Upgrade Pack, you’ll get an ability called Delicate Touch, making breaking glass a quieter affair, another ability called Voyeur that lets you see better through keyholes, and a third ability called Deep Breather, that lets you breathe for longer under water. There’s also a Golden Rat statue, that also unlocks a bone charm, the 500 bonus coins, and an unhidden book called Field Notes: The Royal Spy.
Then there’s Shop.To.Net, with the Backstreet Butcher Downloadable Upgrade Pack. That has Fencer, improving your sword on sword advantage, Fire Water, letting you have bigger explosions from whiskey bottles, and Blast Resistant, reducing the explosion damage you take. There’s a Wolfhound statue, doing the same as above, and a book called Early Life And Times: Slackjaw, along with the 500 magical bonus coins.
And finally there’s Amazon.co.uk, with the sodding hell I’m so pissed off Acrobatic Killer Downloadable Upgrade Pack. This one has Raven, a health bonus for drop-down assassinations, Quick Dodge to help you move out of an arrow’s way, and River Affinity, speeding up your swimming. There’s a sodding Hagfish statue, an unhidden book called Rumours And Sightings: Daud, and more bloody coins, whatever the hell they’re for.
I’m absolutely buggered if I’m going to include the four videos that accompany each of these boxes, but the claim made is that you buy the box that’s “tailored to your play style.” OF A GAME YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED YET, BECAUSE YOU’RE BUYING IT.
Oh good GRIEF.
Game/Gamestation, Amazon and Tesco appear to be taking pre-orders at £30 for these packs, so at least they don’t cost extra. StopTo is charging £25 for the PC version, and an extra penny for the extra stuff, but saying it’s unavailable.
What is a customer supposed to do here? How is this helping anyone? I don’t shop in Tesco, but maybe I want to be able to break glass quietly? And why does only one retailer get immunity from white rats? And, if I buy the game online – because IT’S NOT 1998 ANY MORE – what am I missing out on? And will I suffer from having one less bone thing slot something?
WHO IS THIS HELPING?
The shops. That’s who. But the problem is, it’s all sold as if it’s of benefit to all of us. And it isn’t. It’s a pain in our lives, when we just want to buy the complete, finished version of the game, so we can play it as the developers intended. Bloody well let us.
27/07/2012 at 15:04 RF says:
inb4 someone uses horribly circular and terrible logic to defend this because they’ve killed off their own savvy consumer to suck company dicks.
27/07/2012 at 15:06 thepaleking says:
I won’t defend it, but I will say I don’t give a fuck; because I know the creative minds behind this game aren’t the ones who come up with this bullshit, it’s a bunch of business majors in suits, who aren’t going to keep me from buying what looks to be an incredibly well made game.
27/07/2012 at 15:08 RF says:
And you think the creative minds will be the ones that get any money? They’re not. Their part in this is finished. Any money you give the company directly feeds into the marketing moguls and their CEOverlords.
27/07/2012 at 15:30 enobayram says:
I think a part of what thepaleking says is that he doesn’t give a fuck where his money goes either, he just wants to play this nice looking game, made by those creative people.
27/07/2012 at 16:46 Brise Bonbons says:
Clearly there are two different discussion happening here. Firstly “is this good business practice, and for whom?” That’s a pretty objective question; it’s good for shops, bad for players.
The second question each consumer needs to answer is whether their wanting is strong enough that they’ll support a product and company that act against their interests.
I think people who try to argue with the first conclusion are pretty silly, which was the point of this thread. The second question is personal choice, and even then will vary from product to product for the same consumer. In the past I’ve wanted AssCreed games badly enough to buy them despite my distaste for Ubi business practices. Nowadays I just don’t want them that badly anymore. No reason to have internet inquisitions about it, since the most likely event is just that people will claim they won’t buy something on principle and do it anyway.
28/07/2012 at 02:26 mnidtasd says:
Android 2.3 Tablet with 7 Inch Touch Screen, 1GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, 4G Flash Hard Drive, WiFi Connection This is right! http://ir.gl/df0910
27/07/2012 at 15:48 Shuck says:
In theory this would benefit new game sales, but I suspect this sort of nonsense is becoming necessary for the publisher to get decent decent deals with retailers, so in the end no one really benefits (as the major retailers end up on equal footing).
Speaking as a developer who was in the position of being asked by the publisher to create new, distribution-channel-specific content, developers hate doing stuff like this. And this is the worst I’ve heard about – coming up with a bunch of new abilities that sound worthwhile but don’t significantly alter the game would be a serious pain. It’s like having to inconsistently add “free to play” elements into a retail game.
27/07/2012 at 16:02 Wreckdum says:
Blame Steam! With Steam sucking all the retail sales who needs a boxed copy? I haven’t bought a game with a box in probably 5 years. And good riddance. Steam is so much more convenient. Stop fighting extinction with this ridiculous marketing nonsense. Just go peacefully. Good game. You lost.
27/07/2012 at 16:18 Shuck says:
@Wreckdum: Supposedly in the US, more than half of PC game sales are still via retail, not download (I don’t know any retail shops that still carry any significant number of PC game titles though, oddly); no publisher can afford to lose half their sales. Besides, this is also a console game, so that’ll be the majority of their sales via retail channels. (And this is absolutely something that’s done for the benefit of the retail carriers of console games, rather than for the sellers of the PC version.)
27/07/2012 at 16:38 Sheng-ji says:
@Wreckdum – I’m sure steam isn’t threatening the financial security of Tesco, what do they need to get involved with this for? It’s stupidity, pure stupidity.
28/07/2012 at 00:04 Caiman says:
Anyone who thinks this benefits new sales clearly has a different internal logic to me. All this does for me is put me off knowing that if I buy version A I’ll be missing out on the stuff in versions B, C, D, E, and F, and therefore knowing there will be an eventual compilation will all the “DLC” and pre-order bonuses I’ll wait for that to come out in a year’s time. I want to play the game, but I’ve got no shortage of other games to play in the meantime while they drip-feed all their content to the public.
28/07/2012 at 07:33 Kadayi says:
@Caiman
I can think of more games that released that didn’t do complete GoTY editions than did tbh.
27/07/2012 at 16:01 DXN says:
Um, you know I’m pretty sure that the creative people are going to want people to ‘give money to the company’, i.e. buy the game, so that they can continue to have jobs in the future.
27/07/2012 at 16:38 RF says:
Um, you know I’m completely sure that’s not how the development cycle works and you might like to get educated before spouting your uneducated opinion.
27/07/2012 at 16:40 Sheng-ji says:
@RF – with your vast industry knowledge, I’m sure you know all about the bonus system and how in many companies they are linked to first month sales, you know those bonuses that the programmers and artists get.
27/07/2012 at 16:43 SkittleDiddler says:
But that’s increasingly not how it works these days. Developer gets bought out by publisher. developer makes game, publisher releases game, publisher sacks developer or breaks the dev team into a thousand pieces and scatters them to the wind.
I can’t imagine that any but the most entrenched developer team would get satisfaction — monetary or otherwise — from making these stupid pre-order bonuses.
27/07/2012 at 16:46 RF says:
@Sheng-ji: Yes, none. You see, the way it works is that a number of programmers, concept artists, modellers etc (whatever is needed) get take on for the length of the project. At the end of it, they’re gone. Finished. On to another project, probably at another studio.
That’s the way it is for the vast majority of the larger companies (AFAIK, Paradox, Stardock and Valve are the only ones that don’t do this, but that’s due to the unique nature of their company infrastructure).
27/07/2012 at 16:47 Sheng-ji says:
@SkittleDiddler – In all fairness, when a studio owner takes the decision to sell his company (which no-one can force him to do) then surely the company was either on the rocks financially anyway – in which case he’s given his staff a slightly more secure future, or he’s cynically grabbing money and should burden the blame.
@RF – Well, I wouldn’t sign a contract with no bonus included as the wages are far too low for the skill required. If others will, more fool them.
27/07/2012 at 17:18 SkittleDiddler says:
@Sheng-ji: try explaining it that way to Digital Extremes, who got sacked by THQ despite the fact that Homefront was a financial success. Or any of the dev teams that were bought out by EA and then mercilessly burned at the stake.
AAA publishers don’t need a viable excuse to hire-and-fire at whim. They do it all the time because the industry allows them to get away with it.
27/07/2012 at 17:48 Phantoon says:
Homefront was also a terrible terrible game.
27/07/2012 at 18:16 CountChocula says:
@Skittlediddler
Here is what one of the Arkane devs said about the tarot cards:
” the Tarot cards were designed by Arkane. This is a 78 cards deck that doesn’t match usual divinatory decks because we envisioned it as a typical deck from the alternate world of Dunwall. All artworks are original and were created by Arkane; there’s even a rules set for an original game called “The Game of Nancy” in the box. Sorry if it makes you angry, but we did really put a lot of work in there and we hope people who will pre-order from Gamestop will like it. ”
A lot of research has been done, and we got inspired by several alternative Tarot decks, which are sometimes very far from the usual divinatory deck… But first, we wanted something that really fits the game settings, which was not possible with a standard set of Tarot cards. And there are also a few tweaks done for the Game of Nancy rules set… ”
http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1377966-pre-order-bonuses-revealed/page__view__findpost__p__20872753
I don’t know about you, but I would really like to try this card Game of Nancy tarot card deck. It sounds like fun and the developers put a lot of work into making something nice that fits with the setting of the world.
If you don’t like it, don’t pre-order, but some people here in the comments are acting like the world is ending just because a game is available with some promotional trinkets. Personally, I wish there was a Collector’s Edition.
27/07/2012 at 18:31 SkittleDiddler says:
@Phantoon: “Homefront was also a terrible terrible game”. Which is moot. Homefront was a financial success, and that’s all that matters to the bean counters.
I actually thought Homefront’s multiplayer was a pretty competent mix between Modern Warfare and Battlefield, but if you’re basing your personal opinion on the single-player campaign, I can understand why you’d feel that way. Regardless of quality, it sold enough copies to justify a sequel, so I guess you’ll have yet another opportunity to spend your money on a game and complain about it later.
@CountChocula: I’m not sure why that post was directed at me specifically, but feel free to buy whatever super-duper extra-special edition you feel like buying. I’m not going to stop you. :)
27/07/2012 at 18:39 CountChocula says:
@SkittleDiddler I was responding to this comment you made –
“I can’t imagine that any but the most entrenched developer team would get satisfaction — monetary or otherwise — from making these stupid pre-order bonuses.”
The developer seemed to be genuinely proud of the work they did on the Tarot cards. As for monetary satisfaction, Arkane and Bethesda are business units of the same company. The more copies of Dishonored they sell, the more money their company makes.
28/07/2012 at 07:36 Kadayi says:
@Sheng-ji:
R-F possesses a luminous imagination
26/09/2012 at 08:35 FeFiFoShizzle says:
but the game sales reflect directly on the developers, ensuring they can make games in the future.
12/09/2012 at 22:49 scratchjohnson says:
Well said. I think what people are missing here is that this dlc is all optional. I’m pre-ordering the game from Amazon, not because I care what dlc code I’m going to get, but because I enjoy their free 2-day shipping with Prime. I might redeem the dlc code and get the bonuses on my second playthrough, but on my first, I’ll play as the designers intended: no bonuses, no bs.
Don’t let this minor gripe detract from your excitement and anticipation of what will undoubtedly be one of the best games of 2012.
27/07/2012 at 16:42 Lekker Pain says:
There goes my money. I am not touching this by a LOOOOOONG shot. Not even with a f* 1000km pole.
27/07/2012 at 17:06 d3vilsadvocate says:
Seems like “the bay” is the best place to get this actually… Such a shame.
27/07/2012 at 17:39 Toberoth says:
Don’t use this to justify pirating the game. It doesn’t work. If you’re going to pirate, then pirate, but don’t pretend you’re doing it because of this.
27/07/2012 at 17:49 Phantoon says:
I’d pirate the DLC, since there’s no other way to get it, surely.
27/07/2012 at 18:18 Belsameth says:
Actually, I *really* wanted to give Bethesda money for this. Now, not so much…
27/07/2012 at 19:54 S Jay says:
I have around 100+ games on Steam, I really don’t pirate. But this is the kind of BS I am not very inclined to put with (the same way I did not buy Mass Effect 3 because of the Origin nonsense).
05/08/2012 at 11:17 CountChocula says:
Are the majority of RPS readers pirates or something? Why are all these people bragging about pirating games on a website that attempts to inform and support fans of the PC gaming industry? Go brag about your fascinating piracy plans somewhere else.
05/08/2012 at 20:03 eclipse mattaru says:
@CountChocula: Blame Queen Elizabeth I guess, she was the one that started it by awarding pirates with knighthoods :P
27/07/2012 at 18:22 d3vilsadvocate says:
If I can pirate the DLC and buy the game, why not? But I guess it won’t be compatible, as always.
I’ll probably end up buying the game and playing the pirate version or something like that.
27/07/2012 at 18:54 Sheng-ji says:
I don’t see any issue here – If you bought the game, I doubt anyone cares where you download it from BUT I still think you will be basically spoiling the game for yourself by giving yourself “cheat” powers. I mean, imagine if you could get them all working together, you will give yourself a substantial advantage in game and throw out the careful design that went into it.
I can see the walkthrough now – “If you have the Tesco Pre-order of this game, you can safely smash this window and not get detected so enter the building here, if not you need to got through the level properly
27/07/2012 at 20:00 grimpunch says:
This will be my plan. Pirating DLC and putting it on the game. I pay for a “full” product and i’m going to get it.
05/08/2012 at 11:08 CountChocula says:
Why the heck are you so interested in a tiny little item pack? Who cares about that stuff, the only good DLC is going to be something with some meat on it. The point of this game is not to become overpowered, it’s about having fun with the emergent gameplay in a sandbox environment.
If you feel like the game is too hard because you didn’t get some meaningless pre-order item pack, you can just dial down the difficulty setting. Forget about the small stuff and wait for some high quality DLC you can really sink your teeth into that hopefully we might get at some point in 2013 provided the game sells enough copies to justify the production cost.
27/07/2012 at 18:45 El_MUERkO says:
What I was thinking too, had a pre-order with Shopto, cancelling it, I might buy a GOTY edition when it’s in a Steam sale.
27/07/2012 at 19:52 S Jay says:
Agreed, ARRRRR!
27/07/2012 at 23:43 Xzi says:
I agree with Phantoon. With it being single-player only, buy the game and pirate the DLC. That is, of course, assuming that you want any of this DLC to interfere with the experience. Reading through it, it seems like having just one of these bonuses could potentially make the game a lot easier. Too easy, even. I can’t imagine having all of the bonuses on one character would be a good idea if you’re looking for any sort of challenge at all.
12/09/2012 at 22:51 scratchjohnson says:
Once again, the game does not ship with DLC pre-applied. You have to choose to redeem your download code and apply it. You can very easily play the game without even worrying about the dlc.
Please don’t pirate this. This is a work of art, and the only way to truly show that you appreciate games like this is to pay for them.
27/07/2012 at 18:00 tetracycloide says:
inb4 someone uses horribly circular and terrible logic to decry this because they’ve killed off their own sense of proportion to suck their own dick.
Oh, to late I see.
27/07/2012 at 19:11 derbefrier says:
I wont defend it. I also don’t care. DLC is optional and not required to enjoy a game. I have yet to find a game with DLC worth buying IMO. the only time i ever see DLC is when i buy a GOTY edition. To me this is no different. i am perfectly happy with whatever i get because i really don’t give a fuck if someone else gets a power or something i don’t. It only affects your enjoyment of the game if you let it. I don’t give a fuck so it doesn’t bother me at all.
27/07/2012 at 15:04 Kynrael says:
I really hope this doesn’t mess it all up. They were doing great ! :(
27/07/2012 at 15:05 Njordsk says:
I’ll pick the cheaper (legal), and they can shove their preorder DLC for all I care.
27/07/2012 at 15:06 RF says:
That’s really gonna show them.
27/07/2012 at 15:20 Njordsk says:
So? You want us to miss a great game because of that? No way.
27/07/2012 at 15:31 RF says:
Christ, it’s called a bit of willpower. Or, y’know, you could do the naughty naughty and get it that way.
27/07/2012 at 17:41 Mordsung says:
Some people just don’t give a shit about this kind of stuff. It sucks, but I don’t care that much.
Every company on the face of the planet is trying to fuck me at every moment of every day, I don’t feel the need to rank them as better or worse or boycott one over the other.
27/07/2012 at 17:48 Shuck says:
These sorts of bonuses are aimed at console owners however, not the PC game players. By pirating it, all you’re doing is telling the publisher that the PC isn’t a viable platform for which to develop; it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.
27/07/2012 at 17:50 Phantoon says:
You may not, but I do.
I haven’t played an Ubisoft game since they originally announced their stupid DRM crap, years ago.
28/07/2012 at 07:39 Kadayi says:
@Phantoon
You mean that DRM crap they largely rolled back years ago?
28/07/2012 at 17:25 DK says:
“These sorts of bonuses are aimed at console owners however, not the PC game players. By pirating it, all you’re doing is telling the publisher that the PC isn’t a viable platform for which to develop; it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face”
No I’m telling them that they’re fucking morons and that shit don’t fly on PC.
They don’t need me to provide them with a justification for it – they can justify anything they do with the parrots cry of “PIRATES! PIRATES!” regardless of facts.
There is no reason to let that influence how you act, because how you act does not influence THEM.
27/07/2012 at 15:32 eks says:
Um, yes. That’s the entire point of voting with your wallet.
This is going to prevent me from buying/playing this game. There are lots of games I don’t play because I don’t like the business practices that are involved. You should too if you care, if you don’t care, that’s fine too but you don’t really have any right to then complain when companies continue to do it.
To be honest, there are plenty of (smaller) video game developers that treat their customers well that even with the huge list of games I refuse to buy, I still have a massive backlog of games to play.
27/07/2012 at 15:49 Optimaximal says:
Assuming he doesn’t buy the DLC, that is voting with his wallet. He’s not spending money that he doesn’t deem worthy of spending.
27/07/2012 at 16:51 Brise Bonbons says:
Yeah, I’d agree with that. I think if you just buy the Steam version with no DLC and say “fuck you guys”, it sends the message just fine, since it’s not rewarding their BS marketing.
If you’re on console only (why are you reading RPS?), you seem pretty fucked, however.
27/07/2012 at 17:52 Phantoon says:
Please. Console users not only accept this punishment, they come back to ask for seconds. They don’t have mods or the range of access we do, so they take anything they can get. Generally, they just don’t know any better.
27/07/2012 at 18:12 tetracycloide says:
The problem is it doesn’t work that way. You don’t get to tell them why you didn’t buy so they’re free to make up whatever reasons they want which may or may not include the actual reasons you have. What you’re actually doing when you ‘vote with your wallet’ like that is not rejecting the specific practice you don’t like but everything that went into the product. The question is not ‘ do I agree with every business decision made start to finish’ but is actually ‘does fragmented pre-order bonuses outweigh everything positive about this release.’ If you think it does that’s your prerogative, just like it’s my prerogative to point out that if you do think that your perspective is pretty skewed.
27/07/2012 at 17:29 Ergates_Antius says:
If your response to them offering a number of retail versions with different DLC is to buy the download version with no DLC then: Yes, it will “show” them. It’ll show them that the silly DLC options are a waste of everyones time and they shouldn’t bother. You’ve also not encouraged them to try it again.
If you pirate it, then they can just dismiss you as a thieving wanker and your actions/opinion become irrelevant.
27/07/2012 at 18:16 tetracycloide says:
Buying it from the same place you normally would actually would show them. What the stores are going for with these bonuses is shifts in consumer activity. So buy from wherever you would normally buy and don’t change your choice of vendor regardless of what bonuses are offered.
29/07/2012 at 04:36 The Random One says:
I think if your usual place to buy it is one of the participating shops the best thing to do is to buy elsewhere. If everyone did that the sales in shops that pulled this crap would lower and they’d stop doing this. Of course, no one does this because everyone is like “Ooooh booo hooo, there are things in this game that hardly matter and knowing people have them and I don’t is causing me actual physical pain because I have the self-control of a spoiled child! I need to get at least one of them!”
The idea that I should choose a retailer over other because I plan to play the game as sneaklily rather than murderously is stupid beyond belief. I suppose that when I want to go back and replay it murderously I’m screwed?
27/07/2012 at 16:19 Smashbox says:
Yeah I’ll take the Keep Your Fucking Tat and Give Me the Fucking Game Edition™ please.
27/07/2012 at 17:03 Roshin says:
Fuck the shops. I haven’t bought a physical copy of a game in years and I’m not about to start now. I’ll buy it from Steam. I’m sure there will be a shitload of DLC eventually.
02/10/2012 at 06:10 austerus says:
@Roshin: I would agree but:
- it works on Steam if you want the PC version, not for consoles
- on Steam is much more expensive than from, say, amazon (almost double) – I never got that, if you scrap the physical medium from the price you end up with a much higher one?
- these packs and many others will be available to download for a price .
27/07/2012 at 15:05 lordcooper says:
Oh for fucks sake, just let me give you money in exchange for the game.
*weeps*
27/07/2012 at 17:24 McDan says:
It does seem like they are trying to make this hard. I didn’t pre-order arkham city for this reason, though in this case I’ll probably go for the game one though, as I would like to try a non-lethal playthrough first. But in the end none of then will make much difference really.
27/07/2012 at 15:05 Anthile says:
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
(yeah, still gonna buy it but this trend has to stop)
27/07/2012 at 15:06 RF says:
It’s not going to whilst you still buy this shit.
27/07/2012 at 15:41 Kelron says:
Hypothetical situation: someone makes a game that looks interesting, clever and different, with a new IP. The game has assorted pre-order bonuses, and no one buys it in protest.
Publisher response? Pre-order bonuses have proven to be an effective tactic in the past, so the problem here must lie with no one wanting to play the game.
27/07/2012 at 15:56 Nallen says:
Or, “We must add more significant pre order bonuses in the future.”
27/07/2012 at 15:57 Screwie says:
Hmm… well, maybe you could buy the game from anywhere which isn’t offering these obnoxious exclusives?
27/07/2012 at 16:17 Chris D says:
Actually this is probably the best course of action given that most of us probably want to play the game because it looks awesome but don’t want to encourage this kind of marketing nonsense.
Make a point of buying it from somewhere that doesn’t give a preorder bonus, even if you otherwise would have.
27/07/2012 at 15:05 Ratchet says:
Fuck Bethesda. There, I said it.
27/07/2012 at 15:06 Jason Moyer says:
Arkane is on my list of developers whose games I buy first-day, but jesus. How about just selling me the goddamn game, in its entirety?
27/07/2012 at 15:06 0011110000110011 says:
Saw this ridiculousness from Bethesda’s blog, marketed (as you said) as if we were getting a great deal. Even if we pre-order, we miss out on 3 out of 4 preorder bonuses.
With the Borderlands preorder, if you buy it earlier, you get an extra character later on. Sure, you can buy special editions with physical stuff, but if you just want a digital copy (Steam), sure, have a character later on, thanks.
I was really looking forward to this, considering preordering. As it is, there’s no point pre-ordering, in fact piracy is probably the only <£100 solution to getting all the pre-order stuff.
Another day, another publisher falls.
27/07/2012 at 15:53 wtf says:
Exactly my thought, if people can’t get the full game by buying it, they will just pirate the “full” version…
27/07/2012 at 15:06 onsamyj says:
Any word on Steam version? Because, yes, it’s no 1998 any more.
27/07/2012 at 15:07 Yargh says:
I’ll wait for it to appear in a Steam Re-Honoured bundle at 66% off with all DLC included then.
In the meantime there’s a nice Borderlands 2 4-pack offer on Steam this weekend.
27/07/2012 at 15:13 Jason Moyer says:
Does the Borderlands 2 pre-order on steam come with the DLC?
27/07/2012 at 15:17 Anthile says:
Yes.
27/07/2012 at 15:22 onsamyj says:
Indeed.
27/07/2012 at 18:06 andytt66 says:
Mostly. Comes with the “standard” pre-order DLC, but not the GAME exclusive “Creature Slaughter Dome!” stuff.
27/07/2012 at 15:18 Axess Denyd says:
That’s what I was thinking. I’ll get the whole thing for $7.50 or so next year. I got more than enough from the summer sale to keep me busy anyway.
27/07/2012 at 15:32 Boothie says:
Probably wont be any, as i understood it all these perks are shop exclusives, wich means if one gets it on steam u wont get any, personally i could live with this shit if u could pick up the dlcs for a few extra pounds, im going full stealth so any perks that i dont need for that ill avoid like the plague (see what i did there?) but since ill get it on steam and none of those shops even exists where i live im out of luck DAMN U GREEDY BASTARDS WITH WALLETS FOR HEARTS *shakes fist*
27/07/2012 at 15:35 enobayram says:
I think that’s the proper response to such nonsense.
27/07/2012 at 18:11 jonfitt says:
Yup, I’ll now wait for the edition that comes out later that doesn’t make me second guess if I bought the right pre-order edition.
GOTY or whatever they decide to call it.
I understand that it’s all probably useless tat that doesn’t matter, or skills that you get later in the game anyway, but the decision to try and make one shop’s version of the game different to another is baffling. It makes me second guess buying it from somewhere and why would you do that?
Oh right, kickbacks from an obsolete retail channel. I hope it’s worth it.
27/07/2012 at 19:53 benkc says:
Likewise. The game looks interesting, but I guess I won’t be getting it until it’s “old”.
27/07/2012 at 15:09 kwyjibo says:
Fuck the shops. I’ll be getting the GOTY Complete Maximum edition on Steam when it appears.
27/07/2012 at 15:37 MattM says:
All this just makes it easy to pass up the game at release. Ill wait until they are done with all this annoying versioning and dlcing and if I am still interested a year or two later pick it up for $7-$20.
27/07/2012 at 16:18 Faxmachinen says:
Precisely. Computer games seem to be a rare type of commodity which gets both cheaper and better with age.
27/07/2012 at 17:02 LionsPhil says:
Indeed. Just transitioned from “the moment the reviews hit” to “once it’s on sale with all the trimmings” to me.
Enjoy getting less money at a later date, Bethsda.
27/07/2012 at 21:22 LintMan says:
I did that with Dragon Age 2 after I missed out on the limited-time-only pre-order companion, but somewhat annoyingly they never put out a “GOTY” DA2 with all the DLC. But then, I keep hearing the game sucked, so I guess it all worked out in my favor. :-)
27/07/2012 at 15:09 RaveTurned says:
Another game to put on the back-burner for a while. Plenty of other decent titles out there to spend my money on. I’m sure next year’s inevitable GOTY edition will have all that jazz and more for less money, available for purchase online.
27/07/2012 at 15:20 Ignorant Texan says:
As well some of the fan-fixes that will make this fucking playable should be finished by then. I know this is Arkane, not Bethesda, but still.
27/07/2012 at 15:10 Captain Hijinx says:
Oh god, no.
Why are they doing this? They’re actually giving away skills as different pre-order bonuses?
I loathe this crap.
27/07/2012 at 16:28 Sheng-ji says:
Yeah, exactly that is so dumb. Funny thing is in the US one store is getting a USB whale oil lamp and people are going crazy for that. If you must do this crap, give us stuff like that and let us get a cool toy and play the game as it is supposed to be without overpowered abilities.
I for one will be deliberately buying a version with no extra powers, I don’t want to ruin my game before I have even installed it and I don’t want to encourage this kind of behaviour.
27/07/2012 at 17:23 pruchel says:
Come watch Batman 8 at Generic Cinema Corp. and you’ll get to see extra footage of batman taking a piss! Watch it at Cinema 2084 for double surround sound, and extra contrast! At Cinemateque Batman will instead wear a blue and pink outfit, and you get three times the gore!
WEEEEEEE MARKETING!!
28/07/2012 at 06:07 arccos says:
Good point. I haven’t seen it done much at all with movies, but occasionally Wal-Mart or whatever will get a special edition of a music album around here. Not that I buy digital entertainment at retail these days.
27/07/2012 at 15:10 Greggh says:
Reading this with an english accent XD
‘Oy chaps, ye bloody need to colm down, bugger!’*
*I’m terrible impersonating accents, both typing and speaking.
27/07/2012 at 15:47 identiti_crisis says:
‘Oi, chaps*, you need to bloody calm down! [pause], [mutter:] Bugger (me / in hell / etc.)¬!’
Fixed.
*Obviously ironic.
¬Doesn’t really work here, and sounds more like an invitation. “Fuck a duck” may be a better choice.
And now I’ve tickled myself at the prospect of a phrasebook offering genuinely appropriate profanity for the foreign visitor. They always get it wrong, which is actually amusing (in a non-pompous way) in itself.
27/07/2012 at 16:23 torchedEARTH says:
You sound too Scottish.
Try this:
Bladdy ‘ell guvnor them what fuckers ‘ave only gawn and fucking fucked the fucker ‘aint they. Sodding pig whistlers they are Mr Holmes.
Spell “color” with a u and be indignant at the next Assassin’s Creed game. You’re all set.
27/07/2012 at 16:33 Sheng-ji says:
Or this:
Yarr, we not be loiking this down ‘ere in the Wescountee. Damn grockles an emmits an their ways! Whas a Com Put errrr anyhows? S’all a bit Bodmin if yer ask mi. Moi cusin got is phone wit’intnet t’other day. What a polaver that was.
27/07/2012 at 16:50 Antsy says:
GET OFF MOI LAAAN!
27/07/2012 at 16:53 Sheng-ji says:
Oi’ll giv you public roight of way wiv me shotgun
An get tha dog ona lead
27/07/2012 at 15:11 Gundato says:
I’m not huge on pre-order bonuses in general, but I understand them. I even tolerate retailer-exclusive (for the time being) DLC on the condition that there be a single package for a few retailers, or that everything is included in the deluxe edition (TW2 and Dawn of War 2: Retribution both did this). But to spread it out this far just discourages me from pre-ordering and instead waiting for the DLC (and a sale) to come out.
27/07/2012 at 15:12 woodsey says:
As per usual, I’ll just buy the standard edition (assuming such a thing even exists) and hope that all this nonsense has been added in purely for the sake of being a ‘bonus’, and is not something that’s been forcibly cut.
27/07/2012 at 15:12 daz_uk says:
Just…just….STOP. IT.
I work for a large publisher/developer and I can say I reckon a few marketing types sat around thinking they were being really cool and help design the game by ‘securing’ some great ‘retail space’ for the game. Then they told the developers who largely face-palmed all the way back to their desks, whilst doing a crying,flying,screaming,dying death-wank.
27/07/2012 at 15:44 wodin says:
Your probably spot on. Things where easier when a game developer made his or her game their way, then sold it. Hopefully more developers will try going to Indy route and free themselves from the suits.
Besides it’s shocking how little of the money from a game goes to the developers and instead to the publishers etc.
27/07/2012 at 15:12 aliksy says:
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
I just won’t buy it until there’s a complete edition, if then.
27/07/2012 at 15:42 Vorphalack says:
I shall probably do to Dishonored what I did to Fallout: New Vegas. Wait 3 years for the Ultimate Edition to go on sale, and play the shit out of it knowing i’ve got the complete game all patched up. Deals like this just don’t motivate me to buy things.
27/07/2012 at 16:33 Edg3k says:
The difference between this and Fallout Ultimate Edition is huge. Ultimate Edition was the game plus the DLC. These dont really count as dlc and more like unlocks to make the game easier. Fallout New Vegas (far as i remember) didnt have pre order bonuses (could be wrong, only one I pre ordered was fallout 3 and I got a lunch box for that). If you dont want the bonus stuff, just dont pre order, thats what i think.
27/07/2012 at 17:09 Vorphalack says:
Probability of pre-order bonus content appearing as DLC: 100%
Probability of Dishonored getting unknown quantity and quality of additional DLC: 100%
Probability of game still being patched 2 years from now: 100%
I’m fine with waiting.
11/10/2012 at 21:34 Sparky says:
Fallout New Vegas had several pre-order ‘bonus’ options: the first was an exclusive special edition big-box set with a pack of Caravan playing cards, a large “Platinum” chip, chips from all the in-game casinos, a making-of dvd and a handbook, etc etc; and then there were 4 retail outlet specific special offer promo versions which featured various different (inconsiquential) in-game perk/weapon/object combinations offering various combinations of waterbottle, shotgun etc etc – all a waste of time …and all very similar to Dishonored’s marketing options… ..and then there was the promo from gamestation that offered an actual pip boy key ring – but said they had run out on launch day, just after opening up, with no one else in there…
27/07/2012 at 16:36 Sheng-ji says:
No, the complete edition is one with none of those powers! If you get them all, you will literally ruin the game, even one set will significantly unbalances it, of that I am certain.
27/07/2012 at 15:12 Jekhar says:
I don’t know why everyone is so upset with this. This is good news for me, i will save money. Because i will wail for the complete package, aka the GotY. Thank you very much dear publisher!
27/07/2012 at 15:13 kud13 says:
10:1 all of those “preorder packs” will be available for 3.25 each in the Steam X-mass sale. DXHR taught me as much.
and I guess Beth just lost a day 1 purchase.
I would suggest everyone who is like me sends an e-mail to Bethesda explaining why we won’t be purchasing our most anticipated game of 2012 on release day.
27/07/2012 at 15:44 MattM says:
There also seems to be common for these pre-order packs to not be well balanced. They make the beginning of the game way to easy and rob you of the joy of finding new stuff since it is worse than the dlc gear.
27/07/2012 at 15:14 Lucky7s says:
Hopefully they’ll do what they did with New Vegas and release the whole thing on Steam, eventually (http://store.steampowered.com/app/901778/). I still don’t like this one bit and I’ll most certainly not preorder this, not even on Steam.
27/07/2012 at 15:14 Om says:
“What is a customer supposed to do here?”
Don’t buy on release. I’m going to wait for the inevitable special/GOTY edition that has all this crap included. I’ve got plenty of games to play between now and then
27/07/2012 at 17:13 DClark says:
Yes, retailer-specific bonuses are the second surest way to get me to not buy the game on day one (next to obtrusive DRM).
If they pull the same thing CDProjekt RED did with The Witcher 2 retailer-specific stuff (gave it away to everyone two weeks after release) then they might salvage a full price purchase, but I think their retailer-specific content plus whatever DRM they’ll choose to use will have me waiting for a better deal than full price.
27/07/2012 at 15:15 killuminati says:
Well I’m italian and I live in Italy and none of those shops are represented in my country.. so WHAT should I choose IF I was interested in buying this?
My only option would be Amazon.co.uk but what if I’m interested in other promotions? Still I won’t be buying it except maybe, during the STEAM sales 2 year ahead for the GOTY edition at 10 Euros. Guess this won’t help not Bethesda, neither the retailers and the customer…
27/07/2012 at 16:12 wodin says:
Hmmm..looks like here is a big gap in the market for someone to open a game shop in Italy.
you need to look into it, might be a good business idea.
27/07/2012 at 15:15 Ed123 says:
I don’t care about inconsequential stuff like multiplayer skins, but this crap has pushed the game off my Day-1-purchase list and onto my goty-steam-sale list.
27/07/2012 at 15:15 Lambchops says:
I read this on the “Mozilla Firefox” edition of RPS, which included a bonus video of John doing a happy dance to calm us down, two extra naughty words, the Deus Ex referencer which unlocks a “What a shame” comment and twenty Scotch eggs.
Owners of other browsers get none of this, presumably because they are smelly and horrible.
27/07/2012 at 15:16 sinister agent says:
Is there a competition on among major publishers to give people a reasonable excuse to pirate their games now that price isn’t generally valid anymore? Because that seems like the least cretinous reason for all this.
28/07/2012 at 09:53 Kadayi says:
There’s ever a reasonable excuse to pirate a game?
27/07/2012 at 15:17 AJ_Wings says:
I don’t mind these exclusive pre-order bonuses as long as they’re cosmetics or skins that have no bearing effect on gameplay but what the heck is the point of segmenting gameplay features and abilities exclusively to retailers?! Stupid Bethesda, Stupid. You didn’t pull this shit with Skyrim, why pull it now? *ugh*
I do hope these are early unlocks and not exclusive because that would be truly asinine.
27/07/2012 at 15:17 diebroken says:
“DLC is a messed up business…”
27/07/2012 at 15:42 Gonefornow says:
“Those elements mixed together is definitely like a sauce.”
I was willing to buy the full price (50-60 whatever it is now a days) for this one, but this nonsense is not going to make that happen.
27/07/2012 at 15:18 Toberoth says:
Fuck all that noise, if the game is well-received on release and seems like it’s living up to its promises, I’ll get the bog standard Steam edition. I couldn’t care less about all that other shite, I just want to play the damn game.
27/07/2012 at 16:38 AlwaysRight says:
I agree. Plus why are people acting like they know how important these dlc packs within the game? Some people are likening them to expansion packs, others think they’re game breaking exclusive advantages but we don’t know for sure yet. The perks and stuff could just be standard thIngs u get in game anyway. They don’t sound that incredible to be honest. A perk that Inceases vIsIon when lookíng through a keyhole… serìously? What about a health bonus for drop down attacks… how much health? 1%… 1000%? I don’t think missing out on any of this stuff will effect the game at all, so they can bollox
27/07/2012 at 15:18 TheManfromAntarctica says:
I’ll do like I did with DEHR: wait a few months, but it cheaper on Steam with all DLCs included.
No big deal.
27/07/2012 at 15:18 Ubik2000 says:
This is obviously insane/stupid/horrible and obviously just another reason to put off buying it until it inevitably goes on sale on Steam (let’s see – probably the holiday sale). That also will be a good time to get all this preorder crap, when it’s been repackaged as DLC and is 75% off. Usually even a better deal than waiting until GOTY, because then THAT edition starts off full price, and you need to wait for it to get discounted all over again.
All logical. The OTHER problem here is: how is all this stuff going to be integrated into the actual game? Will there be any thought put into it whatsoever, or will you be getting all these special abilities right from the jump, completely screwing with the balance, progression and flow of the gameplay? I SUSPECT: the latter. Just like: all DLC ever.
My favorite example of this was when I bought Dead Space 2 on a Steam sale a while ago. I had played 1, and thought I would have a handle on how things worked, but then I got to the first inventory station and why do I have tons of weird guns and armor already? What is going on here?
Turns out the Steam version I bought had all the DLC in it. Which took the form of weapons and armor. FREE, UPGRADED weapons and armor. So I had better versions of all the equipment in this SURVIVAL HORROR game from the start.
I had to just pretend they weren’t there. Insanity.
27/07/2012 at 16:11 Optimaximal says:
If a game is worth it, I’ve got no qualms with paying full whack for a GOTY edition, especially as they shouldn’t be getting any more money out of me.
27/07/2012 at 17:05 Brise Bonbons says:
I remember people who pre-ordered KoA: Reckoning had the same issue. And Dragon Age, no?
Honestly it shows to me that the developers need to work harder as well; why aren’t they putting in the work to integrate the DLC stuff properly? Are the marketing people forcing them to make stuff available immediately in game? Do they just not have the time?
27/07/2012 at 15:18 duncanthrax says:
Looks like they just turned 0-day purchases into 0-day downloads. Way to go.
27/07/2012 at 15:20 Screwie says:
Arrrggh, exclusive in-game abilities are the lowest of the low.
To deliberately strip out and cage the parts of the player’s abilities like this is ridiculous, and astonishingly this is for a game that is touting its flexible mission approach.
I’m not paying for this.
27/07/2012 at 15:21 Over says:
And then they wonder why people pirate their games…
27/07/2012 at 15:22 Mbaya says:
As others have mentioned, I think this game has gone from a preorder to a “I’ll wait for a GOTY edition”.
I don’t mind preorder insentives that are purely cosmetic, I can tollerate insentives that have early unlocks…but missing out on actual content because I didn’t buy the game from somewhere is terrible.
Is there any word on if these abilities/bonus’ are earnable ingame (or have their ingame equivelent), or are they purely exclusive to retailers?
I can’t help but think both the developers and the customers will suffer the most from this. The game might not sell as many units as expected, the publishers will blame the market not wanting a new IP and go back to churning out the typical games rather than taking a risk…
Sure, I imagine we’re all laying it on a ‘bit’ thick…but this just sucks for everyone involved it would seem.
27/07/2012 at 15:22 Jason Moyer says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
27/07/2012 at 15:40 Emeraude says:
+1
27/07/2012 at 15:23 scut says:
As idiotic as these marketing decisions are, the different versions sound as if they’ll make almost zero change to gameplay. They’re effectively just tweaking a few stats here and there, and I would feel confident that by the time players are 1/4 progressed through the game they will have out-leveled these ‘exclusives’.
So, in summary: The changes will be negligible and you shouldn’t be bothered… yet with such negligible changes there was no point in Bethesda offering them because it only insults their fanbase.
27/07/2012 at 15:24 Jason Moyer says:
If it’s just bonuses for idiots who want to cheat themselves out of gameplay, awesome. The way I’m reading this article, you’re getting items/skills that aren’t available in the vanilla game.
27/07/2012 at 15:56 scut says:
I hear ya, but look past the sales pitch of each bonus, the in-game effects will be so small they won’t make any real difference. (The Journal of Granny Rags = extra fluff that will be posted to GameFAQs on launch, ‘white rats won’t be hostile’ = a level 1 nuisance enemy will be even more easily ignored, etc etc)
Wait for the GOTY edition on sale in a year or so, and in the meantime play the bajillion other amazing games already out. Or don’t buy it at all and donate to a dev team making a game that you can stand behind.
27/07/2012 at 15:24 dE says:
Oh well. Luckily I haven’t been as hyped as others about this game. Still interested mind you, but I’ll happily wait for the – countless times mentioned – game of the year edition. I can wait. There are so many great games out there, that I’m in no rush to throw my money at a specific one.
27/07/2012 at 15:24 Jorum says:
Someone needs to explain to the retailers that this is, if anything, probably hurting their sales.
Rather than incentivising people to buy from Tesco/Amazon/whatever, they are giving them excellent reason to not buy from any of the retailers at all and wait for GOTY edition to come out on Steam with all the extras and probably hefty discount.
27/07/2012 at 17:18 DClark says:
but without retailer-specific content, retailers would have to rely on competitive pricing and quality customer service to earn their customers’ loyalty…
27/07/2012 at 17:52 Loopy says:
Haha, I see what you did there sir! :D
27/07/2012 at 15:25 thesisko says:
These are all cheats, probably game-balance disturbing ones that the development team was forced by marketing to come up with after the entire game was wrapped up and balanced. I’ll get whatever version lets me play with all of them turned off.
27/07/2012 at 15:29 Bluerps says:
This is just nonsense.
Regarding my own purchase, I just decided that I don’t care about all that. I’ll buy it where I always buy my games (either Amazon.co.uk or Steam, depending on if I want a box or not – in this case I do, so Amazon it will be), and see what I’ll get.
27/07/2012 at 15:30 aurens says:
i understand this is manipulative but i don’t think it means you can’t get the ‘complete’ game. all of this extra crap is probably just that: extra. the game wasn’t balanced or developed with these things in mind. personally i would want whichever version does not include all this stuff so i can actually play the game as the developer intended. although it would be nice to have all those backstory files.
27/07/2012 at 15:31 aeromorte says:
So the only complete version (with everything in it) will be the pirated version … ha ha ha just kidding just kidding
27/07/2012 at 15:32 Stevostin says:
They can’t be stupid enough to do that for the PC versions, can they ? Who’s buying in shops anyway ?
That being said I always see those extra as “let’s break the game” items. I always want to play on the version’s that has been tested the most. I keep away of all those extras as potential game breakers.
27/07/2012 at 15:32 JoeGuy says:
Is this just lame content that was on the fringes of being cut or making it into the game so they snipped it and passed the content around to all the stores as pre-order bonuses?
I think I’m officially just waiting for a decent price sometime next year, I’ve too much back-log and I don’t give much of a toss anymore. This isn’t a spur of the moment – “Nope, screw that big company, I’m not buying their stuff anymore” sort of moany moment, I’m honestly not buying this till the price hits a low point and makes me want it.
27/07/2012 at 15:32 Belsameth says:
I support pre order bonusses, but stop with the retail exclusives already! It’s friggin annoying, to say the least. Also an insult to pre-ordering customers.
Luckily pirating will most likely net you all bonusses :)
27/07/2012 at 15:32 Generico says:
Oh look, another game I’ll be pirating because game marketing people are the dirt that scum wipes off the bottom of its shoes. I refuse to give money to any company that uses BS gimmicks like this.
27/07/2012 at 15:55 Llewyn says:
What would your reason for pirating it have been if they hadn’t pulled this crap?
27/07/2012 at 17:35 Ergates_Antius says:
“I’m a tight-fisted scrote and I think everything I like should be free”
28/07/2012 at 00:15 theleif says:
I won’t be pirating this game (I don’t do that anymore), but I could consider pirating the exclusive perks (if such a pack becomes available), and I doubt I would feel bad about that.
Would that be such a bad thing to do?
I really, really loathe retail specific bonuses.
27/07/2012 at 15:35 Emeraude says:
Is there anything this gen can’t spoil ?
27/07/2012 at 15:35 caddyB says:
No buy.
27/07/2012 at 15:36 2late2die says:
Actually, I’m going to completely ignore any and all bonuses based on specific shops. The most I would go for is whatever might come in a collector’s edition. But for this game I might even ignore that. You know why? Because I want it to be challenging and I bet you dollars to donuts, each of these bonuses unbalances the gameplay in some small way to make it easier.
27/07/2012 at 15:37 int says:
It’s all about the bonecharms.
27/07/2012 at 15:37 Treebard says:
So the real question is: how do you protest this? Will buying a vanilla copy even register in their sales data (if enough people do it, they’ll see players prefer versions with…nothing extra, I guess)? Do you just not buy it altogether? As a consumer I don’t really know what to do.
27/07/2012 at 15:42 Torgen says:
As many others have said, don’t buy it until the GOTY version with all the pre-order DLC included is released. We just had the Steam Summer Sale, so I’d imagine most gamers have a backlog to tide them over.
Also, *write them* and tell them this is what you’re doing, else they have no concrete proof of a backlash against this asshattery.
27/07/2012 at 15:38 AmateurScience says:
Is this confirmed for PC too? Having a skim through the various retailer links on the Dishonored website all link to the xbox version.
Edit: it certainly holds up for amazon, No news on a digital release though.
27/07/2012 at 15:38 jimjames says:
Its a benefit that a lot of average gamers will be happy about. They all sound like interesting perks without damaging the game by making you over-powered.
If they release DLC with the missed out perks it will add extra incentive to purchase them (your friend has an upgrade because he purchased it somewhere else = you want it).
Giving a superstore an exclusive might guarantee shop placement / advertising with them.
Am I the only one who can see how this might seem like an understandable thing to do? And that this isn’t some kind of deplorable insult to their audience? But simply another way to market a game.
The more money a game company can make the more likely they are too keep releasing semi-original games. Therefore not a big surprise.
27/07/2012 at 15:46 JoeGuy says:
Well some company’s know how to do DLC\Pre-Order content correctly and this doesn’t seem like it has been handled well. Customizable content and skins are fine, but abilities that you know you’ll never have unless it’s bought post launch as DLC is only hampering the customers enjoyment, as the retailers and publisher happily make their money. That’s not exactly consumer friendly :-/
27/07/2012 at 16:12 jimjames says:
Cheers for the reply.
I don’t feel like I deserve extras because… because of what? entitlement? What’s the reason we deserve more?
I personally think that (unless you are held back in the game or content is taken /away/) having a tantrum about not having bonuses / extra game content is irrational. I don’t feel that my consumer rights have been take away from me, I still have plenty of choice how and where to buy it (if I want).
“It’s a pain in our lives, when we just want to buy the complete, finished version of the game, so we can play it as the developers intended. Bloody well let us.”
I think the developers intended to do this to make money. I still think I’m buying a complete game.
My main problem is how John has started a knee-jerk lynch mob. This could of been covered with rationality. Highlighting the pitfalls and benefits of how games are marketed to us, how large companies can cover risks or at-least have an awareness of this. Examples of viable promotions? Examples of failed promotions. Etc.
- P.S I’m not going to do that by the way as its not my job as a part-time internet opinionator :)
27/07/2012 at 16:28 JoeGuy says:
I don’t think my opinion is even a bit irrational however. When abilities are cut from the game and made impossible to get apart from post launch DLC it is not in the consumers interest, it is in the retailers. Why should we encourage that sort of practice or not express how much it doesn’t appeal to the people who don’t like the practice?
27/07/2012 at 16:44 jimjames says:
Were the abilities cut?
I’m under the impression they have been added.
27/07/2012 at 17:04 Dark Nexus says:
Cut or added, the end result is still the same – “impossible to get apart from post launch DLC”
27/07/2012 at 17:14 kud13 says:
It’s not about “feeling entitled to extra stuff”
as was discussed in the “DLC is a good thing” thread, the knee-jerk response is based on the pre-conception that buying the game Day 1 should mean you get ALL of the game.
the fact that the game content (no matter how insignificant it is) is being split and denied to the purchaser. makes you realise you are not buying “the whole game”. Which is, naturally, irritating.
As a consumer, it’s not my job to worry about the publisher’s profit margins. My job is to ensure I get the maximum value for my money.
By letting me know that by agreeing to pay full-price for the game I am NOT getting “the full game”, the publisher automatically undercuts the game’s value to me, and countless others.
This is made even worse by the fact that we are aware, by way of precedent, such as DX HR that we are not getting “the full game” as an arbitrary decision by publishers (once again, it’s not my concern as to what their reasons are), and that all we will be able to get “the full game”later on, via GOTYs or special bundles or w/e, and for a cheaper price.
27/07/2012 at 17:24 Brise Bonbons says:
It’s not about deserving extras, nor about consumer rights – it’s just a matter of the company clearly putting their interests and the interests of massive retail corporations above those of consumers. Now, they have every right to do this, but consumers (who are being told “you are less important than our good buddies at Game and Amazon”) have every right to say “you’re trying to earn my good will and money here; if you prioritize your marketing plan over making me happy, go fuck yourself”.
As I said earlier in the thread, it’s an entirely subjective decision. Each consumer is totally free to decide for themselves how big a deal this is to them. But I don’t think you can argue that this strategy is anti-consumer, or at least ignores consumer priorities in favor of funneling money to brick and mortar stores. Nor does anyone have any business telling others what they should think is important.
Or said another way, I think “this is anti-consumer behavior that is worthy of boycott” is a fine statement to make, but that is not the same as “you should/shouldn’t buy this game or you are a good/bad person”. The first statement is an analysis of the information, the second is making value judgments on issues that are simply not my business.
27/07/2012 at 15:41 Paul says:
Fuck all this. I am getting the standard steam version, if they even let me buy it (fuckers block Skyrim and Rage in my country).
27/07/2012 at 15:41 Thoric says:
Here’s how it goes for me in situations like these
1. Buy the game from one of the DLC-less retailers/online shops
2. Acquire all the pre-order DLC packs through alternate means
3. Start the game, mess around with them for a while
4. Decide they’re making me overpowered and breaking the flow of the game
5. Delete all of them and play the game without them
Every single time. And it’s a shame since most of these pre-order packs have great stuff that I would’ve loved to stumble upon naturally while playing, but instead it’s ripped out and served into my inventory at the start of the game with no context.
If you want to make retailers happy, just make a good looking cardboard box, stick a map in there and voila. TW2 had 80% retail sales for a reason.
27/07/2012 at 16:36 Edg3k says:
Prize goes to you for being one of the most sensible people here! Have a cookie!
Not sarcasm by the way, I totally agree.
27/07/2012 at 17:27 Brise Bonbons says:
Yes, very well put indeed. That’s a much cleared way to think about things than I had been.
When you look at these abilities and items as things you could have found naturally in the game and now don’t have the opportunity to, the whole situation becomes that much more infuriating.
Thanks for that. :(
27/07/2012 at 15:42 wintermute says:
Someone should make a piece of software that makes gamers keep their promises.
If you say you won’t buy game X before date Y, you can’t physically install it before that date. If you still try it should give you electric shocks while flashing the face of Bobby Kotick laughing manically.
Then all this empty indignation, which probably affords some major lulz to the “shady marketing types” as they smoke their cigars, will actually mean something.
27/07/2012 at 15:43 HisMastersVoice says:
Bethesda still won’t allow Steam to sell their new games in my region as they have a big penchant for keeping retailer relations good, so that doesn’t surprise me one bit.
It’s stupid, yes. Pointless too. Unexpected? No.
27/07/2012 at 15:44 Hodge says:
Count me as another who’ll be waiting until I can buy a complete version from somewhere.
It’s all the more annoying because they’ve been doing Everything Right with regards to shoring up interest in the game so far, and this has neatly deflated it all in one fell swoop.
27/07/2012 at 15:48 Emeraude says:
Agreed. I mean, at least you can rationalize that the sales lost from using Steamworks are going to be won back by Steam fans… but this ? No one likes this.
At least I have yet to see any buyer do – or even better any conclusive market data that proves it.
27/07/2012 at 15:46 wodin says:
I wonder if publisher\marketing etc look at the game then work out what bits can be pulled out of it and given as “pre order” bonus, as I’m sure the developers don’t make this stuff knowing whats going to happen to it.
27/07/2012 at 15:48 Unaco says:
This is a bit silly… But it’s not going to put me off. They sound like quite small things that will have been patched in by the time I’m coming round to a 2nd playthrough.
27/07/2012 at 15:51 Ilinx says:
It doesn’t put me off either, but it does is make preordering sound overly complicated, so I might as well wait and see what the reception to the game is like, before taking the plunge. So rather than persuading me to jump on the pre-order, it’s doing the exact opposite. Which seems rather dumb.
27/07/2012 at 15:55 Latenius says:
I had to register for this. This is just bullshit. The game may take inspiration from Deus Ex or Half-Life 2, but they sure as hell didn’t have such pre-order “bonuses”.
I’m so pissed. Fucking Bethesda and fucking Ubisoft. I’m gonna wait for Planetside 2.
But then again I have to buy Dishonored, because it’s going to be awesome.
27/07/2012 at 15:58 Latenius says:
Oh and someone provide me an explanation why ANYONE would EVER want singleplayer “buffs” e.g. faster swim speed, 500 fucking random coins, silent galss break etc?? They just make the game easier.
27/07/2012 at 15:56 Dude (Darloc) says:
So for once (in ages) that a game (let’s say a AAA game, not counting indies here) look original in its art direction and has tons of gameplay option… A lot of you are going to tell them to put the game in their backside because of some stupid piss poor bonuses you get with a pre-order?
I am not surprised then that the big game company do not want to try more risky game given the response from the community. I am pretty sure most of those bonus are not going to count much pass the first 3 levels of the game.
27/07/2012 at 16:09 cptgone says:
either the bonuses are irrelevant or not.
in both cases, customers are let down.
27/07/2012 at 16:34 SominiTheCommenter says:
This.
If it’s irrelevant, why bother?
If it’s not, the other versions are gimped.
27/07/2012 at 17:15 Dude (Darloc) says:
Customer is let down, not sure about that, in any case you still get to play the same game no?
I think those so called bonuses are more for retailers to get the “Hey hey hey, pick me, me, MEEEEE, you get this really cool bonus, look white rat will love you for the rest of your life in this game, isn’t that cool?” Nothing more than a marketing gimmick to lure people in. I am just tired of people raging all the time about dlc, premium and what not, yes gaming company want to make money and use every trick in the book same in all business… if you do not approve, do not pre-order, buy 2-3 month down the line and the game will be slightly cheaper.
My money will probably go to the less expensive of the bunch as I do not give a rat ass if my character has a love story with a white rat or not.
27/07/2012 at 20:18 Malk_Content says:
White Rats are gameplay mechanic already in the game. They are special, have special uses and are meant to be interesting and depth adding by the fact that unlike other rats, they do not like you. They haven’t added a cute rat pat to your game, that preorder bonus turns and entire mechanic on its head.
Also yes the game is new and exciting IP. That does not mean we should all automatically be happy and stupid marketing that surrounds it.
27/07/2012 at 15:58 cptgone says:
“WHO IS THIS HELPING?
The shops.”
IMHO, not the shops, just the publisher, as i suspect the shops have to pay for the tailor made DLCs.
27/07/2012 at 15:59 Raithah says:
I’m really, really sorry. It’s like a reflex.
Despondent, not dispondent.
27/07/2012 at 16:02 UncleLou says:
I … really don’t care.
Bog standard edition for me, preferably as a digital download.All the “extra” and “exclusive” abilities sound like they are just minor upgrades to existing abilities, anyhow. Don’t think I’ll miss out on anything.
27/07/2012 at 16:03 Loopy says:
I think I will buy/pre-order it it, but probably from somewhere that doesn’t do these ridiculous exclusive pre-order bonuses, is that even possible? If I can deliberately avoid buying from one of these retailers I will, just to flip the finger at them!
27/07/2012 at 16:03 MadTinkerer says:
Huh, so there’s finally going to be a game where this practice applies to something I want. Well…
Hopefully the “upgrade packs” will be available as DLC, if not free later. This nonsense won’t stop me from buying it. This is a game I want, in spite of the Marketing Drones trying to screw everything up. Ultimately the publishers do want my money, and I’m not pissed off enough to refuse them, yet.
27/07/2012 at 16:06 c-Row says:
Hear that…? That’s the sound of a dick moving.
27/07/2012 at 16:06 Jamesworkshop says:
What’s the betting that pirating the game gets you all of that stuff.
27/07/2012 at 16:10 Nick says:
Buy the game, pirate the other preorder DLCs.
27/07/2012 at 16:12 ghor says:
So as long as I don’t buy from any of these places I should get the version of the game I actually want, right?
27/07/2012 at 16:14 The_Candyman says:
It’s almost like they don’t want any day one buyers, see you in a year for the GOTY edition Bethesda, I’m getting tired of this shit.
27/07/2012 at 16:25 Pattom says:
John, how is this worse than the Assassin’s Creed extras? I understand that you get different DLC for Dishonored depending on where you’re pre-ordering, but each DLC package seems discrete and explains clearly what you’re getting from each retailer, whereas the problem with Assassin’s Creed 3 seems to be that each pre-order package overlaps with the others so much that you won’t know exactly what you’re getting until you open the box. It’s the pre-order DLC mentality taken to the point of seemingly-literal madness.
And this one isn’t directed at you, John, but I’m genuinely shocked how many people are now pledging either not to buy this game at all or to wait months for a Steam sale before doing so. Guys? Do keep in mind that the problem here is we’re only being given some free stuff, not all of the free stuff. As far as things killing the gaming industry go, pre-order DLC is low on the list, and even if it was higher, I’m not sure that “pre-order DLC is bad!” is the message publishers would take away from watching a game so beholden to player choice in both gameplay and narrative completely fail to make its money back. Really, if we’re this outraged about the industry’s greedy business practices, why aren’t we boycotting everything from Activision as a protest against the way Radical Entertainment’s closure shows how inflating budgets are reducing a mainstream developer’s choices to either making a “safe” AAA blockbuster or being unemployed? Next are we going to boycott Bioshock Infinite because Irrational is now hiring employees based on the Metacritic scores of their previous titles? When did it become responsible to throw away the whole cupcake because there’s a hair in the icing?
27/07/2012 at 16:28 magnus says:
It’ll end up as it always does and everybody will be playing when it’s out, even those who said they’d wait for the sales.
27/07/2012 at 16:25 magnus says:
Soooo, does this mean I’m supposed to think Bethesday is evil again? I’ve only just got over the last time I was supposed to.
27/07/2012 at 16:29 John Walker says:
To everyone announcing they’ll pirate the game in reaction to this: stop being so ridiculous.
Crap like this is a pain in the arse, but it’s not a justification for piracy, and I’m fairly certain anyone claiming this was their inspiration is simply gluing on their excuse.
If you object, and clearly I do, then let Bethesda know. I just did with this post. You can by emailing, writing or tweeting to them to express your displeasure and the consequences for you. But all this bullshit that now you’ll *have* to pirate it is immature and makes RPS readers look rubbish.
27/07/2012 at 16:42 cptgone says:
this indeed doesn’t justify piracy, but it may well be yet another case of pirates being better off than paying customers.
(in this case, the pirates’ advantage is a very slight one. still, it all adds up, esp. emotionally)
27/07/2012 at 17:00 LennyLeonardo says:
I agree entirely with Mr. Walker. Piracy is not the proper way to protest this nonsense. You swine.
Dishonored indeed.
27/07/2012 at 18:12 Sparkasaurusmex says:
Yep, a pirated version will have all these extras, no DRM, and no price. Where’s the value of NOT pirating? Some fairy tale land, that’s where. Where consumers have higher morals than publishers.
27/07/2012 at 19:30 LennyLeonardo says:
I’ve already said I agree with what John said, so by implication I’m saying I don’t think that adding this pre-order dlc to the game is more immoral than pirating it. But I guess it’s not such a big deal for some people.
Those people are swine.
27/07/2012 at 18:29 tomeoftom says:
Contact form’s right here: http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/contact_email.php
A vote cast with your wallet alone is about as useful as a donkey vote. It could be for literally any reason – so tell them directly.
27/07/2012 at 20:25 Zwebbie says:
Boycott the game, John! Everyone can write an angry article and then play it anyway, but RPS refusing to give Dishonored any attention from now on would actually hurt the publisher.
27/07/2012 at 22:51 Pattom says:
So, let me get this straight. In an age where the annual releases of Call of Duty are gargantuan media events and the linear manshooter reigns king, we ought to blacklist an original immersive sim that respects player choice? One supported by a publisher whose flagship series is lauded for giving players a great big sandbox to faff around in? All because of they implemented an annoying pre-order policy that’s anything but unique? What? Seriously, I’m not a fan of publishers and retailers playing DLC roulette either, but I’m not going to ignore the most exciting game of the year because of it. As clearly as pre-order DLC is a racket between publishers and retailers, there are more pressing problems afoot with the gaming industry than not being able to get all the free stuff that marketing wants added on top of the game. I’m genuinely curious how the industry landscape would shift if gamers could summon this much outrage against studios that don’t pay its employees overtime during crunch.
27/07/2012 at 23:04 Emeraude says:
As someone who’s been waiting for the game since it was announced, and will not buy it: it doesn’t matter that the product sold is great if it is being sold in conditions deemed unacceptable.
I’m genuinely curious how the industry landscape would shift if gamers could summon this much outrage against studios that don’t pay its employees overtime during crunch.
As outraged as I am by this – and I am boycotting companies because of such things, I have a hard time feeling my actions have any significance when the workforce being abused still refuses to unionize.
28/07/2012 at 00:29 theleif says:
I wrote this as a response to another poster, but my comment seems to have been eaten by the monster that ate the one we do not name, so here we go again.
It’s indeed not an excuse to pirate the game, but I wouldn’t feel that bad myself if I happened to find a “pre-order perk pack” on a torrent site and used that (with my purchased game). And, if they at a later point release it as a DLC I would buy it at that point instead.
It might not be legal, but on my moral scale it’s at the same level as walking across an empty street against a red light.
27/07/2012 at 16:30 Edg3k says:
I registered specifically to comment on this.
I think the authors way over the top on this, its a pointless argument. Just go and buy the normal edition and play it normally. If you shop in any of these places, its a bonus for you. And in the age of digital sales, and incentive for you to go and spend you money on a physical copy is justified.
Your gunna pre-order is anyway, if its something you want, you will, thats always been the way, giving you a bonus is a way to thank you for actually trusting them and putting money down on a game you dont have yet. I’ll do it, I dont care what pre order bonus I get, because I want the game, anything extra after that is extra! In the end the stuff will all be available on steam withing a few months for a couple euro a piece. Brink did it, and I picked up a free code online from a shop who was throwing out the extras they had left over from release day about a month after the game was released.
But yes I see your point, how dare shops want you money for providing you with services & products! What is the world coming to when shops want money for items which they stock and provide to us! The bastards!
How are they making it confusing? Pick a pre-order pack you like, and buy it. There, confusion and problems solved. Dont like any of them? Then dont pre order, go in on release day and pick up one of the many copies they’ll have that werent on pre order? Dont like that idea? Pre-order off someone who isnt offering a bonus and wait til their released as optional extras on a marketplace/steam/PS3 equivalent (dont own one so dont know how it works).
Also, how do you know these abilities arent already in the game and the bonus only gives you access to them early on in the game without having to play through several hours to unlock them? I rarely read anything here but it was pointed out to me on twitter, so I’m not sure how you handled the same thing happening with Mass Effect 3, bonus content for pre-orders holding back actual ingame features, I’m also to lazy and busy to search as I’m on break right now but I took the time to write this because I feel this is bar far the least offensive thing developers are doing to gamers in general these days.
27/07/2012 at 18:09 Ergates_Antius says:
Becuase, how are you supposed to know which pack you like best before you play the game?
Is being able to consume rats for mana better than being able to break glass queitly? How useful is it to not get attacked by white rats? Are the a lot of white rats in the game? Are they dangerous?
It’s asking you to make gameplay decisions about a game you’ve not started playing yet, without any context in which to make them.
27/07/2012 at 18:11 Mbaya says:
The problem is the feeling you’re missing out on something, whether you are or not, whether its substantual or not, whether its actually worthwhile or not doesn’t have to be point – the feeling exhists and it will effect how some people lean towards the game.
It brings up many questions for people, was this cut content added for a promotion, was it additional content added for a promotion, will it be balanced, will it effect the gameplay in a meaningful way, will it be available post launch, will there be alternatives in the game for those that don’t go this route?
A lot of people don’t want to think about that, they want a fully featured game with all the content provided.
“Your gunna pre-order is anyway, if its something you want, you will, thats always been the way.” – I can say for one, I wanted Dishonored, I expected to preorder the game based on recent footage, I will now wait to see how post-release is handled (possible GOTY edition, discounts, whether this content has any effect on gameplay etc).
Its great you feel the way you do towards it, for me, if it was purely cosmetic changes I wouldn’t have an issue at all, its the fact it illudes to gameplay that I do not like. Its a personal choice, one that has effected their day one sales, by at least one sale.
Is it important? To some, less to others – but its still a valid time to voice our own oppinions on the matter.
Another problem is if you dig deeper…much like aggressive DRM, I am wholeheartedly against piracy in any forms, but knowing someone out there is playing the game with a better (or fuller) exerience than I (a paying customer) is getting, is a bit of a kick in the teeth.
27/07/2012 at 19:13 Edg3k says:
From what I can piece together, your only getting early access to features that are already in the game, you just unlock them sooner.
Ive asked Dishonored on twitter if thats the cause, I guess we’ll see, if that is the case however, this guys rant is pointless as no matter what, you get the abilities, but just not the minute you start playing. (same as in BF3 with pre order from Gamestop)
If he was going to rant about it, this is a question he should have answered before writing this.
If its not the case, then their adding something to the game that is a bonus, then I think its unfair to only give you something like that if you pre-order and you’ll never see, but any gamer worth their salt will know what their game style is and will choose accordingly, even the author mentions liking the quiet glass break but doesnt shop in Tesco? No need to shop there, just pre order it there. Its not like Tesco is a small town grocery store, their freaking everywhere. You cant go into a town over here (ireland) without seeing one!
Hope I covered everything that was said there. At the end of the day, we’re not loosing out, maybe straight away but it’ll be available eventually or via ebay or something where the hundreds of discarded pre order codes always end up.
27/07/2012 at 16:38 rustybroomhandle says:
So how do retailers feel about this? Do each of them think their special preorder bonus is special, and would it not suck for them if the retailer with the best preorder bonuses gets more sales?
27/07/2012 at 16:39 sharkh20 says:
When other companies were still doing free updates for their games, Bethesda was selling horse armor.
27/07/2012 at 16:42 Ernesto says:
Just get the vanilla version and be done with it. DLC is overrated anyway, imho.
But since it’s not only DLC, you will be missing, this is really some sick way of doing business. How do collectors bear with the situation? Buy all the packs? And if you install one of them, are you allowed to add the DLC from another pack?
Also: I don’t remember having some kind of ‘play style’. I start a game and then my mood determines how I play it… Strange stuff going on these days.
27/07/2012 at 17:04 LennyLeonardo says:
Weird, isn’t it? And while the devs talk up the ability to switch between approaches on the fly, the publishers are trying to tie you to a single “play style” with a tacked-on purchase. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the creatives are fuming just as much as we are.
27/07/2012 at 16:45 Dark Nexus says:
US packages:
GameStop: Same as Game/Gamestation
Best Buy: Same as Tesco, plus a “Whale-oil lamp USB Lamp”
Amazon.com: Oddly, same as Shop.To.Net rather than Amazon.co.uk
Walmart: Same as Amazon.co.uk
Target: A Smart-phone decal! YAY
27/07/2012 at 23:07 instantcoffe says:
Whale-oil usb lamp?
…
27/07/2012 at 16:49 Fox89 says:
I won’t be waiting for a GOTY edition to pick up this game; I don’t want to cut their early sales down so Bethesda stop funding more titles like Dishonored. No, instead my approach is a simple pre-order boycott. Keep all your bonus Tarot Cards and Power Ups, I’ll just play the vanilla game thank-you-very-much.
27/07/2012 at 16:55 Iskariot says:
What a pre-order mess.
This is really off-putting.
Do they never learn?
-
I really want this game but I will never pre-order.
These pre-order antics only make me consider to postpone buying the game until a complete edition gets released.
-
Perhaps I will wait now for a Steam sale with everything on-board…. No I am sure of it…. I will wait for a cheap GOTY now.
27/07/2012 at 17:01 ShatteredStone says:
This game used to be on my list of games to buy on day one. Now it is not. I may pick it up in a few months or years if they ever release a complete version. Then again, by then there might be other games I would rather play. Good game, Bethesda.
“Just” buying the “normal” version does not get the message across to the boneheads making these kinds of decisions. The same goes for bone-headed DRM “efforts”.
Any kind of argument citing this being an “entitlement”-issue is bullcrap to begin with. We are, after all, supposed to pay good ‘ole hard-earned cash on this game. If you show such callous disregard for your day-1 customers, why should I accept that treatment? Correct, I shouldn’t. And won’t. Bethesda is not entitled to my patronage.
The final nail in the coffin is that you can bet any and all pirated copies will have all those “perks” in one neat package. Yay. Way to go on providing the better customer experience. Drinks all around.
27/07/2012 at 17:15 Eddy9000 says:
I’m just gonna buy the vanilla download, day one because I want to play it. These incentives don’t look like they change the lore, narrative or the experience any, save making the game a little easier. Essentially games are a set of rules to be mastered, explored or toyed with, and the experience of doing this within one set of rules won’t be quantifiably different to playing within a slightly different set. I don’t think my DXHR experience was any the poorer for not having a preorder silenced sniper rifle for instance, I enjoyed exploring and mastering the gameplay presented by melee takedowns and my pistol.
27/07/2012 at 17:27 NYMinuteMan says:
I agree on this one. This strikes me as an incredibly stupid marketing decision, yet I don’t feel on missing out by buying the vanilla package (and I assume this will exist). There’s a difference between adding content to lure in customers and leave it out on purpose. I guess that the game is “complete” without these bonues from a dev standpoint, and that is what counts.
On the other hand, the wisest decision may be to wait for the GOTY edition.
27/07/2012 at 18:39 Eddy9000 says:
Nah, I want to play it asap, haven’t looked forwards to a game like this for ages! A nice luxury I’ve noticed from gaming all my life is now I have a well paid job I can’t just buy games when I want without the worry. I look back at saving up for a month to buy ‘Nevryon’ on my archemedies and smile warmly.
27/07/2012 at 17:17 pruchel says:
Oh glob allmighty.
Seriously just include some plastic figure of rats or what-have-you, or a map, or some physical shit in the game if you want differentiation. Leave the damn game the way it’s supposed to be, and let anyone playing it play the same f?=”¤) thing.
It’s like they’re begging gamers to become pirates.
27/07/2012 at 17:20 Gap Gen says:
Well, of course I am going to buy this game four times. Of course.
27/07/2012 at 17:31 FunktionJCB says:
Sometimes I think people are losing a bit of perspective when it comes to videogames. Unlike, say, food, which is a primary need one has, videogames are for most of us a hobby, something in which we spend our leisure time and disposable income.
As such, I don’t know about you guys, but I can easily replace a game purchase with a million other things (be it other videogames (how many great indie games can one purchase for next to nothing?), Blu-Ray discs/DVDs/music CDs, a few activities with friends and family, and so on).
Whenever a publisher decides to do something as lovely as this, I have an easy solution: I skip buying the game altogether, or I wait until it is on a digital retailer at 80% off its price, at best.
In a time where so many people are unfortunately unemployed, or have their income significantly reduced, I find it perplexing that some videogames publishers are working under the assumption that they don’t “owe” anything to its customers, instead of realizing they are an industry “fighting” for our disposable income (which, for most of us, is less and less each month), and as such they should treat us with a little bit of respect.
Each of us has the option of voting with our wallets when we don’t agree with something.
But reading some of the above comments, it’s as if we don’t have the choice of not buying the game, just because it looks cool…
Remind me again: how many awesome games can I buy for £30?
As a quick example, just last week I paid $5.99 (less than £4) to an indie developer for a handful of his games + several prototypes, and he even promises to add some more games in the future (http://www.bagfullofwrong.co.uk/).
And I can easily list a ridiculous number of games I purchased recently (The Adventures of Shuggy, Gateways, A Virus Named TOM, …), all extremely fun games with plenty of content, and I paid for ALL of them COMBINED far less than what I would pay for this one.
Seriously guys, consider throwing your money to someone who actually values you as a customer, instead of supporting these practices.
27/07/2012 at 17:36 Dizzard says:
They will probably have some sort of Dishonoured Complete version a year or two down the line that has everything in it anyway.
I’ll probably wait until then. (and if it never comes around well it’s not the only great game on the horizon)
27/07/2012 at 17:36 puzl says:
In these kind of situations, I just do what I always do: purchase the game from steam (vanilla, whatever is included as standard) then download all the pre-order bonus crap “elsewhere” if I feel that it is worth getting it and/or it adds to the story/gameplay.
I have absolutely no qualms in doing this and I never will. These marketing ploys benefit only the retailers and never the players. It’s a cheap, crude, annoying business practice that tarnishes what should be an amazing game, just to make archaic game stores think they’re special and relevant in 2012. By all means Bethesda, have my money, but don’t play me for a fool.
27/07/2012 at 17:40 Blackcompany says:
Buying this game. On day 1. Of the first sale where its at least 50% off. I don’t pay $60 for linear games with marginal replay value no matter how good. And I certainly don’t pay $60 for anything else with a Bethesda logo on it. Yeah, know Arkane made it. But Bethesda obviously influenced it & that’s never going to improve anything.
27/07/2012 at 18:19 Unaco says:
“I don’t pay $60 for linear games with marginal replay value”
Yeah, because the Thief and Deus Ex immersive sim way of doing things is so linear and has no replay value.
27/07/2012 at 18:45 Pattom says:
I don’t think Bethesda has much to do with it other than marketing and generally getting the game out there. In most interviews I’ve seen, Raf Colantonio and Harvey Smith (the co-creative directors) are quick to point out that the reason they’re working with Bethesda is that Bethesda was the only publisher that wasn’t going to make them sell the Dishonored IP as part of the deal. They’ve got complete creative freedom, as far as I know, and Bethesda didn’t want to threaten any of the wild ideas they were coming up with.
27/07/2012 at 17:52 Shooop says:
I’m going with Thoric’s excellent advice on this one. It looks amazing to play, and they’re putting actual work into each platform’s version. PC has been confirmed to have a FOV slider that goes from 60 to 85.
But I really do hate when bonus items are rationed between different sellers. I want to play with each and every one of the powers/upgrades in this game you twats.
I’ll pick one and then download the others for free if I have to.
28/07/2012 at 12:35 Malk_Content says:
Thanks for finding out about FOV, that is something that always annoys me but I forget to look it up before buying. Sadly 85 is still too low for me in general and I’m going to have to wait to see if it is alterable outside of the game, with community fixes or a patch to expand it before I buy.
27/07/2012 at 18:06 Marik Bentusi says:
Well that changed my thought of “preorder it” to “wait for the reduced GOTY version or a 75% Steam bundle”. I’m patient. I don’t need to preorder this, we got a competitive market full of excellent games with better preorder services than these guys offer me.
27/07/2012 at 18:07 Marik Bentusi says:
Also not gonna pirate it because it won’t teach anyone a lesson beyond “oh our service is GREAT, people are just assholes and don’t wanna buy”
27/07/2012 at 18:09 Sparkasaurusmex says:
“WHO IS THIS HELPING?”
thepiratebay.se
27/07/2012 at 18:25 mr.ioes says:
Ridiculous DLC decisions = wait for GOTY on sale. Less money for developers, but at least I don’t feel ripped off and can enjoy it the way developers tested it themselves.
27/07/2012 at 18:26 paranoia says:
I will still be buying this as soon as it is on Steam or GOG. As long as the pre-order crap is not something removed from the finished game, it makes no difference to me; I have purchased exactly one PC game on a disk in the last 7 years (from amazon at that), and only because it is out of print and unavailable anywhere online. I have moved so many times — causing me to lose track of physical media– that games from a retail shop are simply not an option.
Dishonored has had me waiting eagerly ever since I heard about it, and I want to encourage the development of more games in the same vein, so they’ll have my money as soon as I can buy it as a download. However, I do agree that it is a pretty cheap trick on the part of Zenimax’s marketing/sales drones.
27/07/2012 at 18:32 Rictor says:
I agree with everyone that this is a bad idea. But let me just play devil’s advocate for a second.
What exactly is the difference between this and a Collector’s Edition, which have been around forever and are a completely accepted practice within gaming. They are giving you extra content, some of it virtual and some of it physical. What’s wrong with that? And unlike a collector’s edition, you get extra content without having to pay extra money.
If you assume that the base game that would have shipped as the “vanilla” version (if this marketing ploy had never existed) would exclude ALL the different perks, then this is merely additive. They are not cutting content, they are adding it. You are getting something extra, no matter where you buy it from, and you can even choose which extra content you get. And it doesn’t cost more.
If I buy the collector’s edition of Game X, I am certainly getting all the goodies (maps, art books, bobbleheads) that others did not get. But that’s OK, because I paid more and so am entitled to get more. Whereas here, everyone pays the same and you can merely pick which content you get.
How does that make them greedy fuckheads?
27/07/2012 at 19:16 HothMonster says:
Regular or collectors edition is a do or don’t option though. Buy it or don’t. Base game or game with extra content and physical goodies.
This is not a choice because unless I buy 4+ copies of the game I don’t get all the little goodies. Unless I spend 200$+ I buy the game and feel like I am missing out on something. Maybe it’s nothing important but I don’t really know that. All I know is I can buy one of many editions and not have access to the content in the other editions unless I wait and then spend more money. A
So this makes me not want to buy the game until 9-12 months from release when the gotye comes out and has all the games content in one package.
Buy game at full price and miss out on content unless I pay more money in a few months when it goes non-exclusive. Then play the game again so I can experience this content. Or wait 3/4 of a year and buy the game at half price with all the content and I can experience it on my first playthough.
It makes them greedy fuckheads because instead of making some extra money off your fans in exchange for extra goods (collectors edition) they are making extra money off the stores in exchange for denying their fans pieces of content. It benefits them, it benefits the stores and it is detrimental to the customers.
27/07/2012 at 19:18 JoeGuy says:
Because it is gameplay related content (not just vanity related) that is ready to ship with the game but they make it exclusive to each retailer and limits the consumers choice.
What if you like one store more but have to buy the version you think you’ll like from someone else? Also it is now impossible to have all the launch content without waiting months for a DLC pack, that’s not being a savvy or respected consumer quite frankly.
27/07/2012 at 18:36 SquareWheel says:
Nah, I’ll just wait until the game is $5 and the “GOTY” edition is out.
27/07/2012 at 18:45 kael13 says:
This is clear BS. I’ve been stung too many times through pre-orders. Often I don’t enjoy the game as much as I think. I’ll pick it up in a sale maybe. Or pirate it with all DLC and then buy the game.
27/07/2012 at 18:48 Brun says:
Still a Day 1 buy, I was planning on buying from Steam anyway. Personally, I rarely buy DLC even for games that I like, and of all of the problems facing modern gaming DLC is far from the most dangerous or most important.
27/07/2012 at 19:08 HothMonster says:
It’s been awhile since I was this excited for a game. Suddenly I care a lot less. This may have just jumped from a pre-order to a gotye purchase.
27/07/2012 at 19:19 Brun says:
a gotye purchase
I see what you did there.
27/07/2012 at 19:17 Paco420 says:
I’ve seen so many comments stating that the game will be amazing… of course the list of dev’s on the team creating it we would expect nothing less… Let us not forget Dead Island… It looked ever so promising just to annoy and irritate us in the end just as a recent small example…
I personally will wait to see how the game actually looks via youtube videos once released and see how much they polished the game for final release. By that time these special DLC capitalistic dealings will be over and a true personal opinion on if my money should be spent on a game being overwhelmingly publicized and packed with bells and whistles in hopes to get as much money to come in as fast as possible on first release.
These business models need to drop, contracting with bonus’s need to end, and the ignorance of people in general needs to be “vanquished”.
All special physical addons with preorders that are “claimed” by the dev’s are forced decelerations on the item in question made by the publishers. I have yet to meet a game dev that is interested in making something physical for their games aside from controls or maps, most other items are usually made up by publishers marketing teams.
27/07/2012 at 19:28 strifecross says:
What a misinformed and blown out of proportion article. Seriously I thought RPS were actually decent. I guess we all have our black sheep.
Anyway, the topic is bad because all of the pre-order bonuses for Dishonored are not forced. You can even pre-order a version without the bonuses (but why would you do that it makes too much sense). There is no basis for argument here on behalf of the lack of information on the writer’s part.
However, I do agree that there is an issue with these things and it has to stop. Focus on a game’s marketing that is actually bad. Blood Dragon Armor anyone?
27/07/2012 at 19:36 Eddy9000 says:
Could you point out the bit of the article that is misinformed? As far as I can see it lists straight facts, and I don’t even know where that bit about it being forced or not comes from.
27/07/2012 at 19:35 slerbal says:
I was really interested in this, but no more. I hate this kind of stuff. I just want to buy the damn game and not feel like I am being provided a sub-standard product intentionally hobbled to provide some benefits for the retailers. Steam exclusives were the start of this (and I am ashamed to say it, I have been involved in one of those), but this is stupid. I am guessing ideally Bethesda want you to buy all the copies and are hoping that collector-addicts will stump up the cash. I won’t.
On a more general level I feel this is going to hurt sales with anyone who is aware of the myriad of different boxes – people get decision fatigue and this is not exactly lief-or-death, so it is much easier to go “meh”.
27/07/2012 at 19:40 Branthog says:
I still don’t understand why everyone is jizzing themselves over this game. Putting aside the current generation graphics being tired and all (and no, I’m not going to buy this on PC, because it’s probably just going to be another shitty sub-optimized console-based port), it just looks like a lot of rehashing of the same old convenient game mechanics that we’ve seen a million times, but in a different setting. I mean, it looks okay, but of all the games we’ve seen at E3 and in the last few months — this is hardly that jaw-dropping in comparison.
Which leads me to give it even less consideration as a purchase (and I’m one that gladly purchases almost anything that even slightly piques my interest, at launch), after all of this DLC/pre-order bullshit. If anything, they’ve now relegated it to something I’ll purchase down the road, when it can be had for ten bucks. And, maybe, I’ll even get it used – just because fuck them.
27/07/2012 at 19:42 strifecross says:
Why not do your damn research you mindless git? Oh yeah I am sorry to who I was talking to. I prejudice moron who can’t tell quality from anything else to be quite honest. Play your meaningless sub-par titles and get off the internet with your two bit opinion.
27/07/2012 at 19:44 HaVoK308 says:
Welp, they just guaranteed I wont be buying the game on day one. Nope, I will wait for the inevitable “Complete Edition” at a discounted price. Publishers are conditioning consumers to feel like complete morons for buying a game on day one at $60. Beyond ass-backwards!
27/07/2012 at 19:54 Gnashy says:
The DLC trend in general is why I stopped buying games at release and wait for the inevitable GOTY or Complete editions to come out on Steam.
I have spent thousands of dollars over the years on console, hand-held and PC games. Remember sequels and expansions? That’s the proper place for the content that now shows up as DLC. If I am already paying $60 dollars for a game at release, I want the entire game. I don’t want to get nickle and dimed over the next few months buying DLC.
I’ve got over 300 games on my Steam account and another hundred-hundred and fifty on Amazon, GamersGate, the Bundle sites, Desura, etc. I can afford to wait for a GOTY sale for any game coming out. I’m not going to run out of games to play any time soon. It’s not a price issue with me, it’s a principle issue. I’ve bought plenty of games that get very little play time just because the price was right and I like having a large game collection. But I’m not going to shell out twice the price of the retail game to incrementally gain the DLC when I know I can get the entire set for a steeply discounted price, even if I have to wait 6-12 months.
You want me to buy your game when it launches? Then sell me your entire game AT LAUNCH…and give me any additional content for free. Otherwise, I’ll see you at the Steam sale.
27/07/2012 at 20:00 goatmonkey says:
Was looking forward to this more than anything else this year but there is no way I will support anyone that uses such a shitty practise, cosmetic items are one thing but powers in a game that looks to be defined by them. Steam sale or a GOTY edition will be the way I will be picking this up now.
27/07/2012 at 23:53 strifecross says:
Bonuses that can be turned off and you can pre-order and edition without them. You should stop blindly believe everything you read on the ineternet even if it’s RPS.
27/07/2012 at 20:14 Milky1985 says:
Yeah saw this earlier, game went from day 1 to wait for GOTY edition faster than i could drop a pin.
And i can drop a pin quite fast.
27/07/2012 at 20:18 Hyetal says:
I appreciate the fierce criticism, John, it’s why I come to this place.
And this is absolute bullshit.
27/07/2012 at 20:32 StingingVelvet says:
Meh. This kind of stuff always feels superfluous and even a bit cheaty, to the point I usually throw away the codes and don’t use them since Steam doesn’t give the option to disable it. I eventually got the Fallout New Vegas ones, but only because the JESawyer mod needed them.
27/07/2012 at 20:57 Frostbite says:
I never make day 1 purchases or make preorders, so meh. I’ll pick up the inevitable Ultimate/Complete boxed edition later in the future. The only thing which might make me consider a day 1 purchase is a big boxed limited or collector’s edition.
27/07/2012 at 21:03 D-e-f- says:
I don’t get the logic that makes people suddenly say “now I won’t buy this game / will pirate this game” because the pre-order bonus (which are always non-essential gimmicks) marketing is messed up.
All you end up doing is sending the message that you don’t want this kind of game because you didn’t buy it (assuming you were going to before the bonus stuff got announced). That is the message that gets received, not the one you’re intending to send (which is: this pre-order bonus song and dance is anti-consumer horse-poo).
If you don’t want to support this mess, then buy the game from somewhere that doesn’t take part in the pre-order bonus promotion!
27/07/2012 at 21:47 FunktionJCB says:
Sure, just give them the money anyway. That will surely send them the message! Nice logic. ;)
Why not support something else, by someone that may actually appreciate the fact you are spending your hard-earned money on their products?
It’s sad really: so many worthwhile Indie titles that many won’t even take a look at, because there’s no way they can spend $5 or even less on a smaller title (got to wait for a bundle, or a Steam sale to save a few precious cents), but then drop £30 or more to purchase titles whose publishers engage in anti-consumer practices such as these, with absolutely no respect for the customer. And maybe later drop £12 or so to buy a couple of recycled multiplayer maps for Call of Duty.
One thing I always learn from threads like this one: no matter what a publisher does, most people may get upset, but they end up getting the games anyway. Many in this thread have already said they will anyway.
Surely that is the proper message to send to publishers. That’s probably why we went from having a single pre-order “bonus” for a title to having 4-6 different pieces of content for a given release.
Remember when you could just purchase a game, and have everything it had to offer?
Nowadays, we need charts to tell us what release for what store will have what content.
27/07/2012 at 23:55 strifecross says:
So giving them less money than they deserve (the developers I mean not Bethesda) is doing it right and sending the right message? Wow, you’re logic is immensely brilliant.
28/07/2012 at 03:19 FunktionJCB says:
May I remind you that Arkane Studios is part of ZeniMax Media (Bethesda’s parent company), so in this case publisher and developer are pretty much part of the same “cake”.
As for paying less to the Developer’s than what they deserve, I really have to ask: they deserve it exactly for what? Without questioning the game’s quality (and on that topic, you are so quick to blindly defend the title’s quality all over this thread, to the point of insulting a previous poster because he was far from impressed by it, so you probably have better insight than most of us about the quality of the title since you obviously had the chance of properly playing the game, and fully explore what it has to offer), what exactly have they done for me/us that made them deserving of blind retribution, so that I have to pay them for something no matter the circumstances?
Certainly, as a consumer, whenever I purchase something I foremost look at the goods/services provided and what they bring to me, and if I’m not satisfied by them and have plenty of other options, should I just support the supplier anyway, because of the people who work there? Every organization is made of people, and I’m sure even the worse company in the world has a bunch of lovely people working there.
In short, they deserve retribution if they provide something that I, as a customer find worthwhile. If they plan to enter a transaction with me, and beforehand are making so many conditionalisms to that same transaction, they are asking for me to take my business elsewhere.
And this is transaction where we aren’t on the same terms: ultimately they should need us more than we need them, since they need our purchases to continue to operate, but do we actually need their products, which ultimately are non-essential goods, and can be replaced by so many things: other videogames, films (BDs, DVDs, …), music CDs, books, and millions of other things?
Reading comments like yours, I have to wonder if I’m wrong, and it’s the other way around. Maybe we are the ones that need videogames to survive, and publisher’s like Bethesda don’t need to please their customers, since they act with such disregard and think they can dictate pretty much the terms they want, and people will just blindly take them whatever they are. On second thought, maybe you’re right, and I am wrong.
28/07/2012 at 14:29 strifecross says:
I apologize for reacting in such an aggressive manner but I am really fed up with and ‘entitled’ games up to this point and this whole mentality of “oh I will just wait for the price tag to drop and for more stuff”. Why should the developer be punished just because BethesdaSoftworks makes one of the biggest mistakes in marketing this game? Yes I know they are both part of Zenimax but that doesn’t alter the issue. In the end of the day gamers show support by buying games, pre-ordering them or buying the game at launch. Why should we encourages new IPs with bold ideas and decent execution?
I just want you to know (since you are more open minded than most of the people in these comments) that I have played 2 missions of the game and have been keeping constant contact with Harvey Smith (sometimes with Raphael Colantonio as well) and I always try to learn as much as I can about the game and I am under strict NDA. I will tell you what is solid about the game thus far: The combat and the feel of the game (movement, assassinations and so on) are really meaty and polished. The movement is smooth just like the sword fights and silent assassinations. It’s a good stealth game with a lot of work put into it. Level design is amazing and levels vary from giant to medium sized ones(like the introduction level in Thief 2). Also Life of the Party from Thief 2 that is considered to be the best achievement in level design has it’s role in Dishonored as well. That is amazing and I loved the work that Viktor Antonov, Sebastien Mitton and the level designers put into this. The sowrdfights themselves need a little work still and that’s because the animations at times are not accurate. But overall the fighting has weight behind it and it’s really enjoyable. Fast yet simple and visually pleasing.
I have always expected the worst from games and always adjusted my expectataions. That’s why I didn’t have a problem with Deus Ex:HR’s somewhat minor issues that didn’t hinder the game’s overall quality. I can keep on and on but what I am saying is that DIshonored is the game that has excited me the most and so far is the most promising title in recent years.
With that said I still say that people need to do a little more research before they start shouting “BOYCOTT!!!” without actually knowing what’s going on. First of all, you can pre-order without the bonuses. Secondly, these bonuses are not exclusive and nor are they integraded into the game. They are optional so they can be turned off at any given time. That is it. And even if that’s the case a lot of people will talk about the game when it comes out so you can grab it then. I just outright hate when people are being blinded so easily by the general public’s opinions (especially news sources). Once again I apologize for my rude behavior, it was out of place and I should act so harshly especially on a topic that is so personal to me.
29/07/2012 at 01:41 DK says:
I’ll let you in on a secret: The developers don’t get more money if it sells well. They already got their money when they were developing it – after it’s released anything it makes goes into one pocket. The Publishers Pocket.
28/07/2012 at 10:42 Azradesh says:
You could just ignore the bonuses, or just buy it on day 1 rather then pre-order. I honestly don’t see the big deal, I know it’s a game I will like so I shall buy it and have fun.
27/07/2012 at 22:09 Gittun says:
Not to be a dick, but the preorder bonus packs have been known for like a month (the ones available in the US, ok, but it was to be expected they would do the same in the rest of the world.) Why are you only raging about this now?
Doesn’t mean it doesn’t annoy me as well, I did some research on these, liked the shadow rat pack the most. Turns out the only retailer in the Netherlands that has that particular pack has the game up for 50 euro. Fuck that, I’ll just get it at the cheapest shop I can find…
Really think publishers/stores are shooting themselves in the foot with this stuff. If there were 1, maybe 2 different choices and they were only available at certain retailers, I MIGHT have spent a bit more to get it at one of those stores. Now, I just get the cheapest, and judging from the rest of the comments, so are a lot of others.
27/07/2012 at 22:34 Emeraude says:
People are going to say I have an ax to grind (and I do) but thinking back on it, it saddens me to see that this can stir a reaction, while the use of online activation DRM for the retail game has become so prevailing that no one even comment negatively on it anymore.
27/07/2012 at 22:34 PoulWrist says:
I hope I can buy it without any of this stuff, because it’s probably something that was thought up later, not really playtested and like so much of DLC and preorder bonuses, it just ends up being unbalanced and ruins the game. I don’t want it, and if I can’t avoid it, give me an option to turn it off and play the game like it was meant to be played.
27/07/2012 at 23:59 strifecross says:
You can pre-order the game without the bonuses and even if you get the bonuses they are OPTIONAL. Something this article failed to mention and blew out of proportion. People seriously need to do their research. This article portrays everything that is wrong with journalism, not just in gaming. Misinforming the public and leading their opinion the way they want. Good job there!
27/07/2012 at 22:39 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Yeah, this is a really good way to put off people who are interested yet not determined to get the game regardless. I am not that interested (mostly because my computer won’t be able to run it), so maybe I’m mistaken.
27/07/2012 at 23:29 Fallward says:
Part of me wonders if a free to play game with this amount of hype would be a better option if creative micro-transactions were implemented.
28/07/2012 at 00:02 Armante says:
I have a huge backlog of games to play on my Steam account, so I won’t get it at release anyway.
But this sort of behaviour simply reinforces my habit now of buy games when they’re a little older, on sale at a reasonable price, AND INCLUDING ALL THE DLC AND POWER-UPS/EXTRA-SLOTS/BOOKS/WHATEVER.
That is all
28/07/2012 at 00:03 mandrill says:
The best response to this sort of thing is simply not to pre-order, or not to buy ot from any of the retailers involved. Its not going to stop it happening, but it will mean that you’ll be playing the game that the talented and creative people designed, without the extraneous frippery that the suits wanted added.
Down with this sort of thing.
28/07/2012 at 00:58 Totally heterosexual says:
Well I dont preorder stuff anymore anyway.
but still
fuck this gay earth
28/07/2012 at 02:29 eclipse mattaru says:
Well, I guess I’ll be joining this “From Day-1 Purchase To I’ll See You At A Steam Sale” line here, then. Nice move, Bethesda, you just save me some monies.
Speaking of which, $59.99? Are you seriously trying to sell a PC game at console prices? You’ll have to excuse my poor French, but fuck you right in the fucking ass.
28/07/2012 at 03:10 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Oh bloody hell.
28/07/2012 at 04:08 H8Cr1me says:
Wow…they’re just begging for this to be pirated so we get all of the game content without having to deal with any of this shit
28/07/2012 at 09:55 Kadayi says:
Just begging to be pirated over some retailer specific extras? Really?
28/07/2012 at 14:39 strifecross says:
You’ll have to excuse me but you’re a prick. This is no reason to pirate the game especially if you can get it on day one without anything that hinders the gaming experience. So NO this is no a reason to pirate it, even though I am quite sure you want to find one.
29/07/2012 at 01:51 andytt66 says:
But you have to admit that the only way to get the “complete” game is to pirate it, yes? Especially for those of us not blessed with a Best Buy in our country.
Hm. I’d originally typed “I’m going to buy the game, but pirate the full version w/ all dlc”. But actually? Reckon I’ll simply ignore this. Maybe get it in a sale in a year, maybe not. Life is too short, and too full of other cool stuff to do. I’ve lost that “new game anticipation” feeling thanks to this news, so the hell with it.
29/07/2012 at 23:10 strifecross says:
No! You already have the full game, those bonuses are NOT EXCLUSIVE!
28/07/2012 at 05:29 hosndosn says:
Hi.
Any Dishonored PR person reading this? That game… it was a sure-as-fuck preorder/day-one purchase for me. Just dropped to “pick up on some sale”. Because I’m not your fucking idiot buyer. Have a nice day and rot in hell.
28/07/2012 at 06:05 Meldreth says:
What should we do with a drunken saler ?
28/07/2012 at 08:14 jhng says:
This is insane.
I can accept having some cosmetic bells and whistles in special editions — a book or soundtrack or even in game stuff like a different outfit or special statues.
However, it is totally deranged and unacceptable to actually fuck with the mechanics of the game. It’s really hard to design engaging well-balanced and varied gameplay. With these tweaks what they are saying is either — each of these versions is complete and well-balanced, in which case (a) these game designers are superhuman and (b) we’re now talking about effectively four different different games — or they are saying — we’ve cannibalized our complete game in the name of retail support and now have four (five including vanilla) slight fucked and imbalanced games.
The games journalism community could help us here — I think as many publications and sites as possible should all refuse to review the game until a GOTY or other version is available for sale that is at minimum mechanically complete. The justification is simply that you can’t in good conscience assess the balance and gameplay design until you can play the whole lot together. I know that it is important maintain a reasonably functional working relationship with publishers; however, if there is appetite to make a stand on this, then the Dishonoured story would be a good place to start — particularly because the game seems so good and has such goodwill already.
In other news, I understand that the next Ice and Fire novel will have special retail editions each featuring an additional story arc for a specific major character — including in at least one case a different outcome on whether that character survives the book. Where will this madness end…
28/07/2012 at 10:12 Kadayi says:
I’m not against pre-order bonuses, but there needs to be a clear delineation between the game and the extras (The tarot card set sounds quite interesting tbh).
However all this ‘I’m gonna pirate the shit out of this now’ talk is lame and people need to quit it already.
28/07/2012 at 10:39 Azradesh says:
I really don’t give a damn, I’m just going to buy the cheapest version of this game and enjoy the hell out of it.
28/07/2012 at 13:00 maxriderules says:
I personally don’t see what’s wrong with this. They added some extra free content to the game, and now everyone is bitching about it because they want all the free content. If you were going to buy the game before, why refuse to now? it just means Bethesda will notice the lack of sales and avoid such risky projects in the future- the range of reasons for refusing to buy this game are massive, and the message you send will probably be interpreted as a request for more sequels, not that the free stuff they added into the game meant they sold less. I’m going to buy the game from wherever’s most convenient, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it. Any free extras will just be gravy.
28/07/2012 at 13:14 cptgone says:
the problem is that,
- many customers are getting tired of buying the same game over and over again, as new content is added
- some customers want to have all the little extra’s right now
- people are getting tired of comparing a bazillion editions before buying, many will be encouraged to wait till the dust settles
- ultimately, it’s the customers who pay the cost of adding little extra’s that are not designed to enhance gameplay, but to make distribution channels bid for a better chance of getting sales
in the end it’s al marketing trickery, only benefiting the publishers (and prolly only in the short run).
28/07/2012 at 18:11 Kadayi says:
“- many customers are getting tired of buying the same game over and over again, as new content is added”
What? Where to begin.
28/07/2012 at 13:26 Stormkiller72 says:
I don’t care about this at all. I will still be buying the game from my usual consumer outlet no matter what. I just wont activate the DLC. If they release a ‘just the game and no DLC’ version, that’s the one I’ll grab.
29/07/2012 at 01:15 strifecross says:
Here’s the thing. If you don’t buy this it won’t prove to Bethesda that pre-order bonuses suck because the numbers show that these bonuses DO get people to preorder. It’ll prove to them that developing new ip’s like Dishonored is a bad idea and they’ll stop doing that.
Also people need to stop shouting off the rooftops about this. These bonuses are minor passive boosts, that are not exclusive (read within the game already) and are completely optional (you’re able to turn them on and off within the game). Apart from the different retailers there is nothing wrong with these pre-order bonuses. Why do this article about Dishonored and not a game with truly shameful marketing like the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 3?
29/07/2012 at 13:37 Regdar says:
Preorder at the bay to get all the preorder bonuses and promotional items all at once at no extra cost.
29/07/2012 at 23:11 strifecross says:
You people are idiots…there is no saving you.
30/07/2012 at 06:23 owenj says:
I don’t know when I started noticing it, but the level of discourse on this site seems to have dropped precipitously.
Some of you are acting like this sort of trifling marketing gimmick is causing you physical pain. The considerable leaps in logic you make to justify pirating this game are reprehensible. It makes me sad that kids, because I really hope that you’re not adults, can pretend to boycott something while just getting it for free from Pirate Bay.
For shame.
01/08/2012 at 04:36 rasputin17 says:
This is all that you have to do, this all anyone’s ever had to do!
Release the game, with no content missing or any crap like preorder bonuses or prepaid dlc plans, to retailers. Create an enhanced edition or a bonus or collectors edition or whatever, throw in some extra goodies like the tarot cards, an art book, a soundtrack or whatever and wrap it up in some nice packaging. Sell it for more.
That’s it. That’s what’s been done for around half a decade now, and from my experience, it’s worked pretty fucking well.
02/08/2012 at 07:05 Victuz says:
There are three things that seriously piss me off about that kind of “purchase HERE” deals.
One most of the time the tat they give you makes the game easier and sometimes completely breaks it, remember all the times “special super duper edition” of a game gave you some really overpowered equipment or a ludicrous amount of in-game currency at the very start breaking your progress completely? And most of the time you can’t TURN THE DAMN THING OFF.
Two it’s helping no one but the shops.
Three people like me (living in a country other than US or UK apparently) don’t get anything from those “sweet deals” at game, amazon or tesco. So more often than not when I read about them I feel like the producers/distributors simply fucked me over on content.
Whatever happened to just adding a soundtrack and/or a guide to a game?
02/08/2012 at 08:57 MadMinstrel says:
An extra adventure in AC3 is somewhat acceptable (by comparison) because at least it doesn’t upset the game balance. These here are game-changing things, each of which changes how the game plays. It’s difficult enough to fine-tune one game, but four? What this tells me is that the developers don’t give a crap about balancing. I might pick this one up in a sale sometime for 5 euro.
03/08/2012 at 07:23 DavidIsDead says:
Aren’t all these things stuff you’ll have a chance at finding in game anyway? Isn’t this just a way of making sure that you’ll obtain certain powers within a certain playthrough?
13/08/2012 at 14:12 Nalum says:
Had planed on getting this on Steam right from the start… never really cared about all this extra bonus crap publishers/developers sling into pre-orders but at the same time I can see why it is annoying for those who do. It’ll all be available in the [insert edition name here] later in the year I guess.
24/09/2012 at 20:39 Ayura says:
.