Getting The Game You Wanted
by Samuel
Yeah hi, I've come to collect the milk money.
That is the question a lot of gamers might have to start asking themselves; can they get the game they desire in the form that they desire. More and more frequently it is the practise of publishers to bring out two, three, or even four different editions of the same title, on the same platform. Each with varying degrees of attraction in the form of in-game bonuses and additional content, soundtracks, figurines, and other merchandising titbits, and each only available exclusively from particular retail outlets (or download services in the case of some PC games).
A good case in point is Mass Effect 2. Definitely one of the hottest titles of the year, and it comes in three different editions for the Xbox 360, and four on PC. There is a collector’s edition, which comes with the first edition of the four-part mini-series of comics, and exclusive content. There are two basic editions, each with different additional content depending on where you buy the game from. And then the PC also has a so-called Digital Deluxe edition, complete with everything from all the other editions put together with the exception of the comic book, and the added extra of the original game soundtrack. Not to mention you have to own an entirely different title from new, Dragon Age: Origins, to get further exclusive content.
What this means is that if you want to have the definitive version of the game at release, you have to have it on PC, and you’re not allowed to be able to hold it in your hands. This is very irritating, if, like me, you wanted to play it on the 360. Primarily because I played the first Mass Effect when it was still only playable on the 360, and I’ve grown very attached to my Shepard and want to port him over. Actually, Mass Effect alongside Ace Combat 6 was my sole justifications at the time for buying an Xbox 360 at all. So it does feel like I’ve been somewhat short-changed by this deal with the publishing of the intended-from-the-beginning sequel.
Even for those box set fanatics who have no interest in the game, the Mass Effect 2 set truly is beautifully presented and worth getting hold of. It's black, ffs.
In the end I wound up getting the collector’s edition for the 360, refusing to back down on my choice of platform, and reasoning that I might be able to pick up the rest of the exclusive content on eBay, when other gamers who don’t particularly care about additional armours and weapons etc decide to cash in on their DLC codes from those of us who do. Because I was such a massive fan of the original Mass Effect, I preordered it 5 months in advance, despite struggling to justify the price. A part of me was saying “the collector’s editions are always much cheaper a year or so after release; didn’t you see a collector’s edition of the original Mass Effect just the other day for twelve quid, brand new?” My desire to play Mass Effect 2 as soon as possible overrode this part of my brain, and I’m rather pleased that it did. Because the Xbox 360 collector’s edition sold out in preorder, only being available in the UK from GAME, and in tightly limited numbers. And they’re supposedly not printing any more runs of that edition. As a result, I saw sealed new copies of the collector’s edition on eBay whilst looking for the other exclusive add-ons, which had bids on them going as high as £160 and £180. Not Buy It Now prices – active bidding on auctions. Which is totally ridiculous. But it’s now the only way for future buyers to get the content exclusive to that collector’s edition on the 360. Future buyers… at time of writing, Mass Effect 2 isn’t actually officially released in the UK until tomorrow. I only have it now because GAME give a day’s margin in the customer’s favour to ensure release day gaming. That’s terrible – the game isn’t even out yet, and it’s already impossible for some gamers to enjoy certain features.
Dragon Age: Origins. Yet another collector's edition with exclusive game content, but this time it comes in a wooden box with a cloth map. Doubles as a dish towel.
Gaming is my big hobby. I also love literature, music, comedy, film, flying, rugby union and good food. But out of all my hobbies, gaming is the one I spend the most time doing, and the most money on in order to do. I have a lot of the former, but not much of the latter. Gaming was already expensive. And I’m too easily tempted by a plastic figurine or an exclusive level or character. I cannot afford it though, when the only way to play the game I want in the way I want is to either commit to it a long time in advance, gambling on my future economic fluidity, or to wind up having to gamble on waiting and then possibly being left no recourse other than to be ripped off by the hawkers on eBay. Or to have missed my opportunity to play that game I wanted to play.
The increasing tendency towards exclusive variant editions growing beyond the old “basic edition” and “special edition”, with ever inflating prices for the special and collector’s editions, and the ever increasing risk of not getting the game at all without preordering it some way in advance, is making it harder to play games. I freely admit to thinking that I’m somehow missing out on the full experience unless I get the special edition and all the exclusive add-ons. You wouldn’t know it from my complete disregard for achievements or gamerscore/trophies, but I am a completionist and an obsessive. Or more accurately, I’m a collector. I don’t pay full price for a standard edition of any game. I wait for them to come down in price. I only ever pay full price, on the day of release, for a special or a collector’s edition. I am the person that collector’s editions of games were invented to exploit. Knowing there is a special edition and being forced to play a basic version detracts from the amount of pleasure I get from playing a game. You might think that somewhat pathetic. But I’m not alone in this, there are many more like me.
What I suppose I’m driving at is; I’m worried. Worried that preordering, day one DLC and multiple editions that make buying a Windows operating system look straight-forward will make me feel more jaded towards my biggest pleasure in life. And eventually, that this intentional neutering in some way of each of the different editions being offered by developers and publishers of their titles will mean that I can no longer enjoy my games in the knowledge that I was able to play the game I wanted to play, in the best and most complete possible way. And as long as this situation means that games will command higher asking prices, the less likely publishers are to care about those of us who miss out, despite a lifetime’s loyalty and support, emotionally and monetarily.
Last five articles by Samuel
- Wargame: European Escalation - Preview
- Sony Conference - GamesCom 2011
- Gotham City Impostors Hands-On Preview
- WipEout 2048 - Hands-On Preview
- City to City - Travelling to Cologne via London with Gerry Rafferty
At least Steam always has loads of keys for the DDE of games. Woot.
So that’s why I couldn’t find the collector’s edition anywhere, a week before release!
I’m a sucker for a collector’s edition, but if I can’t find/afford one, i’m not too fussed. I actually just prefer the steelbook case over all the bonus DLC/figurines/art books etc as well :/
The steelbook case is probably my least favourite aspect of the Mass Effect 2 collector’s edition, on account of it being virtually impossible to get the disks out without using some degree of brute force. A couple of times the disk has started to bend in a way I’m not happy about, forcing me to stop and rethink it.
I did eventually manage to get the other two exclusive download codes from the two basic editions, but they were a lot rarer on eBay than I had anticipated, and I spent a further twenty-one quid getting them on top of the fifty the collector’s edition cost. Had it been almost any other game than Mass Effect 2 I wouldn’t have bothered.
It doesn’t have to be this way either; I recently got the collector’s edition box of Anno 1404, which has a real wooden and leather chest, a wooden and brass compass, a cloth bag of almond seeds, a poster, a bonus DVD and the soundtrack, and the full game in it, for just £30 from Amazon. That’s incredible. The best boxset presentation I’ve ever seen, and it costs less than most basic editions of games do, without having to hunt around for additional content on eBay because it was made exclusive to other sets. That makes me so mad, because if Ubisoft could do that for Anno, the only possible explanation for the treatment of Mass Effect 2 is that EA was being greedy.
I tend to make my collector edition decisions based on aesthetics alone. I’d rather avoid additional content if it means my shelf ends up looking crap because the set containing the extras was shoddy workmanship or badly designed. When I think about all of my DVD sets, my favourites are my Omen trilogy set which is a wooden gatefold box which has been faux-leather lined and my Clerks 2 set with the Mooby hat and cup that all come in a happy meal box. My Jurassic Park set is also stunning but it’s starting to tarnish a little from being moved from one home to another in recent years.
When I think of my gaming box sets, I really don’t have any that are noteworthy. My Two Worlds PC set is certainly BIG, has a lot of cool bits and bobs within it but just not fantastic in terms of aesthetics.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is I’ll buy ANY set as long as it looks good, feels good and has some “shelf status” going on. The content is secondary to me. It IS annoying that the companies will split valid content over various sets though but, as a businessman, I fully understand their motivation. It’s why our ecommerce software comes with over 100 separate addons. Bread and butter.
I think I can safely say I’ve never ever bought a gaming box set or collectors edition
Not sure why as I love looking at them when I visit the Uzr household! I guess gaming isn’t so important to me 
Please don’t lynch me!! 
A lot of that stems from years of missing out due to financial troublesand never really getting into the habit!! Nowadays, the financial troubles are less it’s true but I seem to have less and less disposable income to indulge 
Nice to see a fellow Rugby fan!!
6 Nations starts this weekend!! 
It certainly does, and I have a feeling that Ireland are going to win it again. I’ve picked the winner in advance every year for the last three years without fail, and I just have that feeling again this year. It’s no one thing, and maybe this year I’ll finally get it wrong and the rest was down to pure fluke luck, but I’m sure of it. I’d place a bet on it at the bookies, but I’m too superstitious sometimes, and have convinced myself I’ll get it wrong the year I actually bet on it.
I can very much identify with this article. I am a very passionate collector of gaming boxsets and collector’s editions. I despise the research that I now have to undertake in order to ensure that I am getting the best edition available. Nothing worse than discovering a few months later that there was a better version that could easily have been imported.
Even the simple things can make a difference…take the Arkham Asylum box set…in the US they got a smart looking batarang box and a leather look journal…the UK version, for those that paid close attention to the near identical screenshots, did not. No smart ‘Wayne Industries’ batarang box and the leather journal…wasn’t. Lack of finances scuppered my plans for a US import, but that is the path that I would certainly have chosen.
I am highly scathing when it comes to shoddy and lazy special editions…the most hated of these being the bog standard ‘steelbook’. Next is the rinse and repeat formula of crappy plastic statue in flimsy box and card slip case of either soundtrack or a few wallpapers. Some effort PLEASE!
Preacher, one of my favourite box sets was the one you just mentioned which I purchased only last month…the leather chest for Anno 1404! Someone else actually has it!
I was absolutely floored when I saw it…the effort, design and content are all fantastic and put so many other larger releases to absolute shame. As soon as I work up some energy, I will be doing a mini feature for it on my site for my Magpie section which deals with all such goodies. It is among the best of my collection and will undoubtedly feature in an upcoming blog on collector’s eds etc.
Unlock stuff, maps, and exclusive content has never interested me very much, so those things don’t bother me if they are missing, though I can imagine how infuriating it must be. It is smart business though and they know they have us Magpies by the…whatever Mapies have. Fantastic first article.
Thank you. It’s nice to know someone else appreciated that awesome Anno boxset as well. I’ve been a fan of that series since it started too, so when I saw that chest and what was in it, I had to have it.
I have to admit to being infuriated when the UK gets shafted over collector’s editions compared to the US or wherever as well. The Arkham set is a good example, but a truly prime example is the Dragon Age: Origins set pictured above; I was absolutely gutted having seen that image as the sole marketing shot for the edition, and my pre-order then arrived in a bog standard DVD case with a cardboard slipcover, no cloth map, no t-shirt.
Funnily enough I quite liked the Assassin’s Creed II Black Edition though, with the plastic figurine and the cardboard sheaved soundtrack CD. What did piss me off about that was that the soundtrack was on a DVD and not a CD. Who the fuck listens to music on DVD? I have a hi-fi set-up as well as a home cinema, and the two are meant to be used for different things. The logic behind that decision utterly eludes me.