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Selling exclusive pre-order bonuses post-release?

A

arne

Member
We recently had an academic debate here at the studio about selling in-game items that were previously listed as "exclusive pre-order bonuses"

So, I thought to myself, "self, why not as the GAF pundits about it?":lol

For Uncharted 2 we had Unlock Revenge booster early, 2x cash for the first 10 levels and Golden Guns. Other games have had pre-order only skins (ex. God of War III, RDR) or armor (Halo ODST/Reach), golden guns (Gears 2), maps (Batman AA and Assassin's 2) and so on.

Putting aside whether you actually like pre-order bonuses or not -- I know y'all love the $10+ Amazon.com cards -- how do you feel about something you got as an exclusive bonus for pre-ordering or purchasing Day 1 going on sale via XBLM or PSN Store later on?

Note: This isn't about the PDLC debate or revenue streams, but more of a ethical thing -- do you value this exclusivity you thought you had? Do you feel cheated if anybody can look special if they choose to pay up?
 
I was actually thinking about this today when looking at Fable 3 limited edition. I know others have strong feelings on this subject nickel and dime etc but i would happily pay for some of this stuff.
 
Dabanton said:
I was actually thinking abou this today when looking at Fable 3 limited edition. I know others have strong feelings on this subject nickel and dime etc but i would happily pay for some of this stuff
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I'll update my OP, but let's assume this isn't about nickel and diming or the whole DLC trend, only about "but you said it was exclusive!"
 
I don't see the problem. If the content is available for purchase at a later date no big deal. I already received said content for free with a pre order. One of the worst things in gaming right now is all stores having their own pre order bonuses. I may want two bonus items but I will not buy the game two times. If I can buy the content post release for cheap I'd rather do that.

Of course I think all content should be included on a pre order regardless of where you get the game from. :P

Ultimately I say put the content out for sale. Maybe take the world "exclusive" out. Just say this is the content you get for pre ordering.
 
Don't mind it at all, especially since some non-US regions oftentimes get screwed out of the pre-order bonuses. Or another likely scenario is that we do have access to them but it's really not communicated well (or at all) at which store(s) you can get them. It's a good incentive to reward first day buying fans, but in cases like the ones I just described it can just as well piss off those very same people by often inadvertently denying access to some of these items.
 
I don't like the idea of pre-order-only content anyway - it's really limiting. For example, I'm probably going to get Vanquish pretty soon, before it drops in price or anything, and I'm hoping the pre-order bonus weapons get released as DLC so it's possible to get them.
 
Personally I'd prefer it. If I find a game I really like later on, I might be inclined to get add-ons and such. Seeing there was once content that I can't get anymore just sours my entire taste for a game, as shallow and short sighted as that may seem.
 
Mass Effect 2 did it, but made sure to do it in the cheapest, most money grabbing way possible; bundling it with new stuff.

Missed out on the Incisor Rifle that was exclusive to the Digital Deluxe version? Buy the Aegis Armor pack and it's included. Already own the Incisor Rifle but want the Aegis pack? Bad luck, you pay the same price as everyone else.
 
Depends - if it was something universally available (like Sarge in ODST), I'm okay with it not being sold.

If there were multiple retailer-exclusive items, I like them to be sold (preferably in a bundle) later.

It's reasonable to give all buyers an "exclusive" and keep it exclusive, but no person should have to to buy six copies of the game just to get all the little bonuses. Let them get the "full" experience down the line for a couple of bucks, I say.
 
If it's relatively late (2-3 months later, or more) I see no problem. And relatively cheap too. I mean, is a preorder incentive. A little extra for getting the game extra. So having it too close to release might make people wonder "why preorder in the first case".

At the same time, it is free for preordering the game so price would be an argument.
As a nice package and for cheap would be cool. Also depending on the content. Unlock keys should be no more than $1. Unlike with (I think) Assassin's Creed II were the preorder extras went for sale for $7 and were basically 1 unlock key, for 3 things.

But, considering that many of this bonuses end on eBay and being sold for over dozens of dollars, seems people have no problem paying for them.

AniHawk said:
Well personally, I prefer physical stuff as a preorder bonus for that reason. Although I realize that's a problem when you're trying to come out with a collector's edition for something as well.
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Which seems to be another problem lately. How this special editions are now relying on DLC and unlock keys, and a few if none tangible extras.
 
arne said:
only about "but you said it was exclusive!"
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Well personally, I prefer physical stuff as a preorder bonus for that reason. Although I realize that's a problem when you're trying to come out with a collector's edition for something as well.

In the few games I've preordered that come with some extra in-game stuff (most recently, A Crack in Time's Insomniac moon stuff), I don't really care. I think it becomes a problem when it's about getting a leg up on the competition.
 
I don't like the idea of preorder bonuses to begin with, but I guess that's slightly off the topic.

I think that they should become available post-release, for an appropriate price of course. It's something that's becoming increasingly prevalent lately, just look at Fable III - it has like 7 or 8 different retailer exclusives. Most of it is superficial shit, but as a whole, that's a decent chunk of content. If I like the game enough, and I decide that I am interested in buying the content, I see no reason why it should be unavailable based on some petty retail preorder exclusive nonsense.
 
I wish they'd always sell it seperately later. I usually do preorder games I want to get for any exclusive DLC, but I only buy the game from one store. Wouldn't mind the option to buy the bonuses I didn't get, when they spread them out across different stores.
 
give it a few months then stick it on the PSN store. Dont have a problem with that one bit. Rewarding the early buyers and giving an option for the later buyers.
 
I don't mind it at all, in fact I prefer it if the game had pre-order DLC. Not everybody pre-orders and I welcome the option of pre-order dlc being available for purchase a couple of months after launch.

While on the topic of preorder DLC please avoid the silly 5+ trinkets each available exclusively at different retail chains. I didn't like it when you did it for U2 and I wont like it if you do it for U3 ; )

Also don't follow in BioWare's footsteps by making pre-order DLC only free for pre-orders made during a certain period before launch.
 
It makes me realise how cheap companies are being and makes me pine for the days of artbooks and soundtracks.
 
As others mentioned, I look at it as an early purchase bonus. I do dislike having exclusive items per retail chain as I may want more than one item but if you were to put it up for a small price 2-3 months later, I wouldn't have an issue an may just snatch it up.
 
jstevenson said:
Exactly.

hi arne.
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AWWWWWWWWWWWW :D It's the Sony Family Love(tm)! :D

I'm all for it. As AniHawk said, I'm more into physical stuff (artbooks, making of blurays, etc) but if what you're asking is a way to end the each-retailer-gets-a-different-preorder-bonus issue, then I'm game (same goes for platform-specific content).
 
Lard said:
It makes me realise how cheap companies are being and makes me pine for the days of artbooks and soundtracks.
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It's not necessarily about being cheap -- but it is a cost and minimizing risk thing. Swallowing the "additional" development cost for in-game items just falls into the existing salaries and other costs of doing business, but physical items are an incremental cost that eats into revenues. Not so much a problem if you sell 10 million copies, but not an awesome thing if you're not selling that many copies. Especially if you end up with leftover stock -- that's a capital cost you'll have to eat x2.
 
I support it because there are different bonuses for pre-ordering from different places and you can't get everything.
 
I wouldn't see a problem with it. Let others have the option of getting it if they didn't have the chance to pre-order a game. Of course, I'd keep the pre-order exclusive for a month of two before having it available to purchase.
 
Fuzzy said:
I support it because there are different bonuses for pre-ordering from different places and you can't get everything.
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Yea this is the worst thing. If your going to give out a pre-order bonus incentive to each store atleast let us get it somehow down the line.


Im fine with pre-order stuff going pay after awhile, Keep it timed for alittle while if its MP related. If its SP related dont make it timed at all.
 
I think that would be fine and fair even. If people that pre-order are getting it for free then it is still incentive for them to pre-order. I'll be completely honest, I pretty much never redeem pre-order bonuses because I usually don't care about them since they generally either make the game slightly easier or just affect aesthetics. I didn't redeem my Uncharted 2 bonus and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game one way or another.
 
Shouldn't even be a problem. If people are willing to buy it at said price, whatever. It's not like they're being force to. It's their money, they can spend it however they want.
 
Scythesurge said:
I think that would be fine and fair even. If people that pre-order are getting it for free then it is still incentive for them to pre-order. I'll be completely honest, I pretty much never redeem pre-order bonuses because I usually don't care about them since they generally either make the game slightly easier or just affect aesthetics. I didn't redeem my Uncharted 2 bonus and it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game one way or another.
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Yeah, if it's something that affects the game significantly, like the MAG armor apparently was (I didn't know), then it only makes sense to either have it an in-game unlock or something that is provided for free early since I personally believe screwing with game balance permanently without a way to let other people into it at some point isn't a great idea.



levious said:
The infamous pre order bonus got released for free later on :(
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James didn't work on Infamous -- think Resistance and Ratchet and Clank.
 
If you plan on doing it, then having it also become available for a reasonable price on PSN/XBLA at a later date is perfectly fine by me. I tend to think of it as "hey, I got this for getting the game day 1", so I don't see any reason for it to remain retailer exclusive for eternity. Bring it on over to the digital stores, but don't price it beyond the point of sanity. :D
 
I can definitely understand why some people could be upset about it and sell it online as way to fight the power kind of thing. Voting with your wallet isn't as easy as it sounds so I assume this is a way to try to make a difference, or at least show your stance on the subject.

I don't really have anything to back this up with, but I'd assume that the guys and gals who do this sort of thing, feel mistreated at some level or another. Shouldn't that be more of a concern in the end? :S

Edit: Perhaps not entirely related to the bolded OP question, but I do think it's a side effect.

I personally feel no negative emotions towards anyone who decide to sell their pre-order DLC code and not towards the buyer either. They can do whatever they want with their codes and money, of course. If they have the guts and business sense to go through with something like that, more power to them. In the end, I think it all boils down to pre-order bonuses not being that great to begin with. Sure, some guys would still try to sell them, but still. Again, I don't have anything to back this up with, but I get the feeling we wouldn't have this conversation if these bonuses were more worthwhile.

3rd edit: To try to actually answer the question, I do feel that it kinda cheapens the effect of the pre-order dlc. But since most of these deals are fairly worthless to begin with, it isn't that big of a dealin the end. The main problem lies elsewhere, imho.
 
Exclusive pre-order DLC doesn't make me more likely to pre-order a game, but it does make me slightly less likely to buy the game at all. I hate feeling like I'm missing something. I didn't play InFamous until after the Gigwatt Blades were released on the PSN store for free.
 
Roto13 said:
Exclusive pre-order DLC doesn't make me more likely to pre-order a game, but it does make me slightly less likely to buy the game at all. I hate feeling like I'm missing something. I didn't play InFamous until after the Gigwatt Blades were released on the PSN store for free.
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And then you realized it was worthless and you wasted so much time not playing an awesome game?

The good thing about selling it later for consumers is that even if they have to pay for the pre-order bonus it'll still be cheaper than what it cost day 1 since the game would have already dropped in price or gone on sale.
 
It seems like a reasonable way to create a preorder incentive without blocking content off for later buyers. I'm still not happy with the idea of having content ready on day 1 but not making it available on the disc, but if it's gonna be done anyway, you might as well not lock off that content to all but a small percentage of your users. Especially if you're going to pull some nonsense like having different preorder incentives for different stores.
 
There is nothing wrong with pre-order/special edition content being timed exclusive. In fact, it's probably the best way to handle it.
 
I love this idea. I hate pre-ordering games for the exclusive bonus, knowing that they are going straight to the backlog.
 
elektrixx said:
It's better than the content being actually exclusive.
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This.

Why have it exclusive forever? (Microsoft loves doing this for some reason)

The studios will make more money and the fans will get the content they desire. No reason not to sell it as DLC.
 
a Master Ninja said:
This.

Why have it exclusive forever? (Microsoft loves doing this for some reason)

The studios will make more money and the fans will get the content they desire. No reason not to sell it as DLC.
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But don't you hate DLC? haha.

Somewhat cross-posting here, but...

I guess I just have an overdeveloped sense of trying to keep our word of having something be "exclusive," even if it's not that big of an item (colored guns). I guess it was like, if it was cosmetic and a "badge of honor" than it should likely stay exclusive, but if it had actual content (like map packs) or things that changed the game (guns with different stats) then you should make it available after a timed period of exclusivity.

Like, looking back at things, a comic-con exclusive skin code should have stayed exclusive permanently. Our 1yr anniversary skin should be exclusive permanently.

I think it just means that we, as an industry, need to either plan better, or if we have, bravo.
 
elektrixx said:
It's better than the content being actually exclusive.
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Yeah, I would agree. It's nice to give early buyers a bonus, but some people just didn't know about the game on release, so why punish them. At least give them the option to buy it.
 
Oli said:
Yeah, I would agree. It's nice to give early buyers a bonus, but some people just didn't know about the game on release, so why punish them. At least give them the option to buy it.
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Let's take the marketing heavy side here and say...

what if it stays exclusive to push people towards day one sales for the next game.


I can't provide any business rationale that the revenue for that message versus the revenue from selling DLC would be any less or more in either direction.
 
In my opinion, no preorder exclusive bonus should be exclusive forever.

Specially when there are exclusives that depend of where you buy the game (like Dragon Age ones), that makes nearly impossible to got all (unless you buy the game several times), or the shops that have those exclusive bonus are not worldwide.

Collectors should be able to have all the existent DLC in a game, if they want to pay the price. It's the most fair situation for all.

Console-exclusive content shouldn't be exclusive forever, also. It should be, as much, timed exclusive. And, for me, the best situation should be that any console exclusive should be only about making that DLC free for the users of the console.

For example, if Company A want to has an advantadge to Company B with the DLC of Medal of Duty, Company A shouldn't pay to prevent Company B users to have that DLC, or have it later. Company A should pay to make Company A users to have the DLC for free.
 
arne said:
But don't you hate DLC? haha.
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I hate exclusive DLC even more. "Lesser of two evils" situation.
Like, looking back at things, a comic-con exclusive skin code should have stayed exclusive permanently. Our 1yr anniversary skin should be exclusive permanently.
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I can't see a reason to make any content exclusive FOREVER. Sure, keep it an exclusive bragging rights badge for a little while, but eventually sell it because people will buy it. Or you could be really awesome and eventually make it a free download for everyone.
 
I don't mind it at all, as long as there's information given to buyers before hand so we can decide to preorder the game or not.
 
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