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Gamestop's Ludicrous Idea: Require Preorders To Unlock Custom Game Content
MojoKid writes: One of the great universal truths of modern gaming is that preorder bonuses suck. The term refers to the practice of ordering a title at some point before it actually ships in order to get access to a variety of minor outfit tweaks, a few starting weapons, or boosts to early gameplay. Today, some publishers take this practice to truly ridiculous levels; the recent game Watch Dogs has no fewer than nine pre-order options. GameStop, perhaps sensing that there's pressure building against the model, wants to turn the dial up to 11 — and create preorder-locked, GameStop-specific content. According to financial analyst Colin Sebastian, "[GameStop] indicates that software publishers are more enthusiastic about partnering with it. For example, by offering exclusive content on each major game release and longer term, future models may include GameStop offering exclusive gameplay." GameStop is enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment. The company has captured a greater share of the Xbox One and PS4 market than it held at this point in the console cycle last time around and it's clearly looking to increase the attractiveness of its own business. That's fine but this kind of arbitrary lopping off of content to boost sales at particular shops simply isn't going to sit well with most gamers.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out a few years ago, with a "Mission Pack" that involved rescuing a character who appears in the original Deus Ex during the latter third of the game. That content was exclusive to GameStop pre-orders for a few years, but then Square-Enix decided to sell it as DLC on Steam. A lot of people condemned this practice, and there were some pretty hilarious reactions (look up "Deus Ex Unreal Revolution" on YouTube, I'm at work so I can't link it).
Publishers won't allow this to happen because they want to make the most money off pre-orders they can, and that means making content available on all platforms and ensuring everyone can pay extra for whatever content they've decided to lock away. I know that I won't buy any games that do this.
Doesn't this already happen on Steam? Then the extra content is released later as DLC?
The only pre-order bonus you should ever give is a discount. I understand the will to preferably "sell-out" pre-order, but all you can really do is give a bigger pre-order discount. All other options are Pandora's boxes.
"Unlockables" should always be in-game content.
"Custom" should be reserved for skins/cosmetics, not content.
Just my 2 eurocent.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Gamestop is depending on a market with idiosyncratic practices. These practices may themselves seem strange or senseless, but if one is to take these as cultural shortcomings then the fault lies with the consumer, not Gamestop. This is an industry where the cozy relationship between critics and publishers is no secret, where being excited regarding an event consisting entirely of three days of advertisements is considered normal. If this idea seems exploitative, it's only because they're serving a demographic that wants to be exploited.
There are clothes lines and appliance lines that are exclusive to a particular retailer. There are even in-game bonuses you get that are different if you buy a game time/point card at Walmart versus Target versus Amazon. Gamestop using its market power to do this is no different than it using it to get a bigger discount or larger advertising budget from the developer.
So, there are these consoles called the SNES (Super Famicom), and the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive). Back in those days, we didn't have any of that shit to deal with. Oh, except for the long lines of picking up our copies of Street Fighter and Mortal Combat. Oh the simple days of bliss. All you poor bastards, why do you even bother?
Life is not for the lazy.
Don't worry. Pirates will make this right.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
Is this supposed to get me to buy through gamestop? Is this their effort to claw at a dwindling physical-medium retail space?
No amount of douche-baggery will cause me to give up my preferred method of spending money. If I want the release-night environment and other anonymous gamers to talk to while waiting for my copy, then gamestop it is. If I want to forego putting on pants, I'll go with a digital distributor, and no amount of virtual clothing tweaks or outlet-specific items can make me put on my pants!
There's one thing my gaming PC doesn't have: an optical drive. I haven't needed one for the past three years.
Check out the Cooler Master Elite 110. If you know of something even smaller that would still fit a Zotac GTX 750, please tell me. I don't use 3.5" HDDs either.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
This problem should solve itself as downloading and cloud-based games take over and game stores disappear. GameStop is closing 120 more locations. Game retailers are going the way of record stores and video rental outlets.
Sorry that's a seperate microtransaction. You need 500 slashdot points for that.
But free-to-p[l]ay gaming is also becoming a serious contender. It solves the problem of gamers who won't buy a game without a demo, it solves the problem of having an adequate online player base, and it solves the problem of gamers who simply won't buy games but who might buy the occasional piece of DLC.
The truth is that Gamestop guaranteed their eventual nonexistence when they dropped games for old consoles. I get that they can't stock everything, but it eliminated my reasons to go in there. I can get all the same stuff cheaper somewhere else, and I can get a lot of stuff that they can't (or won't) get. Since I don't really need a $200+ headset, I'm not sure what I'd go in there for anyway.+
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Any game that has launch day DLC, be it preorder bonus crap or not, I will only buy - IF i bother - when they release the "GOTY edition" with all the content included, at half the price. Or maybe I'll wait till said edition goes on sale at 75% off :)
If you're impatient and want to have a game at launch, your (monetary) loss.
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
Not store specific, but there were pre-order bonuses of 15th anniversary cars. In order to play some of the seasonal events, you have to have one of these cars. Under no circumstances should one ever be forced to buy aftermarket (or premarket) content in order to play a game. If they want to sell content to make it easier, to add bonus missions, to put stupid costumes on your character or whatever, that is fine. But I bought the game and I should be able to play it to completion with spending an extra penny.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Not necessarily. Nintendo does DLC very differently in a consumer friendly manner. I don't see them ever doing crap like this.
Game X is coming out soon.
Company Y is going to sell the game.
In order to provide incentive, they mod the game to provide some extra content.
Since moding is expensive for Company Y to do, they outsource it to the makers of Game X who know the game better,
So, what is evil in this scenario (select all that apply)?
A. Company Y shouldn't bundle stuff it sells.
B. Game X makers should provide the mod kit to everyone.
C. Game X makers should prohibit their product from being bundled.
D. Company Y should sell any mod it makes as a standalone option.
E. Company Y shouldn't outsource the mod to game X makers.
Where is the evil here?
ridiculous?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
eom
If I buy a washing machine at Target I don't have to buy it again at Walmart to get the 'cotton' wash cycle, and again at Amazon to get the 'drain water at the end of the cycle' feature.
Gamestop are intentionally causing game content fragmentation that diverts development resource and/or prevents customers cost-effectively acquiring the full game content.
It's stupid, it's malicious and it's why everybody over the age of 30 waits for a steam sale to buy the game and its DLC these days, rather than buying half a game upfront.
I knew I was earning karma for a reason
douchey restriction management
You young gamers have it rough i would say, back when I played Games, ALL the content came on the disk and the Game didn't require a patch every two days. We played a finished product that some company put love into because they themselves were Gamers and wanted to get it right "the first time".
I feel really sorry that you've all just gave up and accepted being ripped off and cheated. It's sad you don't what a good Game really is but I'll give you a hint: It's not Graphics. Multiplayer? We had that too, but nobody ever send messages threating our lives if we killed them in-game. Again, I feel sorry for you younglings and your loss of meaning for words like "Good" and "Fun".
Almost every new PC game has DLC
Almost every new PC game has DRM
Yes, they expect you to react the same as you have to every other title.
Dammit, I thought that was included in the season pass.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!