The Rise Of Limited Edition Games 37
John Callaham wrote to mention a piece on Gamecloud discussing the emphasis on 'special' editions of new game titles. From the article: "Games that have some extras in limited releases have been a part of the industry for a few years now. Just last year limited collector's versions of the MMORPGs Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft were released that were packed with extra stuff, from art books to extra DVDs and more. Electronic Arts released a special edition of Medal of Honor Pacific Assault last fall with lots of behind-the-scenes material and an extra weapon not in the regular edition. Midway released a special edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception last fall with extra content as well as the full version of the first Mortal Kombat game. This fall, however, game publishers are releasing more special editions of games than ever before alongside the 'regular' versions of games and they typically cost at least $10 more and in a couple of cases even more than that."
What's wrong? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
Producing the game at all is a "money making scheme."
Re:What's wrong? (Score:2)
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
Re:What's wrong? (Score:3, Insightful)
Supposedly black and white 2 is going to have extra creatures for people who buy the special editions. If that is the case, I'm not sure I want to buy a crippled version for the normal price. What if I like it, I'm not going to go out and buy the special version afterwards to get the full experience.
And I definitely don't want to risk paying above and beyond the normal for a game that may not live up to its hype in the firs
Re:What's wrong? (Score:2, Interesting)
Six months later, another game comes o
Re:What's wrong? (Score:2)
They already do that with Neverwinter Nights. I'm sure you'll see more and m
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
Only the games that don't depend on it. GTA does not depend on screwing and killing hookers to be a good game. If it's good, it's good, and if it's bad, its bad. T&A does not make a game one or the other.
How many people would buy more than double the games?
Easy: make the games more episodic. I'll use the origional Half-Life as an example. Say the game had been divided into three parts: the first deals with your initial struggle just to survive, and tryi
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
It will not work for some types of games but is ideal for others.
Re:What's wrong? (Score:1)
Let's make it simple: if games cost half what they cost today, I would buy more th
Re:What's wrong? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's wrong? (Score:3, Informative)
Extra
Not surprising at all. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not surprising at all. (Score:2)
What if there were more guns in half-life2 or special playmodes online for quake. Or a special class in WoW. People will flock to the limited edition then. Wouldn't even think twice.
Re:Not surprising at all. (Score:2, Interesting)
Would WoW really be more fun if the first thousand people to preorder the game got a special class to use? Nope, it would just mean that anyone using the special class got special attention from griefers.
Adding fundamental gameplay advantages to a limited edition will only alienate customers who missed out on it.
Besides, I wasn
Re:Not surprising at all. (Score:2)
If singleplayer, then people would complain even more about the lack of guns and valve expecting us to pay extra to counteract this defficiency.
If multiplayer, then you'd pretty much lose your entire fanbase giving people an unfair advantage for paying more.
"special playmodes online for quake."
Lets see, I can DM/TDM with everyone, or play Hunt The Golden Goose Egg of Stupid Hypotheticly Named Game Modes That Would Be Restricted To Special Edition Owners (Or, HTGG
Episode 2 (Score:2, Interesting)
And then big wigs in the game industry are talking about serializing games. Think of Eternal Darkness where a new scenario comes out every month, each one costs $10.
Extra content can be worth a slight premium..sure. (Score:2, Interesting)
I think the extra stuff is a nice premium IF its not just cheesy extras and cut-scenes on the same media as the game install. P
Limited Ed = OK, Exclusive pre-order content = NO! (Score:1, Insightful)
What is really starting to annoy me though is the "Pre-order this otherwise normal version of the game for the same price as someone who doesn't pre-order, but get this exclusive (insert something interesting) that people who don't pre-order the game will NEVER be able to access."
Sure, a reward for pre-ordering makes sense... but people who didn't pre-order it payed for the
Re:Limited Ed = OK, Exclusive pre-order content = (Score:2)
I don't believe the versions are ever physically different; these are just codes, which are always available online. The only game I can think of that's close to your scenario is the GBA remake of Super Mario Bros 3 - the wal*mart version (I think) had two e-rea
Catching up to Japan (Score:2, Informative)
It's been working in japan for years.
Look at Skies of Arcadia for the dreamcast when it released in Japan.
You got a Leather strap with a logo from the game, a bandana that is an acctual item in the game, a cell phone strap, an art book, and some limited edition artwork as well.
Or look at Gran Turismo 4. You could buy a limited edition that came with a pair of Nike Sneakers! http://www.jp.pl [playstation.com]
Think that's bad? (Score:1)
You mean the American industry right? (Score:1, Informative)
Sid Meier's Pirates (Score:2)
I also bought the special edition Half Life 2 release. Again, because I wanted the game on a DVD. But I later regretted the decision a little, as the Gold steam package is just a little bit pricier, but includes a lot more goodies.
Re:Sid Meier's Pirates (Score:2)
GTA hot coffee edition ;) (Score:4, Funny)
It makes sense (Score:2)
I've seen it backfire though. If it's a game that I'm really interested in, I'll likely shell out the extra bucks for the LE version but if it's a game that's not on my must-have list, then I won't buy
Re:It makes sense (Score:1)
"Limited" can mean more than one thing. (Score:4, Funny)
So I bring it home and fire it up, only to discover that what is "limited" about it isn't the number of copies they published, but the amount of the actual game that was on the CDs. It was essentially a 1-level demo version. I was pretty pissed that they would use the phrase "limited edition" like that.
At least the story has a happy ending, because I just threw away the CD and downloaded the full version over p2p.
Hardly a new thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Four years ago, I bought the special edition of Morrowind, which netted me a soundtrack, pewter figurine and art book. Back in high school, I bought the limited Might and Magic 6 box. Came with the entire series up until that point, maps and an entry form for an enormous lithograph of the cover art (which I won :D). And back in elementary school, my grandpa bought me the special trilogy pack of Hugo's House of Horrors, which came with hand-printed hint books.
Basiclly, if I really like the game/series, I'm probably going to shell out a little more for little goodies like that.
Special editions (Score:1)
Call me stupid, but I never played half-life until about 2 months after HL2 came out. When I finished playing HL 1 I ran out that same day and bought HL2 at my local Best Buy. I had no idea that there were different versions of the game. I hadn't even heard of steam until I installed HL2. I would have gone for the Silver or Gold package if I had known about it, and now there is no way to upgrade to Silver or Gold. I think that if a company is going to make different versions of the game they should get