Tuesday, March 9, 2010

When do pre-order bonuses go too far?

Last night I finally got around to reading the Final Fantasy XIII mini-guide I was given when I reserved the game from Gamestop, and it got me thinking about the things you get when you pre-order or reserve a game. I remember showing up to my local Gamestop and being handed a totally unexpected action figure of Alex Mercer along with my copy of [PROTOTYPE]. That was awesome! What a great way to get customers to keep reserving games at your store: give them free stuff for ensuring their purchase is with you.

For a long time, pre-ordering the game meant you put down a five dollar deposit on a game, and you were guaranteed a copy of the game on the day it came out. That was it. Now, with the rise in Downloadable Content (DLC) and a huge amount of competition between the retailers (AKA everyone trying to take Gamestop down), you are offered many different things. Gamestop, Best Buy and Walmart all seem to have different downloadable characters and extra levels that you can only access by reserving the game at their store. The most extreme example is the pre-order fiasco taking place over the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption, by Rockstar games. Their pre-order bonuses include:
  1. Gamestop: Deadly Assassin Outfit (increases dead eye regeneration)
  2. Amazon.com: The Golden Guns Pack (increases fame gained from killing) + $10 amazon gift card
  3. Best Buy: The War Horse (Faster + Increased Damage Resistance)
  4. Game Crazy: Exclusive Mini-Guide
  5. Target: $5 Target gift card
  6. Walmart: $10 Walmart gift card
  7. Rockstar Warehouse: Red Dead T-Shirt
This is the beginning of a huge problem in the gaming industry. Every copy of Red Dead Redemption is programmed with all of these things (the outfit, the golden guns and the war horse), but you can only unlock one of the three with the special code. Why is Rockstar letting these retailers control what their dedicated fans have access to? And if Rockstar, one of the best and most respected game developers of our time, can do it, why shouldn't everyone else? Developers need to stand their group and tell the retailers they're not playing into their stupid marketing schemes.

I guess I'm guilty for the continuation of this though, since I pre-ordered the game from Amazon. There's something about golden guns I can't resist! That and the $10 card and a reason to not buy from Gamestop.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 9, 2010 at 7:56 AM

    As deep as you've thought into this, they're not going to stop the marketing process. 1, i'm sure the game's company is being paid for the additional stuff to be placed in their game; 2, it probably doesn't take much memory to add such a little detail into the game; and 3, its only going to get bigger in the future

    all in all though jamesypoo, good article, i felt like i was reading something outta a magazine

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  2. ReddMarch 15, 2010 at 11:04 AM

    As working at Gamestop, I know what you mean by other companies now trying to do the reserve a copy idea. But in a reality the only reason us at Gamestop do have people reserve a game is, yes of course to, hopefully, garentee a sell. The other reason we want people to reserve a game or not too, is inventory. The main office sets all of its distribution by what is reserved where. So say you and your friends are looking for GOWIII (i know, i know bad example), and only one person at the Gamestop by you reserves the game, Then most likely the main office is going to send the store about 4 copies of the game. If your one of the people that are like, eh ill pick up the game when it comes out. Then its possible that the game will be sold out when you go pick it up. Sure the bonus' are there to get you to reserve a copy with us, or with any other company... but i dont know how the other companies work, but thats how Gamestop works with reserves, we dont make money off new games at all, we lose money... and the only way we can possibly, still be in buisness is if people do buy games and trade them in, thats all.

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