Is It Really Special Anymore?
It wasn’t that long ago when a limited edition really said something about the caliber of the game being released. When I first started playing more games (admittedly not all that long ago), it was pretty rare to see a game get a special edition. Back then it was cool because it was infrequent, but now it is getting out of hand.
It’s not so much the conventional limited edition that I have a problem with. Obviously, there are tons of really high-quality games that have come out recently or are coming out in the near future. I can definitely see why these games would have special editions, and I even think most of them deserve it. If it’s a game I really like, I have absolutely no problem with dropping an extra ten or twenty bucks to get some extra content and really cool art book or behind the scenes DVD. But, when it gets to the point of doubling the price of a game, it starts to get ridiculous.
Halo 3 started the super limited edition trend with it’s $130 Legendary Edition, which really only included a miniature Master Chief helmet as an extra compared to the $70 normal limited edition. Although touted as extremely limited, I have seen this edition too many times to count in stores, months after the release of the game and priced as low as $60. Obviously, the helmet wasn’t as big a hit as it was intended to be.
After Halo 3 released, the extremely overpriced editions appeared to go by the wayside for a little while. Normal $70 or $80 special editions were still abundant, but it was hard to find something for more than that. Then Grand Theft Auto 4 came along with a $90 bundle, which is on the verge of an unreasonable amount to pay for a game. This seemed to sell much better than the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, and seems to have now sparked what I very hopefully call a fad for super limited editions.
I’m not saying that the extras that you get with these games aren’t cool, but are they really necessary? In a pre-order deal from amazon.com, you can get Gears of War 2 free with the purchase of a Lancer replica, all for $140. In another amazon exclusive, you can shell out another $130 for the Survival Edition of Fallout 3. This edition includes an alarm clock that looks like the Pip-Boy 3000 along with everything else included with the standard limited edition. Along with those games, Mirror’s Edge has a $130 edition and Dead Space has a $150 edition.
Who knows, if I had the funds available, I too might spring for a super expensive version of my favorite game. At this point, however, it seems just a little bit over-the-top and a lot overpriced. I suppose as long as people are buying them, the developers will continue to make them. What do you think?
September 30, 2008 at 10:12 am
Thanks for this enlightening post on the “Super Editions” of videogames. I come from the opposite end of the spectrum where I already irk at spending $70 for a new, basic game without any of the bells and whistles included in these special editions. Since Halo 3’s “Legendary” edition I noticed a couple other big-release games follow suit, but I didn’t know it was this bad – especially for our fall lineup of games like Fallout 3 and Mirror’s Edge.
Personally, I think these “Super Editions” are just a way to extort money out of the fans. I know the production cost of games are really high and companies have to price their games accordingly, especially when the majority of games turn out as losses for a company, but $130-150 is ridiculous. If you’re trying to put extra content with a new-release game to aid in selling that game, then you can’t jack up the price above $100. Of course, you’ll have the die-hard fans and those few who think that extra content disk or small replica toy helmet are worth 50-80 bucks, but as DesolationPoint remarked about the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, it might still be collecting dust on the Clearance Shelf months down the line.
September 30, 2008 at 11:46 pm
You bet, SummerElk! I agree that $60 is still a pretty hefty price to pay for a basic game, but I can understand why it has to be this way. Obviously it’s tough to find that much money for so many games in a tight budget, but I guess that’s why you have to pick and choose.
I don’t think I would say the developers make these editions just to get more money. It’s very true that games are super expensive to make, but most games that have these ultra limited editions are triple a titles that are almost guaranteed to make bank. I think that developers really believe they’ve got some cool stuff, and would like to share it with their hardcore fans. However, instead of selling it along with the game, I say make it available by itself. At least that way it seems a little less pushy.
Regardless of whether or not the bonus is cool, doubling the price of a game just for that bonus isn’t something I feel should be done. If someone buys that, it’s just going to take away from the money they can spend on other games.
October 7, 2008 at 8:58 am
Agreed, $60 for a regular game is a good chunk of change to ask for (especially for the fiscally responsible college crowd like myself, sympathy is always appreciated), but the special editions are just getting more and more crazy. I can say though that more and more pre-order specials are starting to catch my eye. For instance I reserved Mirror’s Edge the other day and expect to receive a courier bag, NOT the same bag as the $130 limited edition, but still something. I hope that as we get later in this gen you will start to see development costs go down, and trickle down to the average gamer, much like Rare is doing with a personally anticipated title, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts which will retail for just $40. Getting back on topic though, $10-$20 for a limited edition is understandable, but publishers need to keep it realistic here.
October 7, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I definitely agree about the pre-order bonuses, geniustim. I’ve started to realized recently that there isn’t really a reason to pre-order a game, but these bonuses are definitely getting me back into it. I would also like to some more $40 or even just $50 games. Tack on some sort of pre-order bonus like Banjo-Kazooie has and I’m all over it. That bonus and the lower price took me from complete disinterest in Nuts & Bolts to pretty high anticipation.