Square Enix Announces Pre-order Goodies for The Last Remnant
By Stephany on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 AM PST In Gamer Life, Games, Games Industry, Microsoft, Square Enix
Square Enix announced this morning that they too will be throwing their hat into the “pre-order and get extras” ring by way of their upcoming tactical-RPG The Last Remnant.
Through select retailers, most notably Amazon and GameStop, gamers who pre-order the Xbox 360 version will receive three special unlockable formations (Scatterswarm, Goblet and Catapult) that will boost your tactical strength during battle. No formal list of which retailers were offering this special deal were listed, so you may want to check with the store where you usually buy your games.
While it is understandable for game companies to want gamers to purchase their games, does offering extra goodies if you pre-order make you want a particular title more than before? Mostly, pre-orders just give those who pre-order an in game item earlier than they would normally get it, thus only really giving gamers bragging rights instead of the loss of something cool. In this case, and in some others, this is an extra item or advantage; therefore, isn’t this unfair to gamers who do not really want the hassle of pre-ordering, yet in the end will miss out on something special if they don’t?
The Last Remnant will be made available on November 20 for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 version is expected to hit sometime in April 2009.
This is really a way to promote a game that makes me NOT buying it new … i´m only buying games like this ( e.g. fable2 ) used.
Why ?
First – they try to kill small videogame dealers by only offering the bundles through big dealers like amazon ( i just wrote a very long article about the way small dealers got treated in germany in the fable 2 case … http://sechzigdrei.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/fable-2-vorbestellungen-inkl-pub-games-2000-goldmunzen/ ).
Second … they try to force gamers to buy the game before there are tests out or they miss a part of the game. THIS SUCKS !! I don´t want to be forced … about that i wrote a long article too .. translated it says “Online Ingame Content – a new plague ?” I guess you can imagine my point of view
http://sechzigdrei.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/online-ingame-content-eine-neue-seuche/
Gamers unite … don´t buy those games new, but a couple of month later used. There are enough games out there to spend the time till then.