I've been thoroughly baffled by some of the allegedly "collector's edition" packages that have been popping up over the last couple years. Just last week I was strolling past Gamestop, or EBgames, or whatever, and saw a huge advert for the new Mortal Kombat game. Now, I get the whole franchise revival, they want people to forget all the garbage games they've made by making a new garbage game, but I didn't really think anybody was taking this seriously, after all, its Mortal Kombat. Shock and awe, the ad was for the Collector's Edition version of the game, which allegedly come with all manner of bonus crap, like art books and extra DLC costumes for your little dudes, and a figure of Scorpion. For all this fantastic crap, the cost skyrockets from $59.99 to a whopping $99.99. That's forty bucks for an art book and a toy! A toy of a character from a game most certainly rated M!Who exactly is the audience here? Adults? Man-children?
Not like this is unusual, though. The new trend when it comes to marketing mainstream, rated M games is to package it with a glorified action figure. Halo Reach's absurdly large collector's edition came packaged with statues of the game's protagonists, perfect for display on only the nerdiest of desks. Hell, Black Ops sold with an RC car for god's sake! As an adult, what are you thinking when you drop 100 bucks on a video game that comes with an RC car? Are you thinking "Yes, this is a mature game that appeals to my adult brain" or are you thinking "Squeeeeeee an RC car! Yay! Mom I need twelve batteries NOW!". Or maybe you're not thinking at all. Maybe you're just buying this ludicrous package because you were bombarded by ads telling you to do so. Who knows?
The sad truth is that it probably isn't even adults that are buying these things, at least not for themselves. This kind of crap is probably going to to 10-15 year olds across our great nation. A quick listen to the chatter in the average game of Modern Warfare reveals the average player to be prepubescent, so it's not all that surprising that Activision has become wise enough package expensive toys with their expensive, mature war shooters.
Adults, don't buy this crap. Your kid shouldn't even be playing Mortal Kombat or Black Ops, and you don't need more garbage in your house.
Collector's Editions are being made for the same reason that companies cut content and release it as DLC, then put a code in every new copy that lets people download it for free anyway. They're trying to get people to buy new copies instead of used ones, since the developers themselves don't make any money off of re-sold games. You can blame the Gamestop business model for this one.
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much the idea of Collector's Editions I take issue with... it's just the over blown, super expensive, glorified kids toy element that CERTAIN publishers see fit to release. Give me a nice little art book, or maybe a sound track CD, and I'm happy. An extra $50 for an RC car? Not so much.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I actually DO blame Gamestop for this. I blame them for most everything, though.