Gamers know about the pre-order bonuses that retailers use to get costumers to purchase from their specific stores... On paper it might be a good idea, for the retailers that is, and hey, who are we to complain since we get different bonus content, eh? Okay who am I trying to fool, this system is shit and we the consumers are indeed being screwed on different levels and it's been talked about before, so this is me giving my view on it.
No matter where you pre-order a game from the bonus content you get is on the disc, what you're downloading is unlocks for the content, this in itself is bad. If this was for all pre-orders it would be, well, more understandable, pre-order it to get extra stuff, not a horrifying idea (considering what's going on now at least), eh? But no, not that "good", what's going on now is that different stores gives you different unlocks for stuff on the disc, I think this is bullshit.
However, I live in Finland and buy most if not all my games from a Nordic online store and they usually give you all the pre-order bonuses while others just gives a slice. In short, I personally don't suffer from this due to lack of a "complete" package. Still, doesn't stop me from thinking that giving content that you've technically already bought as a reward for pre-ordering is just plain wrong.
Moving on, doesn't mean I'm not bothered with what follows. Pre-order bonuses still have to be unlocked and "downloaded" for you to use them, and for anyone who started gaming before this console gen should be able to understand this idea of mine, just putting the game in and start playing. Now you might say "Well just don't bother with the bonus content then...", screw that! I payed for that content too, didn't I? So I unlock it, not that easy of course... You got the codes, those 12 digit codes, not only that all those pieces of content got their own codes. Consider that the standard for games these days is to get maybe a bonus weapon or two, perhaps a multiplayer map and why not an additional skin, that's three separate unlocks, 36 digits.
Sure, I know this may appear as bitching, but if it's like this with every game, every time when you just want to play the game you first gotta go to the store, enter the codes, download, install, start game, wait for install and possible update... That excitement to play somewhat dies along the way. This is, in my opinion, a result of greedy publishers who want to bleed us consumers dry with season passes, micro transactions, online passes and so on... You have to make the most of what you get, you're already getting less content than you used to, cheats are close to extinct, a 10 hour game is considered long these days and do anyone remember when there were tons of unlockables in games which you unlocked by actually playing the game?
Although I wouldn't say we're completely screwed just yet, indie games don't do this, and some developers/publishers do try not to exploit our wallets too much... One very recent example is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance by Platinum Games, that game has many unlockables which you get by, believe it or not, playing the game. Sure it did have a couple of different pre-order bonuses, but I have to say it felt pretty good when a message popped up saying that I've unlocked this by doing that or something like it.
I suppose I should wrap this up, and I think I'll finish by saying this to all the smart consumers: Keep it up, support the good ones and ignore the bad ones, EA hasn't had a big hit in awhile now, and they're the ones most infamous right now for trying to bleed us dry so maybe, just maybe, we'll see improvement sooner rather than later. If not, and they just keep increasing prices and doing DLC gaming might just become a true luxury, or what about about "Video Game Crash part II"? Food for thought.
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