Well then we definitely need to scrap pre-order bonuses, because a lot of those come with discounts. '10% off if you pre-order/pre-purchase' is very common these days. So if what we're trying to reward is paying full price for the game, pre-order customers who get a discount should have content removed from the game. It's only fair.Originally Posted by Loony BoB
If it's rewarding full price customers that is the important thing, then let's have 'full price' bonus - "Pay the full RRP to get new skins!" I still have a million problems with that, but at least it wouldn't hurt people who had the cheek to wait for reviews to come out before putting their money down. Encouraging people to blindly throw money at something unproven is pretty sleazy - as a developer I want people to buy my games because we've made a good game, not because we've overhyped something. And that's a key point as well - when you put money down for pre-orders you're putting money down for the game the publisher is promising you. "This is going to be the best game ever," they will say. And they'll show you all the really cool bits in the trailers. But they won't show you something representative.
Not all pre-order bonuses are particularly harmful individually, but they are all very harmful collectively. Because publishers are always going to try and push the limits, try to squeeze as much money out before the game is even finished as the possibly can. So when our default position is "weapon skins are fine as pre-order bonus content," then they're going to start seeing what else we'll accept. What about a weapon stat boost? That OK? Yeah? Then how about a whole new weapon, can you stomach that? Still paying? OK, how about a weapon pack? How about some new armour? How about a new NPC? Why not a new mission? Wouldn't you like an exclusive story prologue?
It's that kind of approach that has led to this situation of every other big budget game having microtransactions and DLC store. Give them an inch...
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