The truth behind retailer-exclusive pre-order extras
One of the less popular trends of 2011 was the ramping up of the retailer-exclusive in-game extra. You know the sort of the thing – pre-order a title from Game and get a couple of extra character skins, choose HMV and get some weapon unlocks, or give your money to Zavvi and get early access to a map. Depending on where you stand, it’s either a nice bit of added value or a nuisance that prevents fans experiencing absolutely everything a game has to offer. Until recently it’s been fairly easy to ignore. But things took a left turn with the release of Batman: Arkham City earlier this year, when UK supermarket giant Tesco secured a significant slab of DLC content all for themselves – a separate set of missions called Joker’s Carnival Challenge Map. A sign of things to come, perhaps? With that in mind we approached a number of UK retailers, publishers and developers to find out more about the process, why it happens and whether gamers are doomed to suffer as a result. Read more…
