Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s anti-consumer pre-order scheme forced users to choose from a selection of bonuses instead of receiving the full complement of extras. Unbelievably, consumers had to purchase the game three times to access the entire range of pre-order content which included major benefits such as an additional level and early access four days before the official launch. This was absolutely atrocious and in the modern era of social media, spoilers would be littered across the internet. In the past, pre-order incentives have been restricted as various retailers offered different bonuses. However, these usually revolve around cosmetic additions which didn’t impact on the game’s theme. Although, I’m still appalled by the heavy pre-order marketing from major publishers.
Thankfully, Square Exix and Eidos-Montreal have issued a statement and decided to reverse the pre-order policy:
“At both Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal, we’ve been listening to everything you’ve had to say about the Augment Your Pre-Order program. When it was first conceived, we wanted the program to give you more choice about what you received in terms of pre-order incentives – because we’ve seen in the past that when we choose those packages ourselves, and split them across regions, it has caused frustration. We quickly noticed that this approach created even more frustration than before, resulting in a resounding amount of negative feedback.”
“We’ve spent a lot of time reading through all of your comments, working to understand how we can try to make things right for you. After much thought and reflection, we decided to close down the program and make all of the incentive content available to anyone who pre-orders Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or purchases a Day 1 edition of the game. Additionally, the release date will no longer be changed in accordance with pre-order numbers, and everyone will gain access to the game on February 23rd, 2016.”
“Your feedback and input is of the utmost importance to us– as it’s your loyalty and passion for our franchises that gives us the opportunity to continue providing you with great gaming experiences.”
Customers who have already pre-ordered will automatically be upgraded to access all the remaining content. Sadly, it seems the pre-order bonuses will be locked behind the pre-order system but that’s fairly expected given the modern gaming industry. The official statement clarifies:
“To our faithful fans who’ve already pre-ordered: we will be taking care of everything necessary to ensure that all of the changes to the program will be automatically applied to your purchase. Meanwhile, we’d like to thank everybody for their feedback – we know this wouldn’t have happened with a game that nobody cared about, and we’re just focusing now on delivering a game that lives up to your hopes and expectations.”
Do pre-order incentives encourage you to buy or a game or make you wait for a substantial price reduction?
