Square Enix Cancels 'Augment Your Pre-Order' Program For 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided'

[heirdeux]

After one month, multi-tier pre-order program for "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided" is shut down due to negative feedback.

Square Enix Cancels 'Augment Your Pre-Order' Program For 'Deus Ex: Mankind Divided' : Read more

 

[shloader]

I certainly don't take any personal exception to Square Enix, I do feel some publishers and studios do need to be proverbially smacked on the nose over this whole pre-order business recently (here's looking @ you, Ubisoft). Any iteration and new take on pre-orders is just a variation on a theme; We would like you to pay now for a product that may not quite deliver and we may not completely fix any drastic issues post release. Fortunately consumers gradually wising up. A pre-order was a way to beat the line at Gamestop and insure you didn't have to face a brick-n-mortar store running out on release day. Good idea when Halo was the shiz. Now? What line? I've encountered no line at steam.

So what's it all about now? Your pre-order $$$ goes into a saving account usually held by the publisher. This account earns them interest based on its average daily balance, same as a savings account does for you. This interest is essentially free money to them after taxes. This has always kinda been the case on pre-orders, that money sits somewhere. So... keep your money. Brick-n-mortar stores are so not running out of stock due to the impact of digital distribution. They still make sense if your net connection is slow and the price is the same.

 

[alesloan]

I don't get the negative reactions - Steam has been doing this for quite some time! I remember pre-ordering Tomb Raider and having my pre-order bonuses tied to a Tiered system based on how many people pre-order.

Everyone is fine when Steam does it, but here's it suddenly wrong?

 

[alidan]

I don't get the negative reactions - Steam has been doing this for quite some time! I remember pre-ordering Tomb Raider and having my pre-order bonuses tied to a Tiered system based on how many people pre-order.

Everyone is fine when Steam does it, but here's it suddenly wrong?

no one really likes it when steam does it either, they just put up with it, but the augment your preorder was like if the steam tiered system took all of the bad things from stores and you could only have 1 specific piece of content a tier when there were 2-4 different things a tier to get.

so not only were you tied to the everyone needs to preorder bs, you also were guaranteed to not get a full game on launch.

really a fantastic way to anger everyone all round.

 

[The Black Laser]

I don't get the negative reactions - Steam has been doing this for quite some time! I remember pre-ordering Tomb Raider and having my pre-order bonuses tied to a Tiered system based on how many people pre-order.

Everyone is fine when Steam does it, but here's it suddenly wrong?

That wasn't Steam. That was, in fact, ALSO Square Enix doing it through Steam for Tomb Raider. Steam doesn't set pre-order bonuses. The publisher does.

 

[alextheblue]

Any iteration and new take on pre-orders is just a variation on a theme; We would like you to pay now for a product that may not quite deliver and we may not completely fix any drastic issues post release. Fortunately consumers gradually wising up.

Sounds like kickstarter.

 

[sycokilr]

How about cutting the crap with all the "pre-order special editions"?

"Buy from our store, get this special black armor and gun!"
"Buy from OUR store, get this special CAMO armor and gun!"
"Buy from our ONLINE store and get this special red, white, and blue armor AND a .50 cal sniper rifle!"

What happened to just selling a COMPLETE friggin' game that had ALL the options? Holy crap! That would be a novel concept in this day and age!

What is this now, Barbie and friends? I mean, in Mass Effect 3, you actually had to BUY one of Shepard's friends for $10!!! WTF?!?!

Now, I can somewhat understand the "pre-order" option IF you are buying through STEAM or (God forbid) Origin. Download the game BEFORE the "live" date. That's all fine and dandy, but good God, man. Enough with the 40 different special combo packs spread over 20 different stores where you can pre-order! Just sell the game! If you WANT to pre-order it, you can play at midnight when it's released. There's your benefit!

 

[fixxxer113]

Any iteration and new take on pre-orders is just a variation on a theme; We would like you to pay now for a product that may not quite deliver and we may not completely fix any drastic issues post release. Fortunately consumers gradually wising up.

Sounds like kickstarter.

It's nothing like Kickstarter. In Kickstarter you are not just a customer, you are an investor. You like the idea of a product and you wan to see it made. Keep in mind that not all pledges in Kickstarter give you the product. You can just give money if you like. So, in that scenario, you know that the product is not finished. You know it might fail to meet expectations, or even if it doesn't it might fail commercially. It's a risk you are willing to take Kickstarter does its best to shield you from scams.

In the case of Square Enix and other similar ones, we are talking about an established major publisher and not some small team or startup. Enix is bound by a whole different set of rules and laws. They certainly don't lack funds to build a game and when you put something out in the market as a finished product, it has to be a finished product.

If they presented pre-orders as a risky investment on a product that is not yet finished then maybe it would be better, but they are supposed to be in the market of selling big budget completed quality games, not prototypes or betas.

 

[OneFai]

Didn't even know pre-order is already available. I was so disappointed with the last Deux Ex game. The graphics were so bad and the story was so straightforward. I like the upgrade system but the upgrades weren't "flashy" enough.

 

[Avus]

Pre-order game is stupid in general.... specially in the digital age. In the old time, people will pre-order because some new hot games will sold out on launch day or even at the first couple shipment to the game stores. But digital version will never run out of inventory, so nowadays pre-order will enable to "own" something that is already in the game... this is "money well spend"! :banghead:

 

[cats_Paw]

"Negative feedback" - If Square Enix is so clueless that they did not anticipate negative feedback for that move, I doubt they have any idea at all what consumers want.
Therefore, its safe to say their game is probably not good for the consumer.

That being said, this pre-order, DLC, etc non sense has been going on only because customers allowed it. Not me. I buy the game when its finished (aka game of the year editions for half of the original game price).

But since people keep throwing money at this crap, we still get the same stuff.
In the past we had expansions, now we have DLC.
If you tried to sell a skin or a weapon as an expansion in the past, your company would probably be in serious trouble.

But now we call it DLC and everyone is ok with it?

 

[Pedasc]

Any iteration and new take on pre-orders is just a variation on a theme; We would like you to pay now for a product that may not quite deliver and we may not completely fix any drastic issues post release. Fortunately consumers gradually wising up.

Sounds like kickstarter.

It's nothing like Kickstarter. In Kickstarter you are not just a customer, you are an investor. You like the idea of a product and you wan to see it made. Keep in mind that not all pledges in Kickstarter give you the product. You can just give money if you like. So, in that scenario, you know that the product is not finished. You know it might fail to meet expectations, or even if it doesn't it might fail commercially. It's a risk you are willing to take Kickstarter does its best to shield you from scams.

In the case of Square Enix and other similar ones, we are talking about an established major publisher and not some small team or startup. Enix is bound by a whole different set of rules and laws. They certainly don't lack funds to build a game and when you put something out in the market as a finished product, it has to be a finished product.

If they presented pre-orders as a risky investment on a product that is not yet finished then maybe it would be better, but they are supposed to be in the market of selling big budget completed quality games, not prototypes or betas.

Thank you. I don't know how many arguments I've had with people who seem to think Kickstarter is just a spot to pre-order new products. I've always kept my hopes high and expectations low with Kickstater and for the most part have been pleasantly surprised more often than not. Unfortunately the waters are getting muddied by established companies using it to garner interest rather than just looking for starting capitol.