You need a cheat-sheet to figure out how to get what you want out of any new game these days. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is no different. Here’s what we’ve figured out so far about navigating your way to buying the game.
Syndicate will be the next major Assassin’s Creed game, moving the series to Victorian London. It was officially announced today for a fall release. As is standard for games from big publishers like Ubisoft, you can already pre-order the game and get some bonus content for your efforts. The bonus if you pre-order from GameStop are missions involving Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens.
GameStop’s description:
Pre-order Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and receive the Darwin and Dickens Conspiracy Mission!
Embark on two pulse-quickening missions that will take you into the inner sanctums of London’s most influential men. Defend Charles Darwin’s discoveries from those who would kill to silence him. And help a friend of legendary writer Charles Dickens keep a secret that could get him killed.
If you are the type who gets angry about publishers carving out part of their game for retailer-specific incentives, well, I hear you, but do know that Ubisoft usually makes these missions accessible after the fact, usually several weeks after release — albeit as paid DLC.
Syndicate is being sold in a standard $US60 edition for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, but it’s also being sold in a $US90 “Gold” edition, which includes a “season pass.” That’s business as usual, too, though the scant details and context here are eyebrow raising. As with Warner Bros. when they recently announced the season pass for Batman Arkham Knight, there’s pretty much no info about what the season pass entails. Here’s what the official descriptions say about the season pass:
GOLD EDITION INCLUDES GAME + SEASON PASS – featuring a major expansion plus digital content & exclusives.
Not much to go by there, huh? (Not much to go buy, either, for those of you who prefer puns.)
What can we conclude? Are Dickens and Darwin only showing up in pre-order missions? I hope not! I’ve asked Ubisoft PR about the season pass and about the bonus missions, but I’ve not heard back yet. Probably never will, since they don’t answer our inquiries these days. Oh well, let’s look at the history.
Assassin’s Creed games used to lean toward the PlayStation, which would get 60 minutes of missions that wouldn’t launch for Xbox. ACIV, for example, had exclusive Aveline missions. But as of last year’s AC Unity, the franchise stopped leaning PlayStation and had content parity across the consoles. The Darwin/Dickens missions are the kind of thing that would formerly be tied to PlayStation, so it seems likely they have been shifted to be pre-order-centric missions. And, again, they’re likely to become paid DLC down the road.
As for the season pass, the series has typically had some meaty single-player post-release expansions, the best ones actually made by Ubisoft Quebec, the studio now leading the Syndicate project. The Quebec studio led the development of ACIII‘s three-part alternate history expansion about a bad-guy George Washington and AC IV‘s slave-liberating adventure Freedom Cry. Given Syndicate‘s exclusion of a multiplayer mode, Syndicate‘s season pass is likely to also be single-player content.
But why are we talking about season passes and pre-order incentives now? It’s the way of big publishers and it doesn’t seem like it’s a way that will bend — even when the game they’re trying to get people to pre-order is a sequel to a game that was notoriously glitchy and in need of so many post-release patches that the publisher eventually apologised, nixed their season pass and gave their post-release DLC out for free. Pre-buyer beware and all that.
Comments
22 responses to “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Has Pre-Order Incentives, Of Course”
Hey ubi how about instead of offering shitty pre order bonuses to try and get people to buy your games, you spend some time making sure that they are good games and that they work properly before you release them.
If ANYBODY goes for pre order after the shambles that was unity they would have to be insane.
You’re going to preorder after how well the last AssAss creed launched?
I really wanna collect all the exclusive pre-order bugs and glitches. Plus that extra 45 minutes of playable content will bring the total mission times up to a whopping 60 minutes of game play! Damn right im pre-ordering!
Credit where credit’s due: They have yet to offer pants as a preorder incentive for Syndicate…
Baby steps. 😛
What do you expect? Ubisoft are nothing if not prepared to take advantage of people who trust them.
These guys are seriously taking the mick…
It’s a shame, since ACII was a stunning game. Things got mildly exciting with Black Flag. Sailing the high seas helped mix things up, but that’s about it for the series.
The franchise has reached juggernaut status so they seemingly always turn a profit, no matter the degradation to quality. Marketing tag lines such as, “Pre-order and get two extra missions adding 1 hour of additional gameplay” makes me feel like a mug for actually thinking “Yeah, I better not miss out on those!”.
I feel dirty and ashamed. Look what video games have reduced me to feeling!
All the best things in life should leave you feeling dirty and ashamed. 😀
Yep….
Assassin’s Duty: Call of Creed Super Limited Edition comes with a wrist band concealed laserblade!! Super rare! Only 50 million units! Won’t last! ONLY available at EB Games!
….for three weeks. Buy now! $299.95!
AC2, Brotherhood and Black Flag, all superb games. Asides those, well. Yeah. Hard pressed to find an actual quality game.
Remember, kids:
If you pre-order… the
terroristspublishers win. Just say ‘no’ to pre-orders.In terms of evil, I’m pretty sure the scale goes Publishers > Hitler > Terrorists
Bieber belongs in there somewhere.
This joke has long overstayed its welcome. Can’t believe people buy this shit.
The reality of course is, this is like the Modern Warfare 2 boycott, most of us will espouse how we won’t touch it, yet most of us secretly do buy it… it’s a shame but it is true.
http://kotaku.com/5403286/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing
The jokes about the joke are still pretty funny 😀
Why pre-order when there were loads of collectors editions of Unity sitting on the shelves after launch last year? No rush at all
The whole thing is a joke. When they dont reach their unrealistic targets for producing a crap qulity game, they blame the pirates. Sounds like they would be fit right in with our politicians.
Blame pirates… wasn’t that AC4? 🙂
HAHHAAHAHHAHA!
No.
I’ve never bought (and just barely played) an Assassin’s Creed game, but boy oh boy am I excited by these pre-order bonuses.
So is it a real preorder bonus? Or is it like the one with Mortal Kombat (Goro), where the preorder bonus comes with every new game whether you preordered or not? lol
Will get the game no doubt, but doubt i will preorder
No way in hell am I pre-ordering another product from Ubisoft they have screwed up releases way to many times. (except might consider the Division – but only if the pre-order bonuses are significant because that looks like it’s going to be such an awesome game). In fact I am quite likely to pass on this all together after Unity, which I have only played about 2 hrs of due to annoyance with bugs at release, I imagine they have fixed them now. If I do buy it I will be waiting for steam or ubisoft sales or a significant price drop after release when all the bugs are fixed