Remember that awful pre-order scheme that the publisher of the next Deus Ex game cooked up? The one that urged fans to plunk down money in advance with the possibility of having the game to come out four days early? Well, Square Enix wised up and ended the shenanigans.
In an announcement this morning, Square Enix cited increased buyer frustration as the reason for shutting down the program. The Augment Your Pre-Order campaign would have unlocked more tiers of bonuses as the number of pre-orders ticked upward and would have lets buyers pick and choose from those bonuses. Now, everyone who pre-orders will be getting that same stuff. Square Enix also says that Mankind Divided will out on the same date (23/2/16) everywhere.
Remember: don’t pre-order games.
Comments
18 responses to “Square Enix Cancels Horrible Deus Ex Pre-Order Program”
Good move. But… I don’t know about pre-ordering or buying day one. As much as I love Deus Ex, the risk of dealing with bugs etc is pretty darn high.
I might have to wait and pick it up on special later. Loved the 1st and 3rd games though.
I don’t buy games on release anymore. Not only are they expensive, but I think ‘infested’ might be a more suitable term than ‘bug-ridden’.
6 months after release seems like the best time to buy IMO. Still have people playing multiplayer, but most of the bugs from launch will have been patched out.
I usually don’t but some big titles i do. Bioshock (amazing), Mass Effect 2(amazing), Mass Effect 3 (regretted it), bioshock infinite (regretted it), deus ex 3 (got up at 4am. Sooooo worth it), Batman Arkham Knight (ps4, worth it). And metal gear solid 5(totally worth it) all got bought on release.
Sometimes when you’re really looking forward to a game, you gotta go all in. But it’s a crapshoot that’s for sure. One thing i will never get again is a season pass. Now THAT is a waste of money.
I’ve never had an issue with Day 1 bugs that weren’t an MMO or multiplayer-focused game. People use their buying habits almost as barometers of intelligence, citing any ONE instance as the REASON why they don’t buy day one, as if it happens every single time. I once saw a glitch video of Skyrim with loads of these people posting beneath, I totally enjoyed it on day one… well that was it, I enjoyed it and everyone else denied whilst patting themselves on the back for their imaginary victory. Just thought it was bizarre, worrying so much about make-believe, paranoid internet comments that they don’t buy the game they want so they feel better? Still bizarre.
I’ve run into enough bugs to have a healthy sense of caution… but mostly I’m just cheap.
Day 1 I don’t mind for some games, assuming the reviews aren’t bad and they’re not online-heavy. Single player stuff is generally OK. But I won’t pre-order stuff anymore.
I’ve never bought anything day one and never will. In fact I’ve never payed more than $20 for any game; those steam flash sales are great a year or two after something is released, I pay less and get a game that’s much more likely to run well on my PC to boot.
The fact that they even tried this BS to begin with means they’re not getting any money from me. Ever. They can back pedal all they want.
Square Enix have shown their true colours.
Ah, video games and the patch cycle… where paying more for the product means you get an inferior product.
Personally, I think the preorder paradigm should change to ‘rewards for Day one’ (or close to it) purchases. All that DLC and bonuses should be available for purchases made after the reviews have landed and while all the launch bugs are out before the price goes down and stability goes up.
With piles of shame being so high everywhere, I don’t think ‘impatience’ is really cutting it as an incentive to buy at the higher price/shoddier build. “I can wait,” is all too easy, now. There should be incentive to buy full-price and I think it should REPLACE pre-order bonuses.
Trying to get money for a product that isn’t even out yet and hasn’t been reviewed isn’t a sale of the product, it’s a sale for the product’s marketing, and that’s bullshit.
Don’t believe for a second that this was changed because Square was ‘listening to fans’. I’d say it was because pre-order projections weren’t being met and they thought they might get a bump if they removed the augmentation.
That’s what they think ‘listening to fans’ means. Listening to wallets.
Not to play the apologist, but whilst you are probably right in your reasoning why they are changing it, pre-order projections, that in itself is a form of listening to their customers. The usual fallback to a company being a jerk is to “vote with your wallets” and that is a sound that can be heard and acted upon by said company.
On a side note, SE have actually been pretty transparent and up front with a lot of their customer interactions lately.
I understand what you mean. I guess I was seeing Square as trying to get a PR boost as a ‘caring corporation’. True altruism for me is doing something good at your expense when there’s no-one there to see and with no hope of a reward for doing so. I hope this was a situation where ‘vote with your wallets’ actually achieved something! 🙂
Meh, this is as good as it gets coming from a major corporation like Square. This is saintly compared to most of the shenanigans, and the speed and decisiveness with which they acted is worthy of applause. They tried to cash in, and they fell on their face, and recovered gracefully. Can’t really criticize a business for trying to make more money, that’s the whole point 😛
I’ll criticise any business that uses psychological exploitation to try to make money. Thing is, none of the stuff that Square was offering was less than 100% guaranteed to be made anyway. I’d guarantee that everything (except perhaps the 4 day early release – LOL) will be available to buy at some point. It wasn’t a bit like Kickstarter’d stretch goals, even though they made out like it was. Companies that engineer their games so that they become grindy unless you engage in microtransactions, or companies that (like Ubisoft did with the US release of AC Unity) set up what are essentially gambling mechanisms to squeeze money out of people, are always worthy of scorn and derision, in my view.
Preordering isn’t thattt bad. It really depends on what it is you want. Some people just like merch. Lots of people ordered the Pipboy and COD mini-fridge. I don’t go that over the top but I’ll be damned if I miss out on the Nathan Drake Collection art book.
Totally agree. The only two reasons I’d pre-order would be for limited edition physical stuff (like the Mirror’s Edge Catalyst statue) or if the game likely has a small print run and probably won’t sell that well (like localised JRPGs for the Vita).
Nice move, Square Enix. Now just dump the 1 year Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity and I might consider buying another game of yours.