Anyone eager enough to play the new Prince Of Persia game that they are willing to pre-order it will receive a surprise upgrade, Ubisoft have announced.

Through the magic of pre-release publicity, Ubisoft can turn your plain old regular Prince Of Persia game into a sparkly new Limited Edition Prince Of Persia pack.

All the usual Limited Edition boxes are ticked - Art Book, Strategy Guide, 'Collectible Packaging' (exactly who these collectors are is never adequately explained — do write in if you know someone who covets this kind of thing) and, of course, a soundtrack CD.

The Limited edition is only available via preorder so, if you were going to buy it anyway, why not snag yourself an Art Book?

Pre Order Prince of Persia, Get Free Upgrade to LE [Team Xbox]

I fully approve of the developing trend of letting you play bits of the game before they come out, with the bits you play actually effecting the full game. The Spore Creature Creator, for instance, which lets get your creatures ready for the full release, and now the Fable II Pub Games. The Fable II Pub Games, which will be available on Xbox Live Arcade next month, will allow players to participate in three lively fantasy gambling games, with the money you earn transferring over to the main game upon release. Earn big bucks playing "Keystone,", "Spinnerbox," and "Fortune's Tower," and your character will be able to start off the game right, ready to purchases weapons, dog tricks...the sky's the limit.

Best of all, while the Fable II Pub Games will be available for purchase at 800 MS points, preordering the game from participating retailers gets you the mini-games for free, my personal favourite price.

Build Your Fable II Gold with Pub Games [Xbox.com - Thanks Peter!]

For those of you out there that still doubt EB Games Australia has the exclusive on the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition, look no further than EB's own website. See that new banner, you know, the one that says "exclusive"? Yeah, that one.

Now, other retailers (such as GAME) have a similar bundle (the notable difference being a Brotherhood of Steel figurine instead of the PVC Vault Boy bobblehead), and some might believe it's the Collector's Edition. Sadly, I'm pretty sure you'll find it's the preorder bundle.

While the practice of offering preorder incentives for video games is ages old bow, generally you want to give things out that pertain to the game the customer is buying. Leave it to those innovators at the EA Online Store to blaze new marketing trails by sweetening the Mass Effect preorder pot with official Dead Space merchandise. While folks preorder the game through traditional PC outlets get a nice $10 off retail price, preordering at the EA Store snags you a copy of the first issue of the Dead Space comic book and a Dead Space poster.

Great! If you preorder now, we'll include you in our special marketing program for a completely unrelated game. It makes sense, doesn't it? People who preorder are already buying Mass Effect. Why promote a game they're already sold on when you can open them up to a whole new experience they might otherwise not give a damn about? Of course it switches the vibe from "Thanks for buying our game" to "Here, buy this other game", but why worry about semantics?

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Microsoft has announced a special offer for those of us willing to cop the $120 price tag of Grand Theft Auto IV and pre-order the game locally.

Inside each pre-order box will be a code for Xbox Live. The code will give you access to four exclusive GamerPics and 500 Microsoft Points to spend on whatever you like. The announcement notes that the code will only be included by "participating retailers", so be sure to ask before you make your purchase.

While a nice gesture to Xbox 360 owners, it's not enough to compensate for the high cost of the game - not that Microsoft has any control over this. More importantly, is it enough to coax you into spending your money in Australia? Let us know.

For those of you who felt gypped by not being able to get a US version of the MGS Anniversary Collection, it seems that Konami is throwing you something of a bone. PlayAsia is currently taking pre-orders for Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection for the PS2 that includes the original Metal Gear Solid as well as the directors cut of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. The listed price is $US 34.90 plus a $US 4 dollar shipping charge. If you are looking to delve into the world of MGS before MGS 4 comes out, this is the perfect way to do it at a reasonably low price.

Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection [PlayAsia]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]