Up For Debate - Do You Ever Buy Special or Collector's Editions of Games?

Written by Neil Soutter on Fri, Dec 21, 2018 4:00 PM
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While browsing the Ubisoft store I really was taken aback by the £215 Phoenix Shield Edition of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. I was taken aback because, well, right now you can buy a PowerColor Radeon RX 580 8GB that comes with a free copy of The Division 2 plus a game of your choice from Resident Evil 2 or Devil May Cry 5.

That just seems borderline crazy to me but, I guess, it comes down to the special goodies you get with The Division 2 Phoenix Shield Edition. For your £215 you get the game, a military man figurine, a soundtrack, a book of lithographs, the Year 1 season pass, the Battleworn Secret Service Pack, the 1st Responder Pack, the Elite Agent Pack, and the Capitol Defender Pack. All you’re really getting above and beyond the £92 Division 2 Ultimate Edition is the statue and the book of lithographs. Which seems pretty steep when the figurine doesn’t even appear to be of a named character.

But, time and again, practically every AAA game has numerous special editions, including a top-tier collector’s edition like this. So somebody must be buying them. You only have to look at the number of complaints about Fallout 76's nylon bag to see people will buy them just about anything.

At the moment I’m struggling to figure out what would encourage me to go above £50 for a game, let alone pay more than quadruple that price. I’d need something absolutely awesome in there, like an all-singing, all-dancing Roomba that can trim my beard, wipe my butt and cook dinner. Or perhaps myself appearing in the actual game. Then we can start talking £215.

So I’m going to open this one up to you as I’m really interested in the responses, both in terms of how many of you folks ever actually buy these things, and what in particular would encourage you to do so?

Do You Ever Buy Special or Collector's Editions of Games?

Do you pre-order the complete Gold Editions of games that include all season pass content?

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01:43 Dec-26-2018

ive bought a few but most of them were leftovers because someone ordered it and never picked it up. when the mortal kombat reboot came out, they had a set with book ends involving a fight between scorpion and sub-zero with scorpion driving a spear through a way into sub-zero. i have it on my bookcase and people always comment about it one of the gears of war (2 or 3) came with a book-style case and a metal gear in it. i ended up mapping it and using is as a retirement gift with personalized military coins inserted into it. someone ordered that one at best buy and never picked it up. i preordered DOOM for pc to get the Revenant statue.

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21:08 Dec-25-2018

Got enough junk in my house, so not really interested in the "privilege" of paying more for a game that comes with the DLC I don't want and more junk to collect dust on my shelves.

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21:17 Dec-24-2018

It seems something stupid to buy such things, i mean they are overpriced af, if theywere sold at a reasonable price, then i might consider if i like the franchise that much to get the collection.

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01:19 Dec-24-2018

The only special edition of any game that i have ever purchased is The Witcher 3: GOTY Edition. That's it. Otherwise I tend to get my games for free.

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07:43 Dec-23-2018

I never buy collector editions because the figurine or whatever would gather dust and end up in a drawer. On the other hand, I buy gold/deluxe/premium/whatever for a select list of games including Battlefield. I also bought For Honor Gold and I didn't play it that much...

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16:02 Dec-22-2018

The last i've got is Darksiders III Collector's,but that's mainly because i got Darksiders I and II collector's also and i wanted to support them.Still,didn't have the heart to buy Apocalypse Edition,simply because it didn't have all four horsemen.

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08:39 Dec-22-2018

First Game I pre-ordered as a Special, was Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate Edition.

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13:03 Dec-22-2018

Me too, and i don't regret it

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08:27 Dec-22-2018

Hell no but i screwed up the poll. :p
Hmmm C.A.N.V.A.S edition anyone?
I've pre-ordered several games and have never felt like someone screwed me over. Depends what you're looking for.
On a side-note i am really glad that i haven't bought Blunder 76: No refund edition

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01:26 Dec-22-2018

Nigga I haven't bought a game in my life !
loooooooooool

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20:46 Dec-22-2018

...Welp time to call the FBI on this one.

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01:04 Dec-22-2018

I collect PC games in Big Boxes. Does this count as a special edition?
I grew up in the 90's and early 2000's, back then every one had posters of favorite movies, cars, games etc. The bigger the better. That's why for every new and old game I like to buy I look for a physical copy first :)

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01:05 Dec-22-2018

For example:
-At the time witcher 3's DLCs came out I bought the 'physical' versions, in boxes including digital download + a set of gwent cards to play with friends.
-Diablo 2 in a big battle chest, MoHAA big box, Might and Magic I-VI limited edit (AUS ver.), factory sealed NFS3:HP big box
Sorry for the off topic :

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22:17 Dec-21-2018

I never buy special editions of any game. I just don't collect all those extras you get. I mostly just want to have game. As for pre-order, that is rarely, mostly franchises I know I would buy anyway, if they didn't go thorough troubling development. I mean it really needs to be low risk for me to buy.

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22:18 Dec-21-2018

However, outside pre-ordering, if I like the game I will mostly try to buy game and season pass, so I get all DLC. I mean 60EUR for full game is myth for a while now, real price is closer to 100EUR when you factor in all DLC and stuff. For 60EUR today you get base package, sure it is more than half, but not full.

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21:52 Dec-21-2018

My answer to the polls: Never, No

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21:55 Dec-21-2018

and I most likely never will.

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19:45 Dec-21-2018

depends on the game and the goodies i get from them and how badly i want it

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18:39 Dec-21-2018

Depends on the game. Collector editions of Skyrim, Witcher, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and a few others but they have to be games that I really want. If a physical edition of Metro Exodus becomes available here in the states I'll buy that one.

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18:26 Dec-21-2018

I did it only once , forgive me father for I have sinned
It was the collector's edition of Assassin's creed 3 , and boy oh boy was I hyped.AC was my favourite franchise and I thought it was going to be the last game ... oh well

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00:08 Dec-22-2018

AC3 was indeed super hype back then

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12:52 Dec-22-2018

Dude , AC3 was the first big disappointment in my life, I don't think I have fully recovered from it and to this day my ability to trust has never been the same .

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18:19 Dec-21-2018

It's pretty rare for me, but this year I did buy the Yakuza 6 special edition with the art book and whiskey glasses cause it looked cool. And it is

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18:08 Dec-21-2018

Used to, but the gaming industry has become kind of iffy. So, I typically just wait for a Steam/GOG sale and wait for everyone else to deal with the typical bug ridden mess that the AAA gaming industry likes to put out these days.

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17:22 Dec-21-2018

I only buy the special editions of games if I really like the game, the extra contents are very nice and if the price is not too insane. As for pre-orders, I don't do that anymore. Developers have stabbed me in the back every single time I pre-ordered. Not doing that crap again.

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17:19 Dec-21-2018

IMO The only games i even considered the collectors edition was for TitanFall 1 and 2 but mostly the first game since it had that robot that looks soooooo good

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17:01 Dec-21-2018

There's no reason for everyone to get a special collectors item if all they wanted is the game itself. Especially if the item that comes with the collectors/special edition is a piece of garbage like the fallout 76 nylon bag!

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Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
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