After looking at the Saints Row IV Collector's Edition, I felt very underwhelmed. The CE contains 3 things--a functional "Dubstep Gun" replicating its in-game counterpart that plays a dubstep track when the trigger is held with a laser guided sight, a "Doomsday Button" which again plays a dubstep track when pressed, and an 8-inch Gat statue. Like most Collector's Editions it costs $40 more than the base game price. On one hand, it's some pretty cool collector's toys for $40. On the other hand, it's $40 for some toys. I was disappointed at the lack of an artbook or OST as those are fairly standard in any Collector's Edition of a video game, but was pleasantly surprised at the lack of exclusive in-game content because Day 1 and on-disc DLC are a joke (even though SR4 DOES have locked pre-order DLC).

It got me thinking about some of the other Collector's Editions I'd purchased in the past. Most recently I received my Survival Edition of The Last of Us. It was $40 over base game price and included a hardcover art book, steelbook edition of the game, a special edition of Issue #1 of a comic based on the game, and a sticker sheet. It also includes a redeemable code which grants the OST in downloadable format, and exclusive PS3 Avatars and a Theme. Not the greatest value ever, but far from the worst. Art books are usually the majority of the value of a Collector's Edition anyways so I didn't really feel very remorseful about my purchase. My biggest issue with it was the fact that the box itself was made of surprisingly flimsy cardboard which is quite obviously easily damaged, and when buying a limited edition product the box itself is a fair part of the value.

Then I went in my closet and pulled out my Diablo 3 Collector's Edition and my Dead or Alive 5 Collector's Edition. My DoA5 CE is a bit..underwhelming. It's in a much higher quality protective metal tin, which is very nice. The art book is really nothing special for this game..at all. 90% of the art book is just in-game screenshots, with half a dozen pages at the end showing concept arts for the fighters. There's also a poster (unsure of measurements) which is a full rendering of all of the fighters in the same picture that the game cover is taken from. There's a voucher to allow you to unlock 'swimsuit' costumes for the female fighters (which I never even used), which was later sold as DLC anyways. There's a code which you can redeem for a tutorial on how to use one of the fighters in the game, which seems a bit moot to me as there are full in-game tutorials for every fighter. Finally there's the OST (which is probably the most appealing part of the package) and a regular copy of the game. Honestly, the value isn't that bad but DoA5 as a whole is really consumer unfriendly. There were 'exclusive' costumes available depending on where you preordered the game from, meaning that you could never actually purchase a complete version of the game unless you bought several different copies. However, these costumes were later released as purchasable DLC anyways, which made both the CE and preorder costumes completely non-exclusive. The only DLC came in the form of costumes, which were around $15 bundled and released every other month. That's not horrible on its own as it's completely optional whether to buy them or not and it's just aesthetic items, the biggest issue was with the fact that people who had not purchased that particular DLC could not see you with it. Kinda takes away a lot of the value.

Diablo 3, regardless of its shortcomings as a game, had a great Collector's Edition. The box is very high quality as well as not being easily damaged. It includes a regular copy of the game as well as a few Guest Passes which come with every physical copy of D3, as well as license keys for Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lords of Destruction (each game is $10, so $20 total value). The art book is huge and contains hundreds of high quality artwork, renderings, and concept arts for the game. There's a Behind the Scenes DVD that goes through the making of the game (never watched). There's a box which contains a "Diablo Skull," into which you can plug an included 4GB USB "Soulstone" which comes pre-loaded with D2 and D2:LoD. It also included 2 exclusive in-game armor dyes, as well as toggleable "Angelic Wings," which were really cool on their own. There was also an in-game World of Warcraft pet if you had a WoW license on your account, as well as Starcraft II portraits. Additionally, if you already owned the Diablo 3 base game from another promotion they had on at the time, the CE also granted 4 months of World of Warcraft game time to offset the difference ($60 value). I mean, fuck Blizzard, but this was still a great value.

tl;dr: See title. Also hope SR4 is good.

1 decade ago*

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Wall of text! :D
I don't understand the purpose of digital collector's edition, only physical editions. Content that is very limited perhaps?
In my opinion, to add just some DLCs to a game and call it "Collector's Edition" is just not right.

1 decade ago
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Never cared for them to be honest. If I did I guess I'd like to see a high quality artbook and some kind of 'behind the scenes' dvd. Borderlands' 2 bobblehead wasn't too bad, so something along the lines of that maybe.

1 decade ago
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These days most you can expect is DLC what should be included in the main game anyway. Regular buyers got screwed.
And if you're lucky a pdf with artwork and the soundtrack in mp3.

1 decade ago
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OST should be already included with the game when you purchase it, without paying extra.

"Collector's" editions should only be boxed, including artbook, early sketches, physical copy of the game with different artwork on to cover and OST and not cost gorillion amount of euros.

1 decade ago
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Blizzard does make beautiful collectors editions, damn them :|

1 decade ago
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CDProjekt Red does Collector's Editions right.

1 decade ago
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To be fair, they do all editions right.

1 decade ago
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One time I asked if Gamestop would let me replace my Collectors Edition of Fallout New Vegas with a regular copy,and then in a few days come back and upgrade it back to the Collectors Edition because I was needing the money for Halo Reach and I was going to get money the next couple days but they said no,pissed me the fuck off because now I regret never getting it.

1 decade ago
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That seems like it would be silly of them to do.

1 decade ago
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Don't know why they would want to do that.

1 decade ago
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It honestly depends on the game. I have bought a ton of "Collector's Edition" & "Special Editions" for various games. I can not say that I regret any of those purchases, but some are clearly more content packed than others. As far as my XB360 games are concerned... I tend to be a bit of a steel book collector. Don't know why, just like them. I hate when CE's do not have them.

1 decade ago
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Physical wise I usually enjoy an Artbook with a decent amount of pages in it, Hopefully not just screenshots. Possibly a cosmetic item only included in the CE, Nothing game changing or OP, Just a unique item or effect to show your support. Possibly a statue, But I'd only go this far if it was a franchise I really loved. Also, soundtracks are always decent in my opinion.

Digital Wise, I usually only look to pay around £10 or more (again, depending on my liking of the franchise) as it's digital and hope for a few cosmetics and nothing game changing to make me win every time as some do. Perhaps a digital soundtrack of the game or concept arts etc.

1 decade ago
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Tl;dr: I expect the same thing in a different box.

1 decade ago
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wut

1 decade ago
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Tl;dr: I expect the same thing in a different box.

1 decade ago
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Physical CE are great, though I don't buy them since they are way too much expensive. I have a few but that was long ago before downloadable version became so cheap. And digital CE are joke.

1 decade ago
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I personally hate all this " a gun here, a car there, here's some clothing " dlcs. Good DLC has storyline, actual gameplay that adds to the main game AND on top of that, they can throw that gun, car, clothing shit on there as bonus. DLCs can suck ma balls!

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? A REAL LIFE DUBSTEB GUN? I NEED ONE OF THOSE NOW!
I do really like the "real life" collector's edition, with ost (Clearly SR4 is not a game with, let's say, a full ost), an artbook maybe, some goodies like stickers or such, and finally, one of those replicas. I can't expect too much from the special editions, i don't really care, but well, seems like people like to waste money on some random shit. (I will try to buy that Collectors edition because i'm an idiot that likes random shit!)

1 decade ago
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I don't see what the hell he is complaining about... In Saints Row 4 you fucking get the dubstep gun, a button in a case and a statue of the most iconic character in the franchise. Those are three physical things which are way above any posters or cards. Then of course you also get a dlc with some stuff in-game, sounds like above average collectors edition to me.

1 decade ago
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Collectors editions have always been silly. They charge you an extra 50% or more over the base game price for a bunch of crap that it cost them only a few dollars to produce.

1 decade ago
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Must haves for me to consider a collectors edition:
Not to be too overpriced, If I'm getting enough stuff to make my money go that extra 20$ or 30$ great, however 50 - 100 $ more then the base less you have the holy grail of content in there in both physical and digital I'll stick to the base.
Art book.
Original Sound Track physical or digital. ( Prefer physical )
Some form of limited or very early (like a few months early) in game content of some sort, or like an included season pass for the game content when it does come out.
Possible model, pins, hat, T-shirt, poster, or other game/series related "swag".
If it was lacking something of the above I'd only consider it if it had some form of extended story line, or alternate scenes either in the main game or in a video gallery.

Long story short I don't buy them very often, but its not to say I don't like them just for the extra price the extra's have to make me feel that its worth not getting another game on top of the base, to get the collectors edition.

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by sunshoes.