Ferris and friends, based in Canberra Australia flag, blog about the cars and games that inspire them most.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

When Collector's Editions Aren't


As an unabashed BioWare fan, I was always going to purchase Dragon Age: Origins. When I saw that there was a Collector's Edition on offer, coming in a nice tin case with a cloth map, I immediately decided to sign myself up by pre-ordering a copy. I could quite easily complain about the common debacle of release dates - why did Australia supposedly have to wait until the 5th to get it until EB decided to break it and sell it early? Or the fact that Australians pay far too much for video games - why does it cost $100-$110 dollars compared to $50 in the US when the current exchange rate is $1AUD to 90c US? Both of those are perfectly legitimate questions that I'd love to get a reasonable answer for, but that's not why I'm unhappy right now.

My complaint is that I paid $20 extra for a so called "Collector's edition". A collector's edition that was supposed to come with a tin case and a cloth map. Instead, I received a game in a standard plastic case, wrapped in a cheap cardboard cover. One of the game's two "Game Discs" even came in a clear plastic sleeve as opposed to any sort of container. My bonuses for ordering the collectors edition are:
a) Four in-game items
b) One piece of DLC (that I could purchase separately if I so desired)
c) A bonus disc containing "making of" material.

This is hardly what I'd call a "collector's" edition, nor does it even live up to the claims of what the collector's edition is supposed to contain based on a simple web search. Not delivering the tin case and the cloth map borders of false advertising, and not including a jewel case (or something similar) to keep the two game discs together is very poor form. I cannot voice my disappointment strongly enough at this extremely poor delivery. I consider it highly unlikely that I'll order any more collector's editions if this is the dubious quality of the material that is going to be included in them.

I'll be forwarding this complaint to EA - it's practically misleading to call this a "collector's edition" when it's little more than the game plus downloadable content.