Deus Ex Mankind Divided Pre-Order Program Takes Crowdfunding Approach

[Conrad Zimmerman]

Deus Ex Mankind Divided Pre-Order Program Takes Crowdfunding Approach

Game offered four days early if enough copies are sold.

Square Enix has announced a pre-order campaign for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided which draws inspiration from the crowdfunding phenomenon, giving rewards to purchasers as the number of pre-ordered copies rises.

Consumers who pre-order Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and register their purchase with a Square Enix account will be entitled to receive their choice of rewards from up to four tiers. The first tier, which consists of alternate costumes for main character Adam Jensen, is available from the start of the program today. Future tiers offer access to a digital soundtrack sampler, an art book, a novella and a bonus mission. New tiers will unlock as pre-determined sales targets are reached, culminating in an early release of the game on February 19.

How many copies of the game need to be sold to unlock the additional rewards has not been divulged, with the game's website merely listing the percentage of the company's overall pre-order sales target necessary to unlock individual tiers. Customers will also only be able to select one item from each of the program's five tiers, meaning they'll have to make a choice between an art book or a soundtrack and a comic book or a novella, assuming all tier goals are met.

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Pre-orders are more important to big games publishers than ever before, and "Augment Your Pre-Order" is a brazen move to drive them. While Square Enix is presenting the program as offering choice by allowing purchasers to select the pre-order bonuses they want, locking items behind tiers with ambiguous goals as a means of encouraging consumers to shill the product in order to obtain access to the bonuses seems more exploitative of them than anything.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is scheduled to release for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 23.

Source: Official Site [https://www.deusex.com/augmentyourpreorder]

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[Bindal]

Okay, tiered pre-order... and what's new about that? If I am not mistaken, that happened two or three times on Steam as well. I know for certain it happened with XCOM Enemy Unknown.

 

[Conrad Zimmerman]

Okay, tiered pre-order... and what's new about that? If I am not mistaken, that happened two or three times on Steam as well. I know for certain it happened with XCOM Enemy Unknown.

Steam is not the home console market. This will likely be the first exposure to this kind of system for a large number of consumers.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Square-Enix quickly became one of the greediest publishers in the industry. Some of the things they've been doing are worse than even the stuff that comes out of Ubisoft, EA and Activision. First they take the money from Microsoft to make Tomb Raider a timed exclusive, then they try to sell half the game (Hitman) for full price promising to release the full game eventually. And now this crap?

This doesn't feel like a reward. It feels like keeping the content hostage and forcing people to pre-order if they want all the content. If they need to resort to this so people would pre-order a freakin' Deus Ex game that is also a direct sequel to a critically acclaimed title, it makes me question the quality of the core game. And if enough people pre-order they get the game 4 days earlier? So they're actually delaying the game for 4 days unless you pre-order? Are there gamers dumb enough and impatient enough so that they can't wait a few days to see if the game is any good? How many times do gamers need to be burned by greedy publishers to stop fuckin' pre-ordering?

Let us also remember that they've initially put ads in Deus Ex: Human Revolution but they were forced to remove them because paying customers got upset.

 

[Andy Shandy]

You know, I like the idea of a "Pick and choose" collector's edition. So many times I've seen parts of these collector's editions I really like the look of mixed with stuff I don't, and it often costs more than it's worth, and I wouldn't mind the ability to only get the stuff I want and lower the cost.

I say idea, because I sure as shit didn't ask for this.

Tiered rewards (a bad idea outside of crowdfunding) mixed with this "pick and choose" is bloody awful.

I really hope that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is great, but I really, really hope no-one pre-orders with this nonsense.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

*Scanning for positive, pro-consumer business practice*
...
...
*None found*
...
*Scanning for negative, anti-consumer business practice*
...
...
+_::/:?//"I'")(...
!!Shutdown imminent!!

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Well, it could be worse. When I read the title, I thought it would be more like on Kickstarter with the milestones.
X amount of pre-orders, we make more content.
2X amount of pre-order, we make even more content.
Kinda like holding the game hostage despite being a big publisher. That being said, what was once a pre-order bonus is now taken hostage, so it's a matter of months before they take content that was supposed to be part of the game hostage. I give them 2 games until they do that, starting with after Deus Ex. The 4th game from now will have pre-order taking content hostage.

 

[Blazing Hero]

This might be the worst pre order scheme I have ever seen. Was Square looking at all the attention Konami was getting and became jealous?! Welp I will be waiting on a Game of the Year complete edition in this case. There is no way I am supporting a game out of the gate that uses pre orders in this fashion.

 

[09philj]

You know, I like the idea of a "Pick and choose" collector's edition. So many times I've seen parts of these collector's editions I really like the look of mixed with stuff I don't, and it often costs more than it's worth, and I wouldn't mind the ability to only get the stuff I want and lower the cost.

Or a set price with a "pick x bonuses". Like the way perks and equipment work on CoD.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Yeah, how about no? Pre-orders are still shit. Even if the game is highly likely to be good, we shouldn't reward this kind of behaviour in the industry.

 

[mad825]

So most of the content will be released as DLC, the OST will also be incomplete like it was last time. Does this also mean that this time round there won't be a collectors edition? I mean like physical goodies that defines the collector in "collectors"?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Square-Enix quickly became one of the greediest publishers in the industry. Some of the things they've been doing are worse than even the stuff that comes out of Ubisoft, EA and Activision. First they take the money from Microsoft to make Tomb Raider a timed exclusive, then they try to sell half the game (Hitman) for full price promising to release the full game eventually. And now this crap?

Have you not said something like that about Konami, Warner Bros., and many other publishers?

Can we all just agree that the Gaming Community just hates the Current AAA scene as of late? No need to label one company as "WORST THAN EA"

 

[Doom972]

Square-Enix quickly became one of the greediest publishers in the industry. Some of the things they've been doing are worse than even the stuff that comes out of Ubisoft, EA and Activision. First they take the money from Microsoft to make Tomb Raider a timed exclusive, then they try to sell half the game (Hitman) for full price promising to release the full game eventually. And now this crap?

This doesn't feel like a reward. It feels like keeping the content hostage and forcing people to pre-order if they want all the content. If they need to resort to this so people would pre-order a freakin' Deus Ex game that is also a direct sequel to a critically acclaimed title, it makes me question the quality of the core game. And if enough people pre-order they get the game 4 days earlier? So they're actually delaying the game for 4 days unless you pre-order? Are there gamers dumb enough and impatient enough so that they can't wait a few days to see if the game is any good? How many times do gamers need to be burned by greedy publishers to stop fuckin' pre-ordering?

Let us also remember that they've initially put ads in Deus Ex: Human Revolution but they were forced to remove them because paying customers got upset.

Ever since the DXHR Director's Cut I don't trust Square Enix or Eidos Montreal, and The Fall assured me that they're milking a franchise beloved by hardcore gamers in the most cynical way possible. I pre-ordered DXHR but I won't do it this time, no matter what they'll offer.

 

[llubtoille]

While a tiered pre-order system is rather odd, I think the rewards they've chosen is really quite fair.
The in game stuff is all guaranteed at tier 1, while tiers 2-4 is like the stuff they'd normally chuck into the deluxe edition.
The 4 day early access (assuming they reach that goal), not worried as someone who doesn't pre-order, Deus Ex is usually a tough game to spoil and I know how to avoid them if I care. Also means a mass of people are doing a test-run for me, so by the time it officially releases there'll probably be a nice day-1 patch out to fix a bunch of bugs.

 

[PBMcNair]

Okay, tiered pre-order... and what's new about that? If I am not mistaken, that happened two or three times on Steam as well. I know for certain it happened with XCOM Enemy Unknown.

Indeed, but at least XCOM's were fairly small and cosmetic.
This seems to be more substantial.

Not getting a good feeling about this.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Well, pre-order bonusses are hitting a new low. Not like they ever had a peak of positive inpact or anything...

 

[Sarge034]

Cosmetic stuff? Fine, whatever, knock yourselves out. Actual game content? Guess what game I was interested in that I am no longer... How's that for augmenting your pre-order sales SE?

 

[Rad Party God]

Nope. Fuck off Squeenix. First Hitman and now Deus Ex?, no, fuck off.

 

[NerAnima]

sad thing is, this bullshit is going to work out for squeenix and it will only get worse.

I hope not, it's probably a foolish hope, but I'd like for this to turn on them like the Xbox One, for people to actually realize how bullshit this is, to vote with their wallets, and to let them be burned horribly for this. Let companies who make such terrible decisions feel the fire of such shit practices.

Sadly, I don't that much faith in humanity, but it's nice to dream.

OT: Welp, I was interested in it when Jesse Cox spoke out about it, but this very well killed my excitement for it, probably wouldn't miss anything by just waiting for Persona 5 and nothing else this year; save myself a lot of disappointment, as well