TheGameFanatics: Collector's Editions - What Makes Them Worth It?

Jen of TGF writes:

"What are your thoughts on collector editions for a video game? When is it a good buy or just another piece of junk that will just collect dust in your closet?
Many gaming companies put in the time, effort and money to give us gamers something to collect along side our games. Usually these collector editions run around $70 to $100 dollars, if not more. Instead of playing $60 dollars for a game, what makes us want to pay more for a few extra goodies? Is it loyalty to the game and its company? Could it be because you’re a collecting nut?"

[SullyDrake]

Like the GOWIII Ultimate Edition for example, which comes in a beautifully crafted model of Pandora's Box with a gorgeous art book, but also has bonus DLC codes for new costumes and challenge arenas, as well as a full soundtrack highlighting the entire series and the Blood & Metal EP.

I usually buy them for my favorite games, or when they're really original, like GOWIII, Bioshock 2, and Alan Wake for example.

[wiggles]

Yeah, I will usually buy the one's I like too.....praying for a "Dead Space 2" CE :)

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

What soured the GoW III was the fact that other than the Pandora Box (which kind of looked cheap in my opinion) and the art book (which was awesome), all the extra content was DLC. I wish that sort of stuff was on a blu-ray disc!

Problem with Halo 3: Legendary Edition was it didn't have the artbook or the nice case that the Limited Edition got i.e. Legendary Edition wasn't complete unless you also bought the Limited Edition, wtf?

Hands down the best Collector's/Limited Edition is Alan Wake. For $20 more you get a soundtrack, a hardcover book "The Alan Wake Files" in color, a bonus disc and a beautiful book like case to hold all the content. The game also comes in a special 360 case that makes it look like a DVD case though, and is distinguishable from the regular version.

The biggest gem in that whole thing though wasn't really all the tangible stuff, it was the bonus disc with all the extra material. It had a feature to install the game commentaries on your hard drive so when you played the game, the developers video would pop up and offer their comments!!! That is brilliant!

Now it had a crap load of stuff on it though including storyboard, images, trailers, free themes, gamerpices, avatar awards and etc...

[wiggles]

I don't consider myself a collecting nut, but I couldn't help myself but buy the Alan Wake CE....

It had a combination of added story elements as well as an interesting documentary on how the company and the games stages that it went through.

So I can say that I buy the CE as long as they add another layer to the story...and in Alan Wake's case I was more then satisfied.

[SullyDrake]

Really put the guys at Remedy into that lovable category like Naughty Dog and Insomniac and Santa Monica. And I love how after I completely play out the game and get all the achievements, there's The Alan Wake Files to dig into, plus a soundtrack which is great cuz all the music in the game was fantastic. Plus, we get the first piece of DLC free! =D

[Blacktric]

Just a stupid fad to make people pay more for a 50 or 60 dollar game in my opinion. Bought MW 2 Hardened Edition and I'm still regretting it. At least there is a statue comes with Halo: Reach but is it seriously worth to paying that much? Not for me. But I'll buy CE's as long as they come packed with good stuff like GoW III and Alan Wake's CE's. At least Pandora's Box was looking nice and Alan Wake CE came with "Alan Wake Files" that revealed some important things about the game.

[tdogchristy90]

yeah I'm the same way. When it gets down to it it's just more crap and more money on top of the $60. The only collectors i've ever bought were mw2 and halo3.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

I could care less for statues, and art books. I just want the exclusive content like armour, weapons, and flaming heads (halo reach).

[Hercules]

Nine times out of ten, it would become downloadable DLC, look at Batman. That's all I'm saying. I haven't bought a collector's edition in all my years of gaming.

[Senden]

I still have my ff8 tshirt and memory card stickers I got with my ff8 collectors edition :D god that was almost 10 years ago.

[The 10th Rider]

I want more collector's editions to come with metal cases, like Metroid Prime: Trilogy.

[SPARTANVI]

Worth it, to me, is additional in-game content. Plenty of people felt a MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet for the Halo 3 Legendary Edition was worth it.. I didn't, but I wouldn't mind having one of those on my shelf. Simply bad ass.

[SweetIvy]

... it's usually worth it.

I love my RDR warhorse, enjoy drinking from my Gears of War Mug, have stuffed a lot of things into my Pandora Box and also put the Morror's Edge yellow bag to use.
Of course on the shelf I have all the Assassin's Creed statues etc. etc. :).

Bioshock 2 had a great SE, probably the only real and worthy artbook.

[Katana Yamato]

I can tell you what's the worst Collector's Edition that i bought: DMC 4. The only thing nice about that CE is the Steelbook Case, but the content inside was disappointing. You get a DVD of the first 4 episodes of the horrible DMC anime (yes its horrible). You get sum stupid DVD with DMC 4 Producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi giving an interview (an interview that you can basically get from any gaming site online. For example, one question was is "If the DMC 4 team ate pizza while they were working on the game." I'm like who gives a damn!).

The DVD doesn't give you any footage of the motion capture session like the DMC 3 DVD had. Instead it gives you a few glimpses of it in a small window. The DVD also included wallpapers if you have a DVD-ROM in your computer...like i can't get that simply online...and probably better (since i don't have a DVD-ROM).

The only nice thing was that i Pre-Order from Gamestop and they give you this small artbook. But not even that was that great. The European CE came with a better artbook called "Art of the Devil" with a cool cover and sum unseen art from the Japanese exclusive true artbook "DMC 4 Materials Selection" (or whatever its called).

I've bought the SC 4 Collector's Edition. It was pretty okay. Only came with a crummy comic featuring Hilde and Mitsurugi (the art wasn't that great). And also it came with a T-shirt. Since i got the PS3 version, mines was a black shirt with Darth Vader and Mitsurugi. I wish i would've gotten the Xbox 360 one with Siegfried and Yoda...since i like Siegfried more).

So yeah...sumtimes CE's can be great (GOW, Halo anything from Atlus games) others are miserable waste of money (DMC 4 and probably sum others).

I know Atlus sumtimes give out great CE's with soundtracks.

[dizzleK]

i'm done being suckered in by this shit, the cheap ass batarang in arkham asylum was the last straw.

[AliTheBrit19]

I like awesome things that are simply enjoyable to have

For instance, the Fallout 3 lunchbox and bobble head standing on my Game/Blu-Ray/DVD/Bookshelf looks really awesome.

[Vortex3D]

What was the real meaning of "Collector's Edition"? Have the extra items made for the game and ALL those items remain "functional" several years later assuming you keep all the items that came in the Collector's Edition box. You can resell a 100% complete Collector's Edition set someday if you want. That made a Collector's Edition more value over the time.

Most of today's Collector's Edition games have some physical items such as an art book and making of the game disc but most come with DLC code for the special item. True that the DLC item has more use in the game than an art book but it changes the meaning to "collector". Once the DLC code is used, it's not collectable anymore by anyone else or if you change your gamer account. Just by that, you CANNOT resell a 100% Collector's Edition games that have DLC code. Even the DLC code is not used, it expires after a period of time and becomes a non-functional DLC item. So, most of today's Collector's Edition don't have the much value as used to be because you cannot buy a pre-owned 100% complete Collector's Edition.

My opinion is games that have extra DLC item should be called Limited Edition. Games that are called Collector's Edition should have everything non-DLC item.

Obviously game publishers have no concept anytime what is "collectable" other than they can sell the games for more than standard edition price.