L.A. Noire Pre-order Controversy

[Chaos Raiden]

If gamers dislike anything more than on-the-disc-DLC or same day DLC, it has to be multiple pre-order bonuses. With the upcoming release of L.A. Noire in May, gamers are going to have to choose where they pre-order their game based on the sort of bonus they receive. This creates an issue which will favor Rockstar monetarily in the end.
This is becoming an alarming trend. Gamers have seen this pre-order dilemma before with last year’s Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar is providing certain stores with different pre-order bonuses for L.A. Noire. Here is the list.

• Amazon will provide gamers with the “The Broderick” Detective Suit and $10 Videogame E-Gift Card. Not only does the suit look good, but it also makes gamers more damage resistant as well as increasing the damage gamers can do in melee combat. Pre-order at Amazon now: L.A. Noire
  
• Walmart has the “A Slip of the Tongue” Detective Case and $10 E-Gift Card. The rumor is, the case adds 30 minutes of extra game play.
• GameStop is giving gamers the “The Naked City” Vice Case and The Badge Pursuit. This Badge Pursuit adds collectibles for gamers to track down. Collect all the badges and resourceful gamers receive additional weapons and ammo. The Naked City bonus gives additional game play revolving around a model’s suicide.
• Lastly, Best Buy has the “The Sharpshooter” Detective Suit which provides gamers with better aiming precision.

The point here is that there is no way to get all the pre-order bonuses. One would have to buy at least three copies of the game. Most gamers do not have the means to do this. I’m sure this stuff will come out in DLC eventually or if the game sells well enough, gamers will see a GOTY edition within a year. Better yet, maybe the consumer-savvy gamer should wait a few months and get the game cheaper.

The bigger problem here is the mentality Rockstar is encouraging. The company is putting gamers and stores into a bidding/buying war and based on the bonuses, it’s going to be a tough decision outside of what Best Buy has to offer. To make things even more complex, Rockstar is giving PS3 owners some extra exclusive in-game content as well. This practice just goes to show Rockstar is only interested in making money and doesn’t care about its audience. This is just another practice to squeeze every dime from gamers while driving up day-one sales.

The future solution is to release everything that was going to be considered as pre-order bonuses as DLC as soon as possible. Most gamers would be on board with this even if the DLC was released the same day as the game. This is still better than the multiple store pre-order train wreck. Rockstar, here are good examples of a decent pre-order bonus to offer: early access to a beta, early access to reduced-price DLC, or different car/gun/character skins. As of right now gamers are trapped in Rockstar's web trying to decide which pre-order bonus is the most appealing.

Source: http://goozernation.com/video-games/index.php/news/543-la-noire-pre-order-controversy-

 

[Esura]

Well, that ends me buying this game.

Tired of this DLC milking ****.

 

[Vergil'sBitch]

*cries* I miss the days of 'straight-into-the-console' gaming.
(Ie Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.)

 

[V]

Or the days of paying and just getting the full game on the disc, to play.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Its not controversial really and most people do it now, some DLC bonuses for ordering game with certain stores. Its not a nice trend but in the long run it works out cheaper than the way some companies release DLC.

They will all be released on the marketplace at a later date and Rockstar have already confirmed this and its nothing more than some cheap 'perks' and some extra cases so technically you could get them all. Also they will release a special edition that comes with them all like what happened with Red Dead Redemption and it was the same price as a normal copy. I preordered to get the extra cases as they are the best value and may get the others when they come to the marketplace as they have some nice perks with them, will cost a couple of pound.

Im the type of person who doesnt purchase DLC unless its value for money and the price matches that value. The 2 best ive had so far are Battlefield Vietnam DLC and Undead Nightmare DLC for RDR. People could say that technicially they could have been on the disc and not DLC but they released them down the line and were great and i dont regret purchasing them for a second.

Now some little perks for a couple of pound if i want them isnt bad at all.

Well, that ends me buying this game.

Tired of this DLC milking ****.

Will be missing a great game then and wont be purchasing many games in future as most big games companies plan to do it in future. Having to pay for new maps is milking games not adding bonuses and extra actual content. Im not a fan of companies milking people for DLC but i dont think this way of doing things is that bad in the long run.

Now if it was say CoD style map packs for 1200 points or around £10.99 people can complain but some little bonuses for preordering at no extra cost and then a couple of pound down the line on the marketplace is better value for money than that. Frustrating that you have to choose between stores though, same happened with New Vegas too.

Or the days of paying and just getting the full game on the disc, to play.

They are 'perks' with bonuses and not content taken out of the game. Your not losing anything by not having them but people who do have them have an edge with perks. The extra cases arent part of the main story and were added for fun by the developers for anyone who wants them. Most developers would just release them 6 months down the line instead. Would be pretty pointless adding perks/bonuses at all if everyone could have them from the word go.

I can see it from both points of view but it does work out cheaper for companies to do it this way rather than release them all as one pack down the line. As people can tell i was a big RDR fan and still play it and im really looking forward to this game too and wish Team Bondi and Rockstar the best of luck in making it as good as it can be.

This practice just goes to show Rockstar is only interested in making money and doesn’t care about its audience. This is just another practice to squeeze every dime from gamers while driving up day-one sales.

See i dont agree with that, id say its them giving something back to the gamers who have put faith in them creating a great game and without hearing any reviews or playing the game they have took a chance and preordered it regardless. So as reward for doing this they have been given bonuses and by varying the bonuses they can please most people. Some people dont want 'perks' or any extra help so they can have extra cases for example.

 

[V]

I was just gonna say, I expect the controversy will blow over when Rockstar decide to release ALL the content later on to everyone. If their goal is to make more money, hyping up exclusives at the start and then making them available to all later is the way to go. Kind of ****ty on the buyers, but to be expected, just as it is with games that are supposed to be exclusive to one console and later get ported. It makes no sense from the company's perspective not to.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I was just gonna say, I expect the controversy will blow over when Rockstar decide to release ALL the content later on to everyone. If their goal is to make more money, hyping up exclusives at the start and then making them available to all later is the way to go. Kind of ****ty on the buyers, but to be expected, just as it is with games that are supposed to be exclusive to one console and later get ported. It makes no sense from the company's perspective not to.

They already stated that ALL preorder content will be available on both Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN at a later date like it was with RDR. Though they also apologised for how long the RDR content took to get to the marketplaces due to unforeseen techncial issues and that L.A. Noire's would be available much faster.