I went to order Dawn of War 2: Retribution today and noticed the "Collector's" edition. For an extra $10 I could get a poster, art cards, a fancy box, and some in game items(that I probably would never notice).
This got me thinking about collector's editions of most video games.
I tend to buy them as they will have a music cd or some sort of statue or toy with it and they aren't usually that much more then regular editions.
But isn't calling it a collector's edition kind of a misnomer? Its not like the crap in the box will increase in value as time goes by. Actually its the opposite. How often do you see the collector's edition of something on sale or clearance somewhere a few months later for half the price?
Lets look at the collector's editions I've purchased recently.
Dead Space 2: came with a tiny version of the gun from the game that lights up, a music cd, and some crap. This was only like an extra $10 and with the credits I had from Amazon it wasn't that big of a deal. The music is nice and I geuss the gun is neat but it doesn't even have a display stand. For the cost it wasn't to bad but I probably wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have the Amazon credits.
Halo Reach Legendary: good god this thing was expensive. It came with a statue and some background booklets etc. For most this probably wasn't worht the money but the statue was really nice and I felt that it plus the other extras warranted the price unlike...
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: My wife wanted the game and I wanted the night vision goggles so it seemed like a good idea at the time. I used the goggle once and giggled at them. They are currently sitting in a box somewhere. They aren't even cool enough to put on display.
As for collector/limited editions coming out:
SOCOM 4 Full Deployment edition: Its the game plus the ps3 move system and the mp5 gun fram for a little over the price of the move system by itself. This is the way these things should be done.
Mortal Kombat Kollectors edition: extra $40 for a pair of bookends and some dlc costumes. I'm on the fence on this as the bookends are cool but $40 seems to be a little excessive...
So it seems like some game companies are getting to know what a "collector's" edition should have while others are still clueless or are trying to wring ever penny out that they can. Maybe instead of calling them collector's editions or limited editions just call them special editions or something akin to the SOCOM 4 one shown above?
Don't even get me started on special editions of blu-ray movies...that makes even less sense to me.
