https://twitter.com/deusex/status/649570097980379136

Posted this morning from the Deus Ex twitter account. They have cancled the augmenting of your preorder campaign. I would post into better detail what their website has to say about it, but I can't load it up at the moment.

In any case we can all agree that it was a stupid idea to begin with right?

I didn't ask for it to happen, and I didn't ask for it to be shut down.

WHY DID NO ONE CONSULT ME

Well that's good. There's a lot of complaining online but sometimes it's right and some good comes about from it.

I pre-order games all the time and even this was too fucking much for me.

If there's one positive out of this mess, it's that we now effectively know what the limits of pre-order bullshit are.

How fucked up was it, exactly?

I mean, I remember 2K has done this several times, where like, the more copies of XCOM were preordered on Steam, you got some cosmetic DLC or something and eventually enough preordered that you got a free Steam copy of Civ 5. Bioshock Infinite had something similar, eventually giving you a free copy of XCOM on Steam.

@bisonhero: if enough people pre-ordered the game would release like 2 days early.

"So get all your friends to pre-order to help us reach the goal..."

You get what I'm saying

I was hoping they would completely remove the pre-order incentive in response to the criticism, but I suppose they don't want to be too crazy.

@bisonhero: I mean judge for yourself. It's pretty insane to me. I hate pre-order bonuses all together (which is why I don't pre-order a game until maybe the day before it comes out and there are reviews) but this basically has it so you can't even get all the bonsues in one go. You were selecting options from tiers like you were making a load out in Call of Duty or something. Plus it seems to me it's trying to leverage players into marketing the game for them by getting other players to pre-order the game so they can get an extra costume or something which is shitty.

I think the example you provide sucks too in its ways but at least it's basically you just get a free game possibly out of it. That is about as good of a pre-order bonus as you could get.

@bisonhero: none of the Deus Ex preorder bonus tiers included free copies of relatively recent games.

@sunbrozak: Mind, day one editions aren't the hardest things to come by in stores, at least in my experience.

Hm, on one hand I think preorder incentives are terrible (especially retailer-exclusive content, so either way I kinda think this wasn't going to be the worst thing), but on the other hand I feel like the last thing this industry needs is more gamer empowerment.

So it's a problem with the "rewards" and not with the method?

This was dumb. Pre-order bonuses suck.

Was this a fevered projection of a commercial path elevated to an exciting new degree of consumer madness? Yes. But it was fucking hilarious. That ad was insane!

Perhaps I'm just being a cynical pessimist, but to me it always seemed like a sneaky way to bypass reviews.

If enough people pre-order, then they will release the game 4 days early. However, they're not giving out any info about how many pre-orders there already are, or how far along towards this "early release" we actually are. Regardless of the actual numbers, I suspect they'd already planned on releasing it 4 days in advance anyway. So what's the upshot here? Well, the review embargos would still be on the original date.

Now I am not saying this will be a bad game. In fact, if Human Revolution is anything to go by, it'll probably be just fine. But what if it turns out to be less than stellar? Then they would've had 4 days of sales (on top of the pre-orders) before "the news" got out.

I could be all wrong about this ofcourse, but considering the amount of sneaky and manipulative marketing going around in this industry... Let's just say I've got my doubts about their motivations.

It's clear to me from the last years; Don't pre-order games that are made in the west.

Why are we here? Just to suffer? I still feel my preorder, my bonuses, even my dlc skins. Square-enix wants to send us to hell, but we are going even deeper.

Didn't care and it didn't affect me one way or another. Good job i guess.

It seems they upgraded their attitude.

I didn't actually expect them to do this. I can't remember any kind of precedent in games for this. Props to them for getting rid of this nonsense, even if it should never have been there in the first place.

Chalk up another tally for pointless internet whining.

Don't preorder games. Especially when you're buying them digitally. It's not like Steam's going to run out of ones and zeroes and you can't get a copy on release day.

Still can't believe people were up in arms over this objectively better version of the way preorder bonuses are handled for every other game out there. Well, good for you guys I guess while all the other publishers are sitting back and laughing.

.... what?

@colony024:No I'd say you make totally fair points. As well, I think it basically encourages fans to start their own efforts to market the game for the publisher. Fan communities driving pre-orders so they can play earlier or have more costumes or new weapons. I really am not some big conspiracy guy (especially when it comes to games) but this is rather transparent.

@starvinggamer: And I'm glad most people disagree with you when it comes to pre-ordering games.

What a terrible way to buy.

@artisanbreads: Preorder bonuses that you have to choose according to retailer are objectively worse than preorder bonuses that you can freely choose regardless of retailer.

@hassun: I have more faith in people :-)

The worst* part is how they've ruined the phrase "augment your game" which is just an awesome phrase that could represent a bunch of cool design features but instead we got a shoddy pre-order thing that they scrapped.

*not really

@starvinggamer said:

I see what you're saying, but wouldn't you agree that it'd be better if they didn't chop up shitty incentives by retailer? That's the solution they're going with now (Eidos Montreal); instead of choosing stuff you're getting all of it. Most likely as a make good, but ya know.

@oldirtybearon: No disagreement there. My whole point is that the vitriolic response people had to this preorder campaign was grossly disproportionate to the actual amount of shittiness in comparison to a great many other preorder bonus schemes.

@artisanbreads: Thanks for letting me know I am not completely insane haha. Conspiracy theory was exactly what I got accused of when explaining my point of view to some friends when this deal was announced. One of them actually said something along the lines of "why do you have to be so negative when all they're doing is offering something nice for the true fans". I honestly didn't even know where or how to begin to address the naivety on display there, so I just changed the subject.

@starvinggamer: Taken on its own, yeah, I see your point, but there has been grumbling for years about this kind of stuff. I think ultimately this was a good thing because Square Enix pushed the boundaries of this stuff as far as it would go, and now the industry knows what gamers won't accept for future titles. It's not exactly the abolition of pre-order incentives, but baby steps.

This sums it up. The whole thing is terrible.

Still the worst pre-order bonus was Mass Effect 3's (because it was huge to the storyline) but I think this was the most grossly laid out. It's very transparent.

I see a lot of people saying not to pre order games and I guess that makes me a bad person because I actually love preordering. GMG often discounts preorders and on top of that sometimes you can use coupon codes to discount the game even further and really of that game is something like MGSV which I know I'm going to love then I have absolutely no problems with jumping in and handing my money over. Obviously I don't do it for everything and I especially don't do it for any kind of game bonuses but if it's going to save me money on the end then I just might!

Ps mad max was some ridiculous price like 20AUD at one point somewhere for preorder but I just couldn't bring myself to get that game without waiting, so I do have some restraint :P

@caska said:

People started getting a hate boner for pre-orders when publishers figured out they can incentivize them by giving away harmless goodies. People responded by deriding the practice altogether regardless of circumstance or nuance. For instance Total Biscuit is probably the biggest talking head with regards to pre-orders, and his whole thing boils down to "you're a moron who can't make informed decisions for yourself, so wait until it's out and I have reviewed it to properly inform you!"

It's as transparent as this Augment Your Pre-Order stuff (which is, as a fellow pre-order...er pretty fucking groan worthy), but if the Internet has taught us anything it's that so long as you follow the desired narrative you can get away with saying all kinds of stupid shit.

Long way to go to basically say "yeah, I agree" but hey, I'm verbose and tired.

@oldirtybearon: The more recent "don't preorder, wait for reviews" idea that people are trying to push is that more and more companies are putting out completely borked games because they can get away with it, because they're getting all your preorder/season pass cash from blind faith regardless of the state of their QA.

@teddie said:

Except they don't. If you pre-order from Amazon, you don't have to pay a dime until the day it ships (from what I've been told). If you pre-order at a brick and mortar store like EB Games, your money is held in escrow, essentially, until you pick up your copy. I've put money down on games and they turned out to be shit (Alone in the Dark 5), and while I was at the till I told them I don't want it and it was no hassle at all to get my money back.

I have no idea how it works on Steam, because I've never pre-ordered a PC game (why would you?), but in terms of physical copies there are plenty of safety precautions in place to protect the customer. There's really no risk at all to pre-ordering, at least in the physical space.

@oldirtybearon: Oh, I don't really care whether people preorder or not, I was just telling you what the "don't preorder" culture seems to be about from my perspective/who I've heard talk about it. I preorder stuff I'm going to buy regardless of quality, so I don't actually subscribe to that idea to begin with. But I also know I'm accepting a risk when I do that, so I can at least see where those people are coming from.

I don't see where they're coming from on the Deus Ex thing though, this reaction seems way overblown. Especially when Tales Of Zestiria is doing the exact same thing right now and nobody cares (same thing when Portal 2 did something similar years ago). There's nothing any more "shady" or "anti-consumer" about this than any other product with a marketing strategy. Well, except for the part where they're holding the game's release back 4 days so they can offer 4 days "early" as an incentive.

@teddie: Oh, got'cha.

I imagine Tales of Zestiria isn't catching shit because nobody knows about it, at least nobody in the corners of the 'Net I frequent. Niche or smaller titles tend to get out of the firing line rather handily. I imagine Mankind Divided blew up like this because of the pedigree of the series, because Square Enix is a big publisher, and because this is a title many are awaiting with great anticipation. Couple that with the way the incentives were constructed, and it just rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Sometimes it's just the straw that broke the camel's back, you know?

@theht: I think it was part of it, and also that when you reach a tier you vote on what you think should be a bonus as opposed to something else. I guess they were trying to make it like the game where you have to pick what upgrades you put on Jensen knowing that you can't have it all (in one play through).

Steam has a refund policy now that works, that's why Batman Arkham Knight was pulled from Steam altogether. GOG and Origin have that too, so it's pretty safe now.

@oldirtybearon: That's kinda my point though. Squeenix didn't push any boundaries. It was just a slightly less shitty version of the pre-order bonuses that we've all grown used to. But everyone whipped themselves into a frenzy because it was something different and now they feel like they won a victory but no blow was struck and no statement was made against retailer-specific pre-order bonuses. In 3 years when everyone is struggling to decide whether to preorder Deus Ex 5 at Gamestop for the bonus mission or at Amazon for the exclusive stealth booster I'll just be sitting here shaking my head.

@starvinggamer: Fair enough, you may wind up being completely right. I'd like to think that this push back was indicative of something more, but I could be completely wrong. We don't live in an ideal world and it's not likely we'll get everything (or even remotely close to anything) we want out of this, so if that happens feel free to tag me in a PM and gloat.

Not being sarcastic, either. When Deus Ex 4 is being released and provided this site is still around, I grant you all permissions available to dance around singing:

Facebook reports from the publisher seem to indicate that the release date is getting pushed back to August 2016 now... good job they decided to kill the whole 'augment your pre-order to get the game early' thing as they would've been forced to give out refunds!