This is an odd bit of "exclusivity". For HITMAN, they're apparently offering a beta to all pre-orders, which are presently only available on PS4 and Steam. Xbox One owners can't currently preorder. Now, I don't really care about getting in on the beta, and I was already aware that there will be some PS4-exclusive stuff, but this is weird. You'd think they would still take Xbox One preorders and simply not give them access to the beta. I know some people have strong opinions on preordering (I don't really care to get a discussion of the merits of that), and for the record, I can certainly handle not preordering this for now. I just can't recall a time where someone won't take my money less than 6 months from a game's release. Can anyone recall any other instances of this?

Sony just paid them a bunch of money to get exclusive pre-orders, it would suck if you owned an xbox and could preorder the game without getting anything in return, even if what you get is just a demo (Oh sorry, beta...)

The hitman people just want to see X # of preorders so they can pat themselves on the back, as long as they get a good number on PS4 alone they don't need the xbox preorder sales.

It's another example of how dumb pre-orders are. Stop paying for them.

Even buying the full retail release is kinda like preordering considering the way they will be shipping content later on.

You can't currently preorder Star Wars Battlefront for Xbox One, either. You can for the other platforms, though.

I don't blind purchase games so it doesn't affect me any, though.

I'll be damned. Maybe this is more common than I thought. This was just the first time I can recall running into it.

Yeah, that setup is interesting. Conceptually, I think the idea of having the community all focused on one environment or a few targets at a time is really cool and adds a layer of immersion to the "hits". I'm just curious to see how much (or how little) content there is on December 8th, and if they'll be able to keep everyone's interest in between releases of the new content.

Sony wasting a bunch of money on worthless "exclusives" like this. Did Microsoft even have a single "first on Xbox!" type exclusive at this E3? Maybe they finally realized that a few "real" exclusives like Tomb Raider are better than getting betas or CoD maps a few weeks early.

Yeah do yourself a favor and don't pre order it regardless. I hope it's worth it when it comes out.

This is great.

I wish this would apply to all games on all platforms.

Because fuck pre-orders.

Don't preorder games.

Depending on the general consensus around this I might pre order to get that beta. I really like hitman and they seem to want to get away from the shit show that was absolution.

Nah, imma still preorder games I know I'll want to play ASAP regardless of reception.

You can preorder the physical copies of this game via Amazon btw. So technically can preorder this.

Hitman is a strange case however. The game won't received an on-disc release until the game is "finished". It will get a digital release this December and received content updates afterwards. So until they're done with those updates there will be no disc to purchase.

Also don't preorder games. Ever. There is rarely a supply problem, you can wait at least a few days before a release and read reviews, and you'll never run into a Halo MCC kind of problem. Stop preordering games.

IIRC, Tomb Raider is a timed exclusive, so that might not be the best example. Granted, an "exclusive first on" entire game is a bit different than "exclusive first" CoD maps, betas, and the like. I agree that Sony pushing mostly in-game exclusive content for 2015 up against Halo 5, Forza 6, and Tomb Raider (for the time being) isn't exactly impressive. Regardless, I'm not much of a fan of this practice of Sony or Microsoft paying for "first" or "exclusive" content/games from existing franchises. Short of them funding a game that otherwise wouldn't exist (which isn't the case here, as the continuation of the Hitman and Tomb Raider series was happening anyway), it's basically choosing to hurt the fans of the competition, and both of them are guilty of it at this point. It's like DLC, except instead of devs putting content being put behind a paywall, it's put behind a "do you happen to own the console that bribed us?" wall.

I'm not on board with this practice. Actual exclusives like Halo, Forza, et al. demonstrate console-specific value to me (among other things). Purchased exclusive games/content, not so much. Full disclosure, I'm a huge fan of the Hitman games, and I must admit that as an Xbox One owner, I'm a bit miffed at the PS4-exclusive content here. I plan on getting a PS4 eventually, but a beta, the ability to pre-order now, and a few PS4 missions (which will probably be sold later as DLC anyway) isn't exactly system-seller territory. So, yeah, given that I'm arguably Sony's target market here, it looks like money wasted, as you said.

Tomb Raider is timed exclusive and the rest of their offering is extremely dull. I personally would've been pretty bummed missing all the PS exclusive content on a content starved game like destiny. That beta of hitman will probably make me pre order the game.

Also post post apocalyptic open world robot dinosaurs.

Xbox preorders usually don't go up until you can actually get the game on your console which is the way to go for digital games IMO. Sony put preorders up for a ton of games with no release dates during the last E3.

I'm not. Games are always available day one at basically any store that sells media. Especially big games like Hitman.

But I understand where you're coming from. Games are awesome.

@spraynardtatum: If digital stores keep offering good discounts (20%+) on preorders I'm gonna keep getting the ones I know I want to play. Even if this turns out to be the worst hitman game yet I'm still going to get a good couple hundred hours out of it, for example.

The worst part is that I understand how and why this happened. This is fucked up

WHAT A NIGHTMARE

I'm a big proponent of not preordering too, but the rebuttal to this I often hear is, "I'm going to buy these games on day one regardless of if they are any good or broken or not, so why not preorder?" This kind of attitude blows my mind. It's no wonder that companies keep producing broken and terrible games one after another.

I wish consumers as a whole were smart enough to realize the implications of their actions as a group. If people stopped preordering and blind purchasing games and waited until the finished product was actually out to see if the games were any good or not, maybe this industry wouldn't be so plagued with many of the problems that it currently is.

@mb: In a world where people are getting used to buying games in early access and have it be completely broken, pre-purchasing another game and have it be broken for a week or month after release isn't a big deal. But it is crazy that we're rewarding broken games so much and then reacting so angrily when they, once again, release something that's broken.

Consumers almost act as if they HAVE to give these developers and publishers their money and they're fighting to not be taken advantage of.