Digital artbooks and soundtracks on console seem more and more common and utterly useless. Does anyone like them?

I'm the kind of person who almost always buys the "deluxe" version of a game because it bothers me a little to have content that I may never have access to. I realize that companies take advantage of that by offering crappy bonuses that aren't worth the money, but since I often wait until games are pretty deeply discounted the actual difference in cost is often very small and I don't mind paying a couple extra bucks for costumes I may never use, or more than a couple bucks for substantial DLC additions like you might see in an Ubisoft game (I am particularly fond of the Far Cry series' tendency to include remastered versions of whole games.) Back when themes were a thing on PS4 I didn't mind throwing in a buck or two for a cool theme, though I felt they were better as pre-order bonuses.

The recent, trend, however, has been to focus on digital art books and OSTs. These have gotten me to change my ways and start ignoring most "deluxe" versions because they seem entirely useless to me. First of all they are ridiculously easy to pirate and any truly cool art or music will make its way to the Internet anyway, sometimes in legitimate forms too like promotional art on the company's website or the OST as an official release on Spotigy or Youtube.

Secondly I don't even WANT to pirate them, and have never attempted to do so, because they're pointless anyway. I'm nto going to turn my console on to listen to an OST and I'm even less likely to do so to view some digital art. A couple games like the Medieval remake have come with digital comics, which I did download and look at, but it was a very underwhelming experience to say the least.

Who are these things for? Are they just so easy to make that the people who buy them compulsively make it worthwhile? Do enough people not even bother looking at what a Deluxe edition includes that it's worth the extra sales? Is there an actual audience?

Maybe turning your PS5 on just to listen to a game OST is more popular in Japan (a lot of games that do this tend to come from Japanese publishers) but I really don't get who the audience is. Why not just listen on Spotify or Youtube?

In conclusion....BRING BACK THEMES SONY, YOU COWARDS!

I don't ever buy deluxe editions for digital stuff unless they're running some weird sale where it's on sale for less than the standard edition. I care very little about DLC for a game. By the time that stuff comes out, I've already moved on to playing something else. Physical art books look nice on a shelf, but I have no real need for a digital one. The only thing I do care about is a soundtrack. I've never used Spotify and I'm usually not using Youtube to listen to a full album. That said, I'm usually buying digital game soundtracks separately, on PC, not in a console game's deluxe edition. The handful of times I have ended up with one have all been on PS4, which you can transfer off the console, and assuming you can still do that on PS5, I'm not opposed to getting one there if a game has a soundtrack I felt the urge to listen to. I think the bigger problem is that I find most games that offer a "deluxe edition" typical don't have a soundtrack I ever need to hear outside a game.

if we're talking the PS5 implementation of these 'deluxe' materials- yeah it's pretty silly. i also usually end up buying the deluxe edition of games i'm getting for launch- mostly because i want to support the dev, but also due to a regrettable degree of self-aware FOMO.

for what it's worth i do flip through the artbooks and digital comics usually once or twice because i like that stuff (i have a pretty amiable attitude when it comes to unnecessary narrative materials, and i like seeing the process in concept art).

but the standalone soundtrack apps- in a world where devs are uploading soundtracks to spotify- is pretty useless to me. if i'm engaging with a game's soundtrack on a console- it's because i'm playing the damn game. it seems to me a soundtrack exists to live outside a console- but who am i to blow against the wind?

would i prefer all this stuff be links to PDFs and mp3s? 1 hundo.

the other day i fired up my PS4 and was immediately met with the Tetris Effect theme and psychedelic dolphins. things used to be cooler, man.

I haven't bought a deluxe edition in a long time. The only place I will consider it now is Steam because they provide MP3s and PDFs of everything in it usually, which is actually useful. Though I think the only times in recent memory I've engaged with included files in Steam games is looking at the manual for Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D, which definitely does not have a deluxe edition.

Nintendo too. I booted up my New 3DS to play a game and was greeted with the Balloon Fight balloon trip music and a balloon guy floating across the top screen along with everything on the lower screen looking like a Balloon Fight level. That still rules. I have a bunch of other themes too. Some that I bought and some that came with games.

In general I wish they would bring back at least the option to have fun menus instead of the cold, boring, personality-less ones we have now. Everyone still talks about how good the various shop music themes from Nintendo were. This stuff was a big part of the experience of these platforms yet it's all been removed in favour of soulless grids of images on muted backgrounds and silence.

I'm someone who actually likes video game OSTs and artwork. I have a huge collection of both. But I'm also someone who rarely buys the deluxe edition of a video game, unless 1. That version of the game is on sale. And 2. The deluxe bonuses gives me some kind of advantage or edge in the game. I won't buy a deluxe edition for extra character skins, especially if it's corporate or influencer type of skin, nor will I buy it for extra outfits which I don't put much stock into.

Weather physical or digital makes no difference the deluxe, premium and special editions are pretty pointless, the pre-order gear & weapons you sometimes get, often break the early leveling curve and do more harm than good. However if the game has early access I'll always buy that version.

@thepanzini: Sometimes the bonuses can be way more substantial than "gear that breaks the leveling curve." I also don't like that stuff and I think it makes games worse, but Assassin's Creed Odysssey's Gold edition came with all that game's DLC PLUS the Remastered version of Assassin's Creed III (and THAT game's DLC) AND the HD version of Assassin's Creed Liberation. I played both of those games via that remaster so that's two WHOLE additional games with the special edition, which feels pretty substantial to me.

@ben_h: I wish Nintendo would do themes too, but the Switch is nearing the end of its life span so it would be kind of weird to add them now. Hopefully on the next console. The PS5 is probably not yet halfway through its lifespan (Though it is nearly 3 years old already) so it's more likely to see those kinds of changes.

I don't realy know why Nintendo got rid of the music on its eshops but I can think of two reasons. The first is that the Switch OS has always felt kind of sluggish, probably because it doesn't have a lot of RAM, and so adding more functions would just cause the shop to lag more than it already does, and it already lags plenty. The second is that because the shop is such a laggy nightmare to begin with having repetitive music, even good music, would annoy people after awhile. If you're going to be spending 20 minutes paging through the 2000 games on sale you probably don't want even an appealing little ditty playing in the background.

My guess on why PS5 removed themes is because they couldn't be backwards compatible and they were worried that people might complain so they just got rid of them. Also the PS5 OS is much more advertising heavy than PS4 and maybe they thought themes would take away from the focus on advertisements.

@bigsocrates: True, but for me remakes or remasters etc are worse. I don't ever want to play similar games back to back not even the same genre most of the time.

My favorite thing about buying indie games in physical format are the stickers tbh, everything else is boring

I think there is value in digital music and digital artbooks, but not enough value to be worthy as "pack-in" codes that matter. With that said, I think a TON of bundles from 2000 to 2015 were e-waste or just waste. Cheap RC vehicles, metal cases, statues, and other low cost items mostly end up in landfills because they were to widely produced to be collectable. Sure there are exceptions of some pack-ins, but most of it that was made over ten years ago is in a dump. I would even say printed art books and music CDs are the biggest waste that end up in landfills faster.

I have noticed a new trend, people remove their games from the cases and they SELL they cases. Go to any auction site and you will find empty boxes being sold off. Empty boxes for devices and empty boxes for games, and games sold without boxes. This just shows that really while the game and the box can be seen as commodity they box is not a huge commodity.

I just feel like times have changed and that pack-in and steel case packaging just do not move units. Someone above said stickers would be better and I agree with that. Its low waste, its a tangible item, and if done well - is collectable too.