Hey Microsoft! Remember that Xbox Live mess? Remember the lawsuit? That sucked huh? What’s that? You’re not done yet, you have one more really stupid move left in you? You’re going to restrict content of Lost Odyssey for the people who don’t pre-order?! Wow! You’re amazing! What a pack of assholes!
I’ve never really been one for pre-ordering. Usually the places that I would pre-order annoy me enough that I don’t want to give them my money. ‘No, I don’t want to reserve a game. Yes, I understand the benefits. No, I don’t care if you have numbers to make, you’re annoying me.’ Having been a part of that process many moons ago I refuse to feed the corporate machine. An option is nice, but having that option shoved down my throat is bullshit, so I don’t do it.
Anyways. Enter Lost Odyssey for the XBOX 360.
A quick overview of the premise is that the main character, Kaim, has amnesia and has to piece together his past. This has been done countless times before I know, but the creator is Hironobu Sakaguchi – our favorite Final Fantasy creator for those who don’t know.
So Microsoft is now planning to give the full game only to those who pre-order. Those that do pre-order however with get a card that is redeemable for two downloadable sections. These sections have been described as “unavailable anywhere else” by Microsoft. The first is ‘The Master Secret Script’ – this gives players ‘Weapon Guard II’ – this increases defense significantly within the game. The second is ‘The Forgotten Song’. This is a returning memory for Kaim. Considering the premise, it seems to be shaping up as a rather large portion of the game. A large portion that won’t be had unless you pre-order. See where I’m going with this?
Let us know what you think fellow gamers. Is this incentive Kosher? Or is it a move that essentially gives us no choice but to bend to the will of a corporate Goliath?
Durka.
I don’t play these games so I don’t really care, but I think we should all heed the warning and openly give our support to hackers and modders. It’s only a matter of time until they charge us maps that could have been in the original halo 3 disk, oh, wait.
It was funny how everyone screamed that you HAD to preorder Halo 3 many months in advance. My brother walked in Best Buy the day of launch and bought a copy.
Preordering creates hype and lets the devs know ahead of time how many copies they are going to sell. There much be correlation between # of preorders and expected total sales.
Either way, this is borderline absurd.
It is a bit lame, but it’s not all that hard to stop buy the store and reserve a copy for 5 bucks, suck it up if you want it. I know I will.
So basically if you don’t pre-order you’re getting an incomplete game? Nice, real nice.
“It is a bit lame, but it’s not all that hard to stop buy the store and reserve a copy for 5 bucks, suck it up if you want it. I know I will.”
My point is I don’t like being strong-armed. I’m not sucking a goddamn thing up. That’s just what Microsoft wants people to say – its like any big corporation or government – the compromise is all on our end and none on theirs – and then the next time they want something through even more outrageous means they’ll figure that we will just ’suck it up’ – well fuck that. They can bite my hairy ass.
Durka!
Hey Microsoft, how about instead of me preordering, I just suck it up and not buy the game at all?
I will not preorder because:
1. My local gameshops suck(gamestop, ebgames)
2. I prefer to buy my games online at places that don’t charge tax or shipping.
3. When I do buy games in a B&M, I buy them at Target, and Target doesn’t do preorders.
wait, what about people who don’t have an internet connection, but preorder this anyways? They get screwed too!
Oooh. Good point Mr. Needles. Sheiste.
According to my sources (several major gaming websites) the content will be available, for free, eventually (probably sometime around Spring). So:
a. Pre-order the game, for no additional cost (’cause you SHOULD get credit for the $5 or so on the purchase price when you pick up the game) and get the content on day one.
or
b. Pick the game off the shelf and wait a few months for the content (again at no additional charge)
or
c. Bitch anonymously on internet forums about how evil corporations are strong-arming you into doing something against your will…
you forgot one:
d. bitch about bitching so stfu commie
Heres the best thing about all of this. I actually preordered this game and it didnt even come with the code. Yeh screw that.
Personally I pre-ordered this game and loved it. I have to say I didn’t feel at all like the pre-order stuff even mattered… yes the added defense was nice but certainly not crucial to my survival and the bonus memory… well frankly I unlocked every memory and didn’t even read half of them. They are simply added short stories about Kaim’s past that have little to do with the actual game at hand.
I’m sorry but anyone getting all worked up about not getting this if they didn’t pre-order really got way to excited about it. Yes it bites not getting a “complete” game but in this case the game was complete the in game item had no real impact on the game as a whole and the dream is little better than a short story that could have been placed in an art book (or even the instruction book) instead.