[Kotaku] Many big games now have two release dates, and the earlier one will cost you

[Kinthey]

The new Tomb Raider sells for $60 and theoretically came out on Friday the 14th, but people who bought $70 or $90 special editions could play it two days early.

NBA 2K19 sells for $60 and had a release date of September 11, unless you paid $100. Then you could play it four days early.

The special editions of Tomb Raider and NBA 2K both offered more than early access, but that was a major drawing card. You could argue that Tomb Raider was putting the price of about $5 a day on playing early, NBA 2K putting it closer to $10.

It's not just them.

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If you pre-order any of the various special versions of Assassin's Creed Odyssey that cost $100 or more you will be able to play the game three early. You can play Hitman 2 four days early if you pre-order the Gold Edition of the game for $100. The lone major Xbox One exclusive for the fall, Forza Horizon 4, gives four day early access for its $100 ultimate edition. Battlefield V will also let you play three days early if you pre-order the $80 Deluxe edition.

Battlefield comes from EA, which has been doing the play-early thing for a while. The company's EA Access subscription service has offered early access to its games as a selling point, though that early access has usually been limited to a set number of hours of play time. They also will just let people pay more to play the whole thing early. FIFA 19, Madden 19 and NHL 19 offer early access if you pre-order the more expensive editions, starting at $80 for all games.

Some of this has happened before. Last year's FIFA 18 and NHL 18 games, for example, had Play Early deals, too.

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https://kotaku.com/many-big-games-now-have-two-release-dates-and-the-earl-1829123098

Not sure if there has been a thread about this yet, but I've noticed as well how this trend seems to have spread among publishers recently and I wonder how people feel about it.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

i hate this trend

would never support it

 

[Deleted member 4021]

Capitalism can't collapse soon enough.

 

[Deleted member 4093]

Theres also a third date, the "FINAL" edition which will burn you really bad.

 

[rsfour]

It's fucking stupid and people fall for it

 

[saenima]

They have three for me.

 

[Toumari]

One of the worst recent trends. Thankfully the gap is usually only 2-3 days so it's not as frustrating.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Don't mind the concept but I thought it would've been digital releases being a week or so early instead since it makes sense that a digital copy would be done sooner

 

[TheZynster]

It's fucking stupid and people fall for it

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they defend it too, look how many defend the forza horizon 4 one on this forum. Sure you get everything and what not..........but don't defend the 4 day bullshit tacked in too. It's clearly only in the most expensive one for one single god damn reason.......to bait people into buying it

 

[fracas]

It's a super dumb trend, but whales gonna whale I guess

I don't really buy dumb kid editions anymore so I never feel tempted

 

[Deleted member 10629]

I would say I don't like it but that's because I don't buy those expensive editions. Having the game two or three days earlier (in some cases) does seems like a fair incentive if you are paying so much money. I remember the first FIFA that did this (17 I think), my local game store was PACKED to get the GOAT Edition.

 

[Mullet2000]

I hate this trend. There's no way that the number of days early isn't going to keep creeping up to being longer and longer over the next few years.

 

[saenima]

One of the worst recent trends. Thankfully the gap is usually only 2-3 days so it's not as frustrating.

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Give it time.

 

[Oachkatzlschwoaf]

One of the worst recent trends. Thankfully the gap is usually only 2-3 days so it's not as frustrating.

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Don't worry, the gap will increase until they find the breaking point.

 

[Vela]

Capitalism can't collapse soon enough.

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That's what I'm saying!

 

[Paul]

It is dumb, but as someone who is willing to play RDR2 on PS4 Pro despite owning PC and wanting to play it there, I guess I understand why people fall for this.

 

[TelluricTokoro]

A fool and their money are easily parted.

 

[tarman76]

Has there been an instance where the ONLY draw for the higher price is early access? Seems like it's usually a complete edition with extra (or all planned) content. In which case, big deal.

 

[Deleted member 1067]

A fool and their money are easily parted.

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^

 

[LycanXIII]

It's dumb, and then there's things like the street date for Tomb Raider normal addition being lifted and able to be sold the same day.

 

[Deleted member 19996]

Do people actually pay extra for the advanced release date or are they paying for the additional content they were going to get regardless? I have purchased numerous editions that released first, but only because I wanted the season pass and extra dlc or whatever that was included. It had nothing to do with paying extra just to pay early which is NOT a thing.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Really doesn't bother me. If it helps fund development and cut down on loot boxes etc then its pretty inoffensive compared to some other things.

 

[GasProblem]

Hope the first company that has the gall to make a game release months early for people who open up their wallets gets criticizes into the dust.

 

[Stay Up Be Easy]

Jokes on them.

I don't buy games until a calendar year+ after release.

-Cheaper
-All content in one package
-Digital gets a physical edition

 

[Danzflor]

It is a stupid trend that gets defended over the "publishers need to get some profit over the massive ammount of money spent" argument and it also plays with people suffering anxiety to play they games ASAP. You could say that "is just a few days ealier" but fuck me, no one should pay extra 40 bucks to play just 3 days ahead.

At the end of the day, people are free to do whatever they want with they hard earned money and people will give their cash handfisted no matter what, and this trend is not gonna be over.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

I aint gonna lie. I was super hyped for Shadow of the Tomb Raider and I happened to have the day off work 2 days before the official release date but not the official release date so I ended up paying more so I could play it early. I regret nothing.

 

[The_Land]

If people are stupid enough to pay it who cares.

 

[moose84]

Capitalism can't collapse soon enough.

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Sigh. As games get bigger, so do costs and so does the need to charge more. Nothing to do with capitalism. Games are cheaper than they've ever been if you strip away season passes and DLC.

As an aside, Nintendo probably best suited to withstand this, with smaller budgets for their games and not lowering their prices.

 

[DarthWalden]

I cant beleive this is a thing.

Like who pays extra for the ultimate edition of something to get the game a couple days earlier?

Are people really this foolish?

 

[Heromanz]

There will always be marks in the world

 

[Deleted member 11626]

I can wait days, weeks, or months before I play a game. It's how I played Nioh and Nier months after release on my PC. I'll be grabbing DBFZ on Switch at some point too. So the trend itself doesn't affect me in the slightest.

I also don't mind it. If people want to pay extra to play early then let them spend their money how they like. These aren't loot boxes. You know exactly what you're getting when you fork over the money. And we all knew publishers were going to start finding ways to increase revenue without increasing the base price of games. This is just one of those things. I can still buy what I want for $60 (or often cheaper on PC).

 

[Complicated]

I didn't know there were games doing it without giving you a season pass. I love buying into games I know I want the DLC for and getting to play a few days early as a value add. There aren't many I would do it for though. I'll definitely be doing the ultimate edition for Forza Horizon 4.

 

[Esfolia]

I really don't have a problem with it. I'm not interested in paying extra to play a game a few days early, but others are

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

I can wait.

 

[Andri]

I never understand how people get so upset about options.

Are you hurt if other people are willing to spend extra money to play it early ?
How is your enjoyment lessened if other people play the game earlier ?
Does the non early access game have less content than the early access game ?

I can understand not wanting to pay extra for ealier play, but i cant understand wanting to deny other people to spend their money the way they want to.

 

[adj_noun]

If you pre-order any of the various special versions of Assassin's Creed Odyssey that cost $100 or more you will be able to play the game three early

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At least I know I will be able to play the game three early.

 

[KORNdog]

this seems insane to me. i can wait over a year to play games i'm interested in. the idea of being so desperate to spend $100 on an extra 3 days just sounds crazy.

 

[zaien]

Wait, so they have early access to it, does the game(s) already include the Day 1 patch? otherwise wouldn't it just dampen their experience if they encounter several bugs?

 

[Deleted member 5864]

One of the worst recent trends. Thankfully the gap is usually only 2-3 days so it's not as frustrating.

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That's how it starts. Soon enough it will be a month or so.

Then they'll do shit like NBA 2k where as soon as general release day comes, they'll patch more grind into it.

 

[nightstalker962]

Just Cause 4 has 24 hour early access if you preorder the Gold Edition.

 

[Lant_War]

I hate this trend with passion. Especially with single-player games, who the fuck thought this was a good idea?

 

[CloseTalker]

In the grand scheme of things, this is one of the less annoying trends. I could see it being annoying if it stretches to one or two week differences, but three days won't kill me

 

[azertydu91]

I could understand that for digial edition(not more expensive that's stupid) since you don't have to print discs nor send them etc...

But deluxe version coming early is stupid.

 

[Deleted member 7051]

Theres also a third date, the "FINAL" edition which will burn you really bad.

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Especially when that "final" edition isn't even the final edition because the dlc sold so well they release another season pass.

 

[bshock]

This really only burns hardcore gamers, like those that frequent this forum, who buy tons of games a year and never play half of them.

Personally, $100 for Forza Horizon 4 that gives me all the content going forward and a 4 day early start makes absolute sense, when I know I'm going to play it for 100+ hours and likely not purchase another game the remainder of the year.

 

[TastyBurger666]

Got stung on this on the Gears 4 Ultimate Edition - never, ever, ever again.

 

[dimasok]

I can wait. No rush. Odyssey 3-day head start gives me some time to plow through Origins too.

 

[Ge0force]

I don't like this trend at all. But if people are so stupid to pay extra money to play a game "early", just let them. There have been worse monetizing trends.

Really doesn't bother me. If it helps fund development and cut down on loot boxes etc then its pretty inoffensive compared to some other things.

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I'm pretty sure this doesn't affect the implementation of loot boxes at all. Battlefront 2 could also be played 'early' with an EA/Origin Access subscription, and look what happened...

 

[Hieroph]

A fool and their money are easily parted.

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Wonder if there are enough fools to make this worthwhile for pubs.

At least it's better than cutting out content from the game to be DLC or whatever. I don't want to have DLC piecemeal garbage, I want the complete game on the disc, and I will boycott games that cut out content that should have been in the actual game.

 

[Devilgunman]

Theres also a third date, the "FINAL" edition which will burn you really bad.

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I thought this thread would be about this. I don't buy most big 3rd party titles for this reason.