Dear game publishers,
Please please please stop making deals with gamestop for exclusive pre-order extras. It is one of the most consumer-unfriendly practices I can imagine. Gamestop killed all the local game shops ala Blockbuster and now they want to completely control the market. I will never pre-order another game from them and if the trend continues I guess I won't be able to be a gamer much longer. I see a future where the only thing you will get with your game if you don't get it from gamestop is the opening level.
Do you really hate us so much? We who have given you so much? Who have made gaming a billion dollar enterprise? We who have made it possible for you to have your job in the first place? Why do you spit on us and tell us where we HAVE to buy things? Oh sure we can get it elsewhere - just with 10% less content. Extra characters, cool weapons and even whole levels are ours to never experience unless we get in line like a good sheep and spend our cash where we are told to spend it.
On a side note - that BS where you could only play as the Joker if you shelled out for a PS3 is the only reason I didn't actually purchase Arkham Asylum. I refuse to support a publisher that will punish you for not shopping at a specific place or for owning a specific system (with the obvious exception of platform-exclusive content; I'm just saying if you develop for multiple platforms then all versions should be equal in content where possible). Making Call of Duty different because it's on a Wii as opposed to the 360 is not what I'm talking about. Not getting a full level in Assassin Creed 2 because I don't want to support gamestop is what I'm talking about. They made the content. I'm sure in most cases it's actually on my disc. They are simply denying it to me in order to dictate my place of purchase. I feel somewhere in here is a legal issue. In a free market the consumer should not be forced to choose a particular vendor. I'm all for competition - but I feel competition in a free market should be about price and service quality, not content. Every Toyota dealership in the country has to sell you the same car, with pretty much the same equipment. Where they compete is price and service. When gamestop can remove that by forcing you to shop there in order to access the full game they don't have to compete on price or service. And they don't even try at either of those things.
Gamestop: 1 Consumer: 0
So you have forced us to rent - the gamers friend. I implore you to never buy crappy $60 games again. How do you do this you ask? Never buy a full price game if you don't want to. Ignore all the pre-order nonsense and just rent. If you would stop pre-ordering like crazy from gamestop maybe publishers couldn't pull this crap anymore.
And maybe if we just stopped buying games altogether and only rented them the game industry would be forced to refocus and understand that if you treat your customers like crap they will eventually let you go out of business. It's when the supplier listens to the consumer that capitalism works it's magic. In order for that to happen the consumer has to wield their purchasing power as precisely that: power. Put your money behind things you believe in and deny it to things that you cannot get behind. That is what your economics professor meant when he told you the market can fix itself. But the market has to get its head out of its rear end.
Oh what a dream - it won't happen. All the fanboys out there who continue to support this nonsense will forever ruin it for the rest of us. That is one of the reasons gaming as a hobby has really gone downhill the last 10 years - while there are many many friendly, intelligent and reasonable people out there gaming - the bulk of gamers have become petulant children who lap up the crap they are fed and beg for more; all the while whining and moaning about how none of it is any good non-stop on the forums. Stop whining! Do something! RESOLVE TO NOT PRE-ORDER! Stop buying games that suck! Stop supporting unfair business practices! Rent! If you like the game THEN buy it! Try before you buy is the responsible choice!