I have largely stopped buying collector’s editions in the last decade, and so I probably wouldn’t buy Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘S Pseudo-special edition, called “Rook’s Chest”, to start with. If I don’t see anything I could actually use in the big box of collectibles that comes with a game for those willing to shell out a premium, I try to just stick with a standard edition. But I probably would have felt more inclined to buy that big box of Dragon Age Treats if they came with a crucial piece of the puzzle: the actual video game.
The Veil GuardianThe non-special edition of includes some really nice little things. There’s a deck of cards with beautiful art, a game-accurate glowing lyrium dagger that hopefully isn’t sharp enough to actually hurt anyone, and a nice cloth map of the fictional world of Thedas. But the listing on BioWare’s store page states in big, bold letters that it doesn’t include Dragon Age: The Veilguardwhether in a steelbook case or as a digital download code. It’s just a bunch of game-related stuff, without the game itself. GameStopnow sells Rook’s Coffer with the game in the package, and that’s a decent half-measure, although of course it drives up the price. There is also a second “Vyrantium Package” that contains a stunning steelbook but no game to put inside it. I look at this approach and wonder why we don’t call companies out when they act like these big boxes of knickknacks aren’t the collector’s editions we always pre-ordered and shoved in the closet after release, just without the game itself. Why are these packages getting further and further away from the game itself?
Not every special edition of late has skipped the main event, but many companies have become comfortable with calling something a collector’s edition or selling something that looks like one without putting a game in the box. BioWare alone has culled physical game copies from special editions in the decade since we last had a special edition. Dragon Age Game. Mass Effect: AndromedaThe Collector’s Edition contained a fully remote-controlled car and a steelbook, but there was no video game or download code in the box. Mass Effect: Legendary EditionLegendary Cache included a wearable N7 helmet, a steelbook, and other things to fill your walls and shelves with, but no way to actually play the three remasters. It feels like if you don’t call it a “collector’s edition,” you could leave the game out, but it’s still being positioned as such by the companies selling it, even if it doesn’t have the label.
Even if the game is included in a special edition via a digital code, this contradicts the physical purchase of a special edition. God of War: Ragnarok did the same thing when a steel book cover came with a digital code, and now that (admittedly beautiful) piece of metal sits on my shelf with nothing inside it. That’s another half-measure that doesn’t help people who live in rural areas with slow internet speeds. When I lived in a small town in Georgia, it certainly wasn’t fun to have to stare at my Thor’s Hammer replica for an entire day while I waited for Kratos and Atreus’ next adventure to download to my PS5. But that’s what happens when you spend hundreds of dollars on physical editions of games that don’t even include a physical copy of the game.
While there are probably arguments about the manufacturing costs and the growing pressure for easily erasable digital libraries before anything else, collector’s editions were always intended to be an extension of a game, not something completely separate from it. It feels like companies are trying to sidestep those expectations by not calling these boxes of toys and replicas “collector’s editions,” but we know what these things actually are. I’d be more motivated to buy your box of cool stuff if I knew the game that inspired each collectible would also be on the way when I got the shipping notification. If nothing else, I guess that saves me from spending too much money on a game I might not even like. Now we’ll see if The Veil Guardian makes me want to buy another box of crap that I don’t have room for.
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