Ubisoft’s Road to
Redemption
One of the biggest
shockers at this year’s E3 was that Ubisoft, the company long since regarded as
the kings of E3 cringe compilations, had easily one of the best conferences
overall. Ubisoft finally decided to cut all the crap that’s been plaguing their
shows for years, including Aisha Tyler’s terrible attempts at memes, extended
interviews with developers, and awful trailers with scripted “voice chat”
overlayed.
Instead, this conference
was all about games, games and more games, just like it should be. Readers of
my blog will know of my…let’s call it a distaste for Ubisoft’s games and their
business practices, and while I still have a boycott on actually purchasing any
of their games instead of just renting them, their E3 looked like one of the
most hated companies in gaming might be turning over a new leaf.
And then the Assassin’s Creed: Origins deluxe
editions happened.
Last November I wrote an
editorial called “Deluxe Confusion”, where I talked about how insane the deluxe
editions for Watch Dogs 2 had gotten
(check it out here if you haven’t). While Ubisoft still hasn’t matched the
sheer ludicrousness that was the nine (!!!) special editions the original Watch Dogs got, Assassin’s Creed: Origins is hiding a few dirty little secrets of
its own in these special editions.
For starters, yes, you
need a spreadsheet again just to keep
track of what each of the five special editions get you. Come on, guys! Why is
it so hard for them to do a “Definitive Edition” of sorts that gives you
literally everything? Even the off-the-charts level of expensiveness that is
the top tier edition for Origins
doesn’t net you everything!
Speaking of that, I think
it’s time to look at the prices for each of these editions. Here’s this year’s
spreadsheet for what each version of the game nets you:
As you can see, just as I
mentioned there isn’t one single edition that nets you all the little goodies.
Once again, if you’re a true Assassin’s
Creed fan that wants all the extra goodies and don’t want to go through
eBay to get them, you need to buy three copies of the game. In order to get the
two exclusive statues and the special amulet, you must buy the God’s Collector’s
Edition ($160 Canadian) and the Dawn of the Creed Collector’s Edition ($210
Canadian). So that brings us up to a current total of $370.
The good news is that the
rest of the stuff is all included in the mighty Dawn of the Creed Legendary
Edition. The bad news…well, I’ll just let Ubisoft’s pre-order page speak for
itself.
No, you don’t need to
adjust your monitor. You’re looking at a real deluxe edition that will set you
back $1000 Canadian. All that for a game with a MSRP of $80!
So the final price to get
everything Origins has to offer is
$1370, and you can use the extra two discs as lovely additions to your gaming
drink coaster set you started last year when Watch Dogs 2 came out. I think it’s safe to say that even if E3 is
a sign of good things to come from Ubisoft in the next few years, we’ve still
got a ways to go before they actually become a respectable developer.
I think one of the first
ways they can fix their business practices is to cut the crap with these deluxe
editions. While they’ve never quite repeated the nine edition insanity that Watch Dogs had, there’s still the fact
you need to pay over $1000 and get three copies of the exact same game if you
want to get all these goodies.
There’s no denying people
like buying Ubisoft’s games. The success of Assassin’s
Creed is a testament to that. But if they keep pushing the price higher and
higher, I think the bucketloads they sell every year will keep requiring one
less bucket.
Song
of the Week
Molgera – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
No comments:
Post a Comment