Gamestop may pay devs for exclusive pre-order bonuses

[BumblebeeCody*]

I still don't see how any of this promises we'd get lazy exclusives like that if everyone who sold games had in game exclusives they paid for so we could choose what we wanted as extra content. It's still just speculation because we don't know what will be attempted until something has been. No matter how many times costumes have been a part of dlc (and honestly I can think of other examples you didn't use) it doesn't change that we don't know that's going to be the pre-order bonus until it actually happens.

Indeed you're right. I agree in that this is speculation but it's based on observation, evidence and logical theory. Basically while it is true that " No matter how many times costumes have been a part of dlc (and honestly I can think of other examples you didn't use) it doesn't change that we don't know that's going to be the pre-order bonus until it actually happens". We do know that before online gaming, we would gain access to costumes and missions for beating the game, beating it on hard (fulfilling tasks etc). If you beat Resident Evil 4, you get access to RE 2 Leon. Beat it again and you get Mafia Leon. But now it's, beat the game and get nothing but instead give us money and you'll get the costumes. It's based on observation(how unlocks used to be), evidence (just one of the many examples) and logical theory(it's Capcom. As I pointed out with SFxT, they will happily lock everything away for 3x the price despite it all being on the disc and ready).

Maybe it's me, because I don't feel as betrayed and burned by the industry as most of the gaming community does, but I haven't lost all trust in them like most have. That could be simply because I buy games from dev's with less shadier practices, or because I simply avoid things I know look bad or interesting to me, but I'm not so negative as to assume the worst of something we don't know is a bad idea until it's proven that it is.

Fair enough but many of us have been burned. If you look at the first 4 or so years of Xbox/PS3, Season Passes, Online Passes, DAY-1 DLC, on disc DLC, microtranscations were completely unheard. Roughly 2010 all of this crept up on us and we've let it slide. Even EA scrapped online passes but so many other companies jumped on board to stop pre-owned sales and look now, no more online passes. It was a test.
As for the evidence, if you ever get into console/game modding you can look into the files of games and see what is hidden away. I can honestly tell you that all pre-order content is locked on the disc. An easy way to know without even needing to mod your console is whenever you redeem a costume, skin, gun, pack etc, they should all be the size of 108KB. That's how you know it'son the disc but it's a small unlock key.

As for the question of how does this benefit me, I think the example I first used explains it pretty well. If a game really did have dlc with run and gun missions vs stealth missions, it would be nice to choose which place I'd rather pre-order from. Having more options, or having options exclusively, would make more interesting to me. I know people's concern is "I want everything a game has to offer" but the way people talk about it just comes off as bitching to me. Adding exclusive dlc doesn't mean you are part of a game, because someone else isn't going ot get a part of the game you don't. It's a trade-off and I really don't see a problem with it.

Again, it's a very good marketing trick used. You're being given 'false options'. What seems like choice is actually a limitation on how much your money is worth. Before online gaming everyone would pay £40 for the same game. Having parts of your game sold to different companies means having to buy the game multiple times over just to get that retailers special content. Again, all of which are on the disc. It's not actually giving you options or choice but rather the illusion of choice. Kinda like me saying, "I'm going make you pay full price for a pizza with cheese, ham and pepperoni. But I'm only going to let you choose one topping despite paying for all 3 choices".

I'm gonna go ahead and call it out right now...

Far enough. It's not so much as whining but more of a fighting for your basic consumer rights. When someone screws you over, you shouldn't take it lying down. For some reason though, only gaming seems to have this problem. Music, film, print media etc never deploy these types of tactics (buy a whole album, lock away 2 songs) or buy a Mario game to find Mario is DLC.

Maybe in time you'll see what people are really talking about but I can tell you one thing, corporations are not your friend.