Pre-ordering games is a lucrative marketing arrangement where game developers can take your money as a gauge of sales. With enough pre-orders, companies can deny review copies to the media so you won't be able to tell if the game is worth playing in the first place. But wait, do I still get the deluxe Skyrim poster? because that's going next to grandma's bowling trophies.
Bonuses are mostly throw away items that offer little to the gameplay. Sometimes they're early downloads and access to multiplayer modes a few days or hours before anyone who bought the regular version. Pre-ordering can often be a crutch for developers who haven't finished the game and want to somehow bribe gamers into a false sense of satisfaction. Adding to Sim City's notorious sever debacle, a $20 pre-order bonus ran gamers' temperatures high when they failed trying to redeem them. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct game was infested with bugs and as a consolation, those who pre-ordered got a keychain with a fake ear on it. Here's a few more sad bonuses we came across that prove there's never a reason to ever pre-order a game.
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