A few years ago, I bought a physical copy ofMetal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collectionon eBay and got a pretty good deal. Or, at least, I thought I did. When the package arrived at my apartment, I found that the seller had sent me the cardboard slipcase, the plastic box, and the commemorative book, but had withheld the actual PS3 game disc. After I sent him an irritated message, the guy got back to me, pointing out that the listing didn’tactuallypromise the disc.
Sure enough, I went back and reread it, and he had written, “Does not include game” or something to that effect in the description. It struck me as a pretty scummy thing to do at the time, and yet, that seems to be the business model BioWare is using forDragon Age: The Veilguard’s collector’s editions.
Don’t worry, he gave me a refund.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Collector’s Editions That Aren’t Actually Collector’s Editions
As lead news editor George Foster points out in hisreport, neither of these collector’s editions are technicallycalledcollector’s editions. One is named Rook’s Coffer, and the other has been dubbed Vyrantium Pack. Referred to as “additional physical item bundles”, these expensive packages look a whole lot like the kind of collector’s editions you would expect to include the game. The Vyrantium Pack even includes a steelbook, which you would reasonably assume includes a disc — you know, those things steelbooks usually store.
On the BioWare website, both bundles do explicitly state that they don’t include the game. But, I find it incredibly bizarre thatEAis selling something thatlookslike the expensive collector’s editions we’re used to seeing triple-A games offer, but doesn’t include the game like everyone expects. Who’s benefiting here? Not the consumer who is going to be pissed off when their game arrives on launch day and doesn’t actually include their game.
As George points out in his report, BioWare didthe same thingwithMass Effect: Andromeda. Maybe this is a bizarre company policy?
This is separate, but related, to physical releases that come with digital codes instead of actual physical discs that you can pop into your console. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor did that last year, shipping out plastic boxes with slips of paper bearing a code buyers needed to then go punch in on the Xbox or PlayStation store. Our own Eric Switzerwrote about that at the time, and I agree with him that it sucks and should maybe be illegal. This practice just ships a bunch of plastic out into the world that has no actual utility, and alsomakes the game impossible to download in a situation where the console’s digital store goes offline.
Why Not Just Include A Disc???
WhatBioWareis doing here is different. You can still get boxed copies of Dragon Age: The Veilguard that come with a disc. That isn’t the issue here. The problem with the Vyrantium Pack and Rook’s Coffer is that the company is selling bundles that consumers who skim the description will buy with the reasonable expectation that they include a game. That’s on the consumer to an extent. But if a grocery store sold gallon jugs with an opaque white liquid and you only found out that it wasn’t actually milk, but water dyed to look like milk, by reading the small print on the label, you would probably be annoyed.
It seems like BioWare is counting on people misreading the listing, rather than just doing the reasonable thing: including the game in a collector’s edition of a game.
