Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway Collectors Edition

Joins the ranks of the ever growing Collectors and Limited Edition Game SKU’s now becoming a mainstay for Pre-Orders

by XboxOZ360:

©2008 Grant Smythe:

“`Finally publishers have cottoned onto what gamers want. Lots of nice shinny things, bells-n-whistles and neat little books and figurines to show off to all our mates and show off our “elite-ness”. Yes, I’m being sarcastic, but it is a new move for game publishers. While the 360 has its removable faceplate and can come in a variety of colours, designs and the like, they never really pushed sales of game SKU’s across the counter in gaming stores.

Enter the Collectors and Limited Edition Game SKU’s. The latest being an exceptionally good looking kit by Ubisoft for their next game by Gearbox Studios called Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway. And if I do say myself, it’s not half bad either. Generally packs like this and other Collectors Editions or Limited Editions were destined for the press as Press Media Packages. Where game trinkets were handed out in the hope the media would take more kindly to the game and give it a better look-in come review time.

Some of these Press-Promo-Packs set many a publisher back huge amounts of money, and they gave NO RETURN whatsoever. So, it makes sense to sell the buggers to the people that really matter, gamers. And, unlike when the first started popping up at a hefty $20 – $30 more (and in some case a LOT more) above the normal RRP of the game. Now the sell for as little as an extra $10 bucks on top of the normal RRP of a Standard Edition, yet usually offer the punter a great deal more to show fo rtheir money than a simple green case with a disc in it.

“`Look at the GTA:IV Collectors Edition, and they were Collectors Editions, as there were a limited number made and they sold out on pre-order within weeks of being announced months prior to the games release. Alone In The Dark’s excellent looking kit begs to ask HOW can they put so much stuff into such kits, and only charge and extra tenner for the effort.

“`I’m not complaining mind you, as I’m a Collector myself. But there used to be a gap in between various LE and CE’s coming out, now, it’s almost every AAA title that will have a Collectors Edition or a Limited Edition of one sort, or the other. But the quality and goods are getting better, and more varied. There’s a huge amount of talent that goes into making these  packs that is separate to the actual games development.

And if you think they don’t cost much to produce, take a dog of a game called DRIV3R which was published by Atari on the Xbox and other platforms. Atari as the publisher pushed almost $US10 million into the promotion side of the game, not including development costs. And that was just for press junket and normal media tasties and promotion. So with that sort of outlay on game promotion, you can see WHY they now want some of that money back.

Personally I don’t blame them, and I hope they start including more in the various Collectors and Limited Edition SKU’s, and perhaps start using the Xbox 360’s face plate’s a little more now that consumers are into buying those collectibles. Which wasn’t the case when the xbox 360 first hit the shelves.

“`With even more great AAA games on their way to our homes, expect to see a lot more of these types of SKU’s being only offered as Pre-Orders. This assures the publishers early sales and gives them a solid number of units sold even before the games hit the stores. Many Limited Editions come with numbers, some don’t but have special items only available by pre-ordering through various outlets. Making them much more desirable than just your ‘normal’ green-cased disc with a pidelly little booklet in it.

“`So with all this “collectability” about, we here at XboxOZ360-gamer (x360.com.au) are looking at having an area covering “just Collectors and Limited Edition Xbox 360 game SKU’s. SO stay tuned for it to appear soon-ish, and we’ll include some of the more obscure SKU’s from around the world. Like the COD4 CE only found in Asia, yet written in English. Or the Rainbow Six 3: Vegas Collectors edition only available in the US, and the excellent Ace Combat:Fires Of Liberation Bundle that came with its own flight control joystick and separate throttle control.