Nintendo won over the fanboys with their 25th Anniversary Edition of Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii. Well, not all of them. As seen in this 1UP article, Nintendo screwed up royally by porting the games over with a bare minimum of extra content. Don’t get me wrong: the CD and booklet were pretty cool, but one track from each Mario game, usually the track of the first level? Not exactly what I thought I was getting.
Which leads me to wonder, as the article does, of what publishers could throw in to special editions of games to make them more worthwhile. The fabled Developer’s Commentary is always a favorite that people clamor for, but is oddly rare. Lost levels, playable ones even, would be kind of cool.
What would you like to see in collector’s editions? Do you think Nintendo missed a great opportunity here or are you happy with what they provided? Speak now!
Source: 1UP
It’s always a shame when Collector’s Editions don’t deliver.
Here’s my ideal Collector’s Edition for one of my games, whenever I release it. Because I will. And it will be glorious.
1. A copy of the game. Revolutionary, I know.
2. Instruction booklet. Okay, I’m just trollin’.
3. “Making of” and “Behind the Scenes” videos, detailing each aspect of development from design to engineering to story to audio as well as a tour of the offices. This is the meat and potatoes of any Collector’s Edition; fans want to know about your game beyond just cheat codes. Interviews with developers and actors are really intriguing. I’d want to make an hour or longer-worth of videos because I love making fans happy.
4. Exclusive Avatar and Profile and Dashboard content free-o’-charge.
5. Developer Commentary of certain moments or missions, depending on how the game is structured. Bungie did a good job of commentating about specific moments from Reach’s Campaign. For open-world game commentaries, important missions, landmarks, characters, and moments could be highlighted. This one is a bit more ambition and could warrant making the Collector’s Edition $100 instead of $80 or whatnot, since everyone loves Fan Tax.
6. A tangible CD of the Soundtrack to the game. Soundtrack in video games is kinda underrated, and yet it is incredibly integral to game experiences, and there is some truly outstanding pieces by many composers in video games, and not just for classic Nintendo games.
7. Some extra canon, like a comic book or a notebook or diary which could give more tid-bits of the game’s universe and mythos, like journal entries during a zombie apocalypse or techno-babel about armor and weapons. I love when games offer you subtle yet intriguing morsels of extra story to enjoy because it makes you appreciate the size and polish of a universe.
8. Some sort of figurine. While I could pass on limited edition figurines, I know that lots of folks love shelf ornaments like that. Plus, it’s an easy defining line between the Collector’s Edition and Legendary Edition if you want to do that, and I prefer having a choice.
9. Discounts on DLC. NOT DAY-ONE DLC, but an advertisement for future DLC that you should keep on your horizon and then purchase once it comes out for a halved or zeroed price. Honestly, DLC makes me feel seedy, but it’s nice bait for fans. Heheheh…
I really hope more Collector’s Editions include “Making of” and “Behind the Scenes” videos instead of silly toys because I would much rather buy the Collector’s Edition for the videos than some crap that I’ll never use or really enjoy.
I never ever bought a collector’s edition.
– I think that “Making of”‘s take away the “magic” of a video game. But if you’re a games developer, or you’re interest to work in the gaming industry, it’s a really nice extra.
– I don’t need a soundtrack CD, because I can extract all sounds from the game files (if you’re a PC gamer).
– I love concept arts, but I would prefer a nice big picture, that I can put in a border and put it on the wall, over an art book.
– What should I do with the extra “toy”? The bobblehead from the Fallout 3 CE is the only think that I would arrange somewhere.
I’m not really a collector. I know that I will throw all the extra toy and stuff away some day, so why “waste” the money for it now?
Nice post Cossack69. I rarely or never buy these special editions but you made some good points. I feel like these games should be experienced when they come out. Although some of these are pretty cool I can’t help to think they are trying to get some more bucks for no work at all. Isn’t this Collector’s Edition just like Super Mario All Stars with some audio tracks, the booklet and shine new box art? Man.. I don’t know.. Is it even in 16:9? With all this said I’m kinda looking forward to Ico/SotC HD for 2 specific reasons. Ico was a really early ps2 game and it deserves to be polished and experienced once again. Not many people played it anyway. On the other hand, SotC looked great in the ps2 and is one of the most original games I have seen. I could go forever about this and repeat most of the arguments but what I want is the frames not to drop. It was the one thing that I always noticed in this game. And of course HD sweetness.
They need to have content you cant get anywhere else. Not online, not by buying something else, it needs to be exclusive. I like to see items that go with it (coin (oblivion) bobble-head (fallout 3) duffle bag (gta)) that cant be purchased and then material (i.e. game booklets, art books..etc.) that are of a high quality. I want extras. I want to be satisfied as a fan.
As for digital media on there. Give me as MANY extras as you can. Take all the videos about the game and put them on a disc. Give me the full soundtrack. Make the extra cash I will spend WORTH IT.
I was particularly disappointed to hear how far off the mark this Super Mario All-Stars edition fell – can’t believe they didn’t include any more of the games beyond the SNES All-Stars edition. If any of the ideas mentioned in the 1UP article had been incorporated, they would have had at least one more sale. Personally, I’m not that set on developer commentary or behind-the-scenes details, though they’re nice to have, but I would be looking for some high-quality supplementary reading/reference material, a soundtrack, possibly a map. I’m much more likely to bite on an RPG collector’s edition than anything else – depending on the details, Skyrim might be the one to lure me into dropping a bit more cash.
I know that once a piece of “art” (yeah I went there) is finished, the person or persons that worked on it rarely want anyone to see the “early” versions or ideas. I hate sending half-finished songs to people unless they also make music, because to a casual listener, they probably wont hear the work you’re trying to convey, they will just hear a crappy unfinished song.
But I would love to play through some scrapped HL2 maps, some scripted events they threw out. I’d love to see story arcs that never came to be. Not just video of some guy painting textures or talking about how many fires an engine can handle (looking at you FarCry 2). Now adays video games are “cool” but making them is still “geeky”, so maybe a lot of the devs that work on the big titles don’t want to look like geeks to their frat boys with $60 to spend??
Either way, I always like getting more for my money.