It looks like the cat may be out of the bag a couple days early, as leaked info about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s pre-order and collector’s edition has popped up (such as here on G4). The pre-order looks pretty standard: a chance to get into the game early (either a head start or beta access) and a weapons color changer doodad.
But the collector’s edition is where the real buzz is at. Just check it out:
Now this is the mother of all CE’s — loads of goodies, both digital and physical, an authenticator and soundtrack, and a potential bug-squasher if you ever need 50 pounds of software-related packaging to kill something with six or eight legs. Honestly, I’m sold. I’m totally not ashamed that I love MMO collector’s editions for games I’m anticipating, because splurging on a little “something extra” helps to elevate the fun to the next level for me. I never regretted getting my WoW, WAR or RIFT collector’s editions, and all of this stuff is just too good to pass up anyway.
CEs with digital goodies are like giving a present to all of your future characters. Even today, if I were to re-subscribe to World of Warcraft, any new toons I made would have their choice of one of three original CE pets waiting for them. The RIFT CE has come in extra useful with the free mount, and likewise now with all of the pre-order and CE purchases I’ve made in LOTRO.
The sticking problem is the price. If reports are to be believed — and this all has yet to be verified — this will clock in at a staggering $175-$220. That’s not a game, it’s half of the cost of a computer. It’s a price point well beyond anything I’ve ever seen in an MMO CE before, and yet I have to admit that it probably won’t stop BioWare from selling them all out in a flash. TOR has such an immense, rabid fan base right now that has nothing better to do than save up money, and since potential TOR players aren’t paying for a subscription to BioWare right now, earmarking 15 months of playtime for this may be easier than later on.
If I wasn’t an adult with a little extra disposable income to throw on such frivilous — yet fun — purchases, I’d probably be depressed, though. I can see this as being a hard sell for teens asking parents to buy them a game that costs almost as much (or more) than a console.
At the end of the day, whether this is true or not (the news and the price), it’s all just niceties, not necessities. I don’t see anything here that’s going to radically improve your play experience or make you way better than Joe I-Bought-The-Game-At-Target.
Now I just have to think of a way to justify the cost of this to my wife. I suspect I’m going to be doing a LOT of foot rubs.
Bio Break 
I don’t know, $200 is a lot to spend on a game at one time. I’d do $100, but at 200, I’m going to struggle with the decision.
I will buy it… even at 200$…. I’m weak
Don’t forget that you also have to pay a subscription to play the stupid thing. The cost doesn’t stop here.
…but yeah, there’s a market for this. It will sell fairly well. I do wonder how much of the price tag is wrapped up in that statue. I’m a fan of soundtracks and concept art books, but that’s about it. I’ll pick those up in the secondary market.
……Now I just have to think of a way to justify the cost of this to my wife. I suspect I’m going to be doing a LOT of foot rubs.
Ditto
My wife would have to have her own as well, so that’d be over $400 bucks for us to play.
The sad thing here is, lately when I haven’t bought some CE’s, I feel that the game is gimped compared to other people who have the CE. It’s almost to the point over the past year that you NEED to drop the money for it. Free giant turtle mount at level one, anyone?
@Tesh – True. And that is a good question about the statue, but if it does look nice, I assure you that I’ll find a place for it in my office.
@Werit – Another thing to consider with CEs is that they’re one-shot, one-time offers. We’ll never get this chance again.
You may have to re-locate the loation of the rubbing to get her to agree to that one.
So that’s how they’re going to offset some of that reportedly astronomical budget. Brilliant marketing on their part, but liable to really piss off people who can’t / won’t drop that kind of cash on a CE. Won’t stop them from buying the regular edition, though, I suspect.
If there’s a digital CE with a lower price point I’ll go for it, but I don’t care about the physical stuff in the box and simply can’t justify a $200 price point for action figures/statues/whatever.
@pkdude – The one physical item that I’d hope would come standard in the regular box is the authenticator. Seems like a “must have” these days, sadly enough.
Not a chance I would pay for that box. I cannot say I care for for the physical items in the box – an authenticator is nice, but would prefer a phone version like they use with Rift.
For the digital stuff only two items are referred to as “exclusive”, so I guess at least the other things will be accessible in some way – if you want it.
*chuckle*
Oh, yeah, I’d find a place for the statue if I got one. I just wouldn’t pay for it. 🙂
Not a chance. I have very little disposable income and a wife who hates my hobby, so there’s absolutely no way I can justify spending that kind of money on a game, especially one that is going to require an additional $15/month for as long as I play it.
That said, even if I had the money and no obstacles I’m not sure I’d do it. That’s a lot of money for a game. I could get the regular edition of SWTOR and THREE other (new) games instead!
I never regretted the money I spent on my WAR CE. But that one was a lot cheaper!
For me, there’s no question about this very CE because I’m not interested in buying this game (and don’t have much money to begin with ^^). But seeing how there’ve been MMOs that offered about the same stuff for much cheaper, it reminds me of why I rarely ever by clothing by popular brands: You pay the name, not the actual product. 😉
In other words: People will want to spend that much money because it’s Star Wars and/or because it’s Bioware.
What I really like is seeing a “standalone” authenticator! I’d hope they’ll sell this regularly as well. It’d be nice to have one in every game. Saves a lot of hassle.
“The sticking problem is the price. If reports are to be believed — and this all has yet to be verified — this will clock in at a staggering $175-$220. That’s not a game, it’s half of the cost of a computer. It’s a price point well beyond anything I’ve ever seen in an MMO CE before…”
“Would I pay $220 for a collector’s edition of The Old Republic? (yes.)”
Why on earth would you pay that much…? And remember, I have always been very wary and suspicious of CE’s, but this one is getting a little ridiculous!
Great stuff in the CE, but I can’t spend that amount of cash on virtual items and I don’t care about the statue and map. I’m a superfan of the game, but the price doesn’t seem worth it to me. 200 bones is a lot of money these days.
Rift was the only game that made me feel gimped (turtle power!) by not buying the CE so hopefully my beloved Bioware won’t do that to me.
Notice how it says “exclusive” only at the last two points of the digital items list? I have a bad feeling about this…
@Bronte – Because (a) I rarely spend any money on games these days, so why not, (b) I am a total digital extras junkie, (c) I love video game soundtracks, and (d) it makes me feel like I can do something *now* for the game later on.
I’m all for giving yourself treats but $200+ for a video game?
Personally I probably wouldn’t even pay $20 for any edition of SW:ToR since I have little interest in playing the game, but even if it was one of the MMOs I’m most excited about, GW2 for example, I wouldn’t pay even half of that.
I’d be pretty annoyed if I ever had to pay more than $50 for any video game, regardless of any supposed “collector’s” items they threw in.
I’m batting .500 on spending $200 on lifetime subscriptions. (LOTRO was a win, STO not so much.) But to spend that much on just a collector’s edition of the game? I can’t get there.
I tend to like the sound track and maybe the books, but have found that statues, pewter bears, and the like tend to end up in a box in the closet.
I wonder if there will be a digital CE with some of the in-game items?
I paid that sort of money for a LotRO collector’s edition – but that was because it came bundled with a lifetime sub. If Bioware are including lifetime subs, it’s a pretty good deal (as long as the game looks worth sticking with for more than a couple of months – jury stil out on that one). Otherwise, it’s a rip-off.
I’m with those that might pay extra for a digital CE. The extra $20 or so for Rift’s digital CE? Love the mount and the extra bag space. I totally regret the extra I paid for Cataclysm CE, however; none of it was worth the money. Not the digital crap, nor the RL swag.
I won’t be be anything for a SWTOR Box CE, even though I am excited for the game to come out.
They do it because they know that they can. They’ve got enough rabid fans of Star Wars and/or Bioware that they know they can charge that much and still sell a bunch.
I don’t buy boxes anymore. Too many dust collectors and I like to save trees. Therefore, I really hope the digital CE is going to be great.
I might get the CE edition if LucasArts paid ME $200 – otherwise, I am way too bitter about SWG to pay anything for this game.
“this will clock in at a staggering $175-$220. That’s not a game, it’s half of the cost of a computer”
Please stop buying toasters. (or WoW —> way).
That aside, 200+ for fluff makes Allods look affordable, especially for a game that is shaping up to be a great one month romp.
Not commenting on this CE specifically, since I have zero interest in SW:TOR and wouldn’t pay two dollars for it, let alone two hundred. But looking at CE’s in general.. the thing is, to buy a CE, you need to be fired up about a game prior to release. REALLY fired up. And I’m not sure I’ll ever again be sufficiently fired up about any MMO pre-release to drop big cash on an expensive CE. Just been burned too many times.
I’m still willing to buy an MMO on release day – that’s a calculated risk. Maybe it will be a disaster, but if it turns out good, being in there from day one is something great than you can never get back if you missed out on it. But I’m not willing to gamble more than standard edition pricing on that risk.
I can’t see anything in that package that justifies a $200 price tag. The expensive ($149) prestige edition of Modern Warfare 2 gave you a functional set of night vision goggles. In the mmorpg world Lotro gave you a life time sub for $200.
Could TOR be having a monocalypse moment before it even launches?
(apologies if this is a double post but I thought I posted it yesterday and it seems to have disappeared)
$150, not 175-220. And yes, I’m one of those crazy people who have already pre-ordered, pretty much for the same reasons you stated—lots of shinyness and in-game goodies. I particularly love that it comes with an authenticator 😀
Ditto here… just pre-ordered. I was mildly surprised that the “normal” edition was so pricey ($60US), but not totally. I actually debated a few minutes if I wanted it, but it came down to “I’ve been tracking this game for 2 years, I will totally regret it if I don’t.” And funny enough, the 2nd point was the authenticator. Figured I would have to buy one later, so might as well pay for it now.
Now if we can just get a release date!
I like CEs. They come with neat stuff and years later you can look at them and recollect. I still have my UO map (though there was no CE back then).
Still, this seems a lot like gouging to me. 20$ for digital items is one thing, 80$ for a book and a statue is just nuts. Authenticators should (and for most games are) free. And of course the 5$ extra they charge to pre-order.
I was already pushed on the fence with this game and stuff like this just screams EA management. It’s going to be an interesting 6 months.