Dying Light's [Lack of] Preorder Exclusives

The topic of exclusive content in games has been a two-sided discussion since day one. On one hand, some people find it to be a nice incentive to buy a game on a certain platform or from a certain retailer, while others feel that it is an unnecessary evil that divides the community and allows some players to have access to more content within the game than others. Nine out of ten times, though, those pre-order, retailer or platform exclusive items have proven to be either items that should have been in the game for everyone from the start, or needless accessories like outfits or weapons that one could do without.

With most games, however, these "exclusives" were proven to have a duration. Take Hitman Absolution for example, that had additional weapons and outfits - which were later revealed to only be available in the Contracts Mode of the game - that were divvied up between Best Buy, Walmart and GameStop. A few months down the line, those retailer exclusive items were made available for purchase on the Xbox Marketplace and PSN Store, ultimately defeating the purpose of exclusive content.

Now, I have to admit that sometimes, it's a wonderful thing, when a former exclusive is made available for everyone. I don't necessarily agree with paying extra for what amounts to basically insignificant aesthetics that should have been in the game to start with. But it's great that everyone is given the option to own all content pertinent to the game in question. Even though, like I mentioned in my previous blog in regard to season passes and downloadable content, I still find it insulting that gamers are expected or encouraged to pay more than the MSRP price tag for a title for content to complete the game experience.

Dying Light, a much anticipated title launching in three days, originally offered a rather tantalizing preorder incentive; a PVP mode that allowed players to invade other players' games, a la Watch Dogs, as the Hunter, a Resident-Evil-licker-like zombie that is the deadliest of them all. However, with Techland's European delay fiasco, as an apology and nod of good gesture toward the community, the 'Be the Zombie' mode went from preorder exclusive to open availability for everyone, as well as two out of three season pass items for free to those suffering from the 'agonizing' wait of an additional month for a physical copy of the game.

Which begs the question...did Techland basically just null and void the point of their season pass? I mean, they're giving away two out of the three upcoming DLC to European-territory players (while the North/South Americans must still pay for the content) as an apologetic gesture for the delay. But at the same time, their season pass profits will now be essentially exclusive to North and South America because we're the ones who still have to pay for all three DLC items, even if it's at a 10% discount, which still confuses me. Exactly how much are each individual packs going to cost if buying a $20 season pass only saves you 10%?

However, what I've noticed earlier this week was the GameStop "exclusive" preorder bonus of a weapons pack. If one were to preorder from GameStop, they would receive the GameStop Weapons Pack, featuring three weapons...available from the Ultimate Survivor Pack...which is available to everyone. Let me get this straight...so if I preorder from GameStop, I get three weapons that are included in the Ultimate Survivor Pack, which is one of the three DLC packs for Dying Light. However, if I were to get the season pass, or even the Ultimate Survivor Pack alone, I'd still have to pay full price for the DLC even though I already have access to three of the four weapons included?

The same thing goes for Best Buy; if you preorder Dying Light through Best Buy, you get the Ninja and Secret Agent outfits, both available within the Ultimate Survivor Pack.

In what world does that make sense? I don't know if that's poor marketing on Techland's part or more GameStop and Best Buy stupidity, but I know I will absolutely avoid purchasing any additional content for Dying Light until that hullabaloo gets sorted.

If anyone else has noticed this or any other "preorder exclusive" errors, loop holes or contradictions, please share them in the comment section.