I have largely moved away from buying collector’s editions over the past decade, and so I was probably not going to buy Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s pseudo-special edition, called “Rook’s Coffer,” to begin with. If I don’t see something that I might actually use in the big box of collectibles offered alongside a game to those willing to shell out a premium, I try to just stick with a standard edition. But I probably would have felt more inclined to buy this big box of Dragon Age goodies if it came with one crucial piece of the puzzle: the actual video game.
The Veilguard’s not-special edition includes some really neat trinkets. There’s a deck of cards adorned with some gorgeous art, a game-accurate light-up lyrium dagger that’s hopefully not sharp enough to actually hurt anyone, and a lovely cloth map of the fictional world of Thedas. But the listing on BioWare’s store page says, in big bold letters, that it doesn’t include Dragon Age: The Veilguard, whether in a steel book case or as a digital download code. It is just a bunch of game-related stuff, without the game itself. GameStop, meanwhile, is selling Rook’s Coffer with the game bundled in, and that’s a decent enough half-measure, though it naturally bumps the price up. There’s also a second “Vyrantium Pack” that includes a stunning steel book but no game to put inside it. I look at this approach and wonder why we’re not calling companies on their shit when they try and pretend these big boxes of doodads aren’t the collector’s editions we’ve always pre-ordered and shoved into a closet after launch, only without the game itself. Why are these packages only getting more distanced from the game themselves?
Not every special edition in recent memory has omitted the main event, but a lot of companies have gotten more comfortable calling something a collector’s edition or selling something that looks like one without putting a game in the box. BioWare alone has been phasing out physical game copies from special editions in the decade since we last got a Dragon Age game. Mass Effect: Andromeda’s collector’s edition had a whole-ass remote-controlled car and a steel book, but you would find no video game or download code in the box. The Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’s “Legendary Cache” had a wearable N7 helmet, a steel book, and other things to fill your walls and shelves, but no way to actually play the three remasters. It feels like if you don’t call it a “collector’s edition,” you can get away with leaving out the game, but it still ends up being positioned as such by the companies selling it, even if it doesn’t have the label.
Even if a special edition includes the game through a digital code, it feels antithetical to the inherently physical nature of buying a special edition. God of War: Ragnarök pulled the same thing when it included a digital code alongside a steel book case, and now I have that (admittedly beautiful) piece of metal on my shelf with nothing inside it. This is another half-measure, and one that doesn’t help people who live in rural areas with poor internet speeds. When I lived in small-town Georgia, it sure wasn’t fun to have to stare at my Thor hammer replica while I waited for Kratos and Atreus’ next adventure to download to my PS5 over the course of an entire day. But that’s what happens when you spend hundreds of dollars on physical editions for games that don’t even include a physical copy of the game.
While there are likely arguments to be made about manufacturing costs and the growing push for easily erasable digital libraries above all else, collector’s editions were always meant to be an extension of a game, not something entirely separate from them. It feels like companies are trying to get around those expectations by not calling these boxes of toys and replicas “collector’s editions,” but we know what these things actually are. I’d be more incentivized to buy your box of cool things if I knew the game that inspired every collectible was also on the way when I got the shipping notification. If nothing else, I guess this saves me from spending too much money on a game I might not even like. Now we’ll see if The Veilguard possesses me to buy another box of shit I have no space for after the fact.
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