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http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/preorder



Dang that looks amazing!

So if you preorder the Imperial version you can play as an Imperial and have any race in any alliance? Wow, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, sounds amazing!

The "Any race in any Alliance" part comes with the Explorer's pack, actually, which comes with all pre-orders. The Imperial can play in any Alliance by default, considering the fact that their race isn't a part of any Alliance.

Will definitely be pre-ordering now!

While that does look cool, I still am a bit surprised how expensive it is.

$60 for the standard edition and $80 for the special edition are not that unusual as prices go.

Archer wrote:While that does look cool, I still am a bit surprised how expensive it is.

Doesn't seem so bad to me, especially when you consider it includes a month of service as well, which is $15. So the game itself is $45, $65 for special edition.

Its $100 if you want the physical copy of the special edition. The digital is $80 because it doesn't include any of the things in that picture. Still, I probably won't be preordering it. Its hard as it is justifying $60, let alone $100.

The physical copy also comes with a 200+ page book and a statue. Considering what's in it and the price of similar packages, that's about what I would expect. Skyrim also had a Collector's Edition that retailed with similar items, and went for just about the same amount of money.

Video games are luxury items. Limited special editions are even more of a luxury item. Just sayin'.

Well that explains why they chose to faction-lock races. They had this pre-order perk in mind the whole time.

Or possibly factions of races tend to be made up of those races?

There are populations of every playable race in the series in every province we've visited thus far. It's never been a limiting factor, and apparently they've decided that it still isn't, as long as you pay for the ability to do so ahead of time.

I mean clearly the lore justification you've offered doesn't hold in light of the fact that they aren't even sticking to it.

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not belly-aching about this. It makes good business sense, and would transition well into a micro-transaction model if they were to choose to do that down the road. I'm just saying that there wasn't a really strong reason offered for this decision until this revelation.

Let me re-phrase: Or possibly factions of races tend to be made up primarily of those races?

In every war you see people from different countries/nationalities/regions take up arms for a country/nation/region other than their own, but they do not by any means make up a majority of the people fighting for that country/nation/region.

Besides, it's not like the pre-order costs more than the game will at launch, so there's not any real financial gain for Zenimax. People who pre-order were likely going to purchase the game anyway. This is just a perk for purchasing early.

Eh, I'm no business owner, but I would think that the only reason to do a pre-order would be if there were some kind of benefit for the business.

A more cynical position might be taken that they're pushing pre-orders because they're afraid the lacking quality of the game will drive down sales post-launch. (Big flashing lights and alarms blaring: This is not my position. I'm just anticipating this reaction from people who probably weren't going to buy the game anyway.)

Speaking for myself, I want that book and map, and I'd pay for 'em even if I did expect not to enjoy the game itself. I don't expect that to be the case, though; I fully expect it will be fun and worth my time and money.

Pre-order helps Bethesda in a number of ways. It can increase their short-term liquidity, it gives valuable statistics on sales, and an attractive pre-order (like this one) can entice people who would have waited to buy the game on sale well after release into buying it full-price.

Witchery wrote:So if you preorder the Imperial version you can play as an Imperial and have any race in any alliance? Wow, that's pretty cool.

You don't even need to order the Imperial edition to play any race in any alliance, you only need to preorder.

If you read between the lines, you do not even need to pre-order

If you pre-order you ge tthe explorer pack for free
If you do not pre-order you will still be able to buy the explorer pack

The standard edition with explorer pack is at the price the game was anounced.


Market wise, I am sure they planned this, not to make more money on pre-order per se, but for advertising.

This is a very clever move, people who were not pre ordering are now.
This give them cash flow power nearly 2 month in advance of the launch.

The offer might attract more people who might have been "waiting".

Let's be honest, anyone who was planning to "play at launch" will simply play at launch minus 5 day
This means 5 days with server full but a game not "officially launched" any bug or issue on the "pre launch" can still be fixed on time for the "official" launch.



I am in a sense very happy to see how good their marketing is so far, as a successfull launch is critical for them. And as I like the ES series, knowing the company making the series is in a good position to make money means for sure the series is alive

I'm not sure if it's clear that the upgrade you can purchase after launch includes the Explorer's Pack. As far as I can tell it's only the Imperial Edition you can purchase later.

Marelo wrote:I'm not sure if it's clear that the upgrade you can purchase after launch includes the Explorer's Pack. As far as I can tell it's only the Imperial Edition you can purchase later.

It is indeed only the Imperial Edition you can buy after launch:

Is it possible to get the Explorer’s Pack if I don’t pre-order or pre-purchase a copy of the game?
No. The Explorer's Pack is only available to customers that have chosen to pre-order or pre-purchase the game. Although customers will be able to upgrade their Standard Edition to the Imperial Edition, the Explorer's Pack is reserved only for customers that chose to pre-order or pre-purchase ESO.