And it was all going so well.
Rage 2 has recently been on a roll with its marketing campaign. From partnering with Walmart Canada to bring about a satirical pre-order bonus borne from an unintended mistake, to releasing a trailer that answers questions about the game in the most explosive way possible. This is not even mentioning the modified Sega Dreamcast that plays Rage 2, to be given to one very lucky winner. All in all, it seems like it’s going to have a pretty good launch next Tuesday, free from controversy or issues compared to a certain Gearbox game whose release date is still months away.
That is, until a certain bit of information from a very innocuous Reddit post made its rounds two days ago. In it, a poster asks if the BFG 9000, an exclusive gun for the Deluxe Edition of the game, will be attainable by any means except for pre-ordering that specific edition of the game. I’ll give you one guess at what the community manager’s answer was.
If you guessed that it is indeed locked behind the Deluxe Edition ‘at launch,’ then you guessed correctly. Naturally, some of posters on the thread were pissed that they were being effectively locked out of content that should have been made available in the base game. Here’s what the community manager, MortalEmperor, had to say:
Hey folks, I wanted to issue a correction about the BFG: at launch, the BFG will only be available as a premium item in the Deluxe and Collector's Editions.
Of course, people were quick to point out that this gimmick is somewhat anti-consumer, as players who paid for the standard edition won’t get items that are in the Deluxe and Collector’s Edition. This is not just cosmetics, either; the BFG 9000 has a colored history in id Software’s lengthy run in the gaming industry, serving as one of the most powerful guns of the Doom franchise. While it’s unclear just how powerful the gun will be in Rage 2, it’s understandable that some people will get upset that what should’ve been part of the core experience is being sold in a more expensive bundle. How hard is it exactly to just give the BFG 9000 to those Standard Edition players later in the game, as opposed to locking them out of it entirely?
That said, what’s more surprising to me is that some posters in the thread are actually actively defending Bethesda and id’s decision to monetize content that should not be monetized at all. It really does get my noggin jogging; are we really in a mess because of excessive greed from publishers, or because of players willing to overlook terrible business practices in the name of their hobby?
In any case, there’s still hope that this won’t be the final decision; the community manager did say ‘at launch,’ so it’s entirely possible that the BFG 9000 will be made available to everyone at a later time.
Rage 2 is set to be released on Tuesday, May 14, for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and the PC.
