Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Cancels Its Stupid Pre-Order Strategy

Fight the power

by Robert Ramsey Thu 1st Oct 2015

Right, so remember back in August when Square Enix revealed the ridiculous pre-order strategy for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? And then later in the month, its YouTube presence was torn to shreds by unhappy internet people? Yeah, well it turns out that too much bad publicity can have a negative effect on how a game is perceived, so the publisher's done the only reasonable thing and pulled the plug on the title's stupid 'augment your pre-order' business.

For those who don't know, the release's doomed pre-order strategy took cues from crowd funding sites like Kickstarter, where as the game garnered more pre-launch sales, more rewards would be unlocked for buyers. The whole thing was backwards from the start, and, understandably, was ripped to bits as soon as news got out.

We were especially concerned about the kerfuffle purely because Mankind Divided looks like a pretty great game, and we certainly didn't want to see it get overshadowed by such needless controversy. The official website states that a "resounding amount of negative feedback" forced the publisher to rethink its stance. Meanwhile, if you've already pre-ordered, changes to the program should be applied to your purchase in due time.

Are you glad to see the end of this farce? Remind Jensen that he's supposed to fight for a good cause in the comments section below.

[source deusex.com]

Robert (or Rob if you're lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales — he's played 'em all. A little too much, some might say.

1
FullbringIchigo
Thu 1st Oct 2015

and yet Bandai Namco has done the same thing with Tales of Zestiria on steam and no one bats an eyelid

2
ShogunRok
Thu 1st Oct 2015

@FullbringIchigo If it was the same on PlayStation, we'd probably be writing about it!

3
get2sammyb
Thu 1st Oct 2015

Untitled

4
FullbringIchigo
Thu 1st Oct 2015

@ShogunRok oh I wasn't going on about you guys i understand why you haven't covered it, I was on about the gaming fanbase in general, why is it ok for one company to do it but not another?.

5
Bread-Not-Toast
Thu 1st Oct 2015

At least Square has augment their sales strategy, as it was stupid,

6
ShogunRok
Thu 1st Oct 2015

@FullbringIchigo Don't worry, I know - was just saying that it's all pretty bad.

7
Gamer83
Thu 1st Oct 2015

Good. I love when corporate a-holes get called on s and have to change things. Now if we could get through to Konami that would be outstanding. I'd also lkke to see a bit more criticism of Sony which gets away with a lot more than MS and Nintendo are afforded.

8
Dodoo
Thu 1st Oct 2015

@get2sammyb lol

9
SonyaUliana
Thu 1st Oct 2015

@FullbringIchigo I asked the same question myself until I took a look at the actual offerings. Bamco with Tales of Zestiria offered an entirely new game for their tiered preorder bonuses, and 2K with XCOM: Enemy Unknown had Civilization V as theirs. Basically they were offering extra content, rather than content cut out from the game and then repackaged as pre-order extras.

Meanwhile, Square-Enix's tiered preorder incentives were really lackluster in comparison, including OST samples, and additional levels. Worse of all, their top pre-order incentive was releasing the game 4 days ahead of schedule. That's basically like saying that they could've released the game 4 days earlier, but won't because they wanted more money. Hence, it's understandable why people were pissed.