Publishing Director Calls Out Shameless Baldur's Gate 3 Collector's Edition Scalpers

If you buy from scalpers, you are the reason scalpers exist.

Stop making limited edition tat and the problem goes away except launch products at first. Once your declare it limited, you've declared it's a commodity. Larian is part of the problem.

Collectors be collecting and fomo is like a drug for some people. I kind of hate this trend of limited production of some versions of games to try and force a fake market of collector's items.

But hey, if people have the money to burn...💸

@NEStalgia woof. The amount of contorting to get to that last sentence.

@LikelySatan What contorting? They made it limited. Announced to to be limited. Then claim it's not a commodity. They willfully enabled this result.

Got my Deluxe Edition preordered. I'm happy they are putting the entire game on the discs, plural. It's $79.99 on Larian's site.

@NEStalgia We all have our lines. I won't play a live service or buy games with ads, I won't buy an Atlus RPG at launch, etc.They're making a celebratory version of the game with more tat than usual for megafans. Should that just be the standard version? I don't see the problem. If you just want the game, go order the physical version from Larian. Like I said above, it has the entire game on the discs. If you want the tat? Sounds like a you thing.

@LikelySatan You misunderstand. I'm not saying offering a special edition is a problem. I'm saying making that edition limited is a problem. Scalpers are selling them at thousands because they're limited, not because a special edition exists. If it's a manufacturing thing, make the period of time to ORDER it limited, but make as many as are ordered even if they ship late. Same for hardware.

Then again, though I didn't originally intend it, since you mentioned what might come in a standard edition, I'll point out that Baldurs Gate 2 came with a 300 page spiral bound manual, a metal coin, and a cloth fold out map, all in the $50 standard edition... 😕

@NEStalgia According to this guy https://x.com/Cromwelp/status/1726941455288266852#m
The deluxe edition is not limited.

EDIT: didn’t see your last post before posting this. We posted around the same time.

@NEStalgia The DE comes w a poster, ost, stickers, and patches for $80.

@Tobiaku Ahh if indeed there's no scarcity of supply, then Larian is truly not at fault beyond maybe not being clear enough about availability.

@LikelySatan ok maybe they're at fault for a lousy special edition with worse swag than interplay included 24 years ago in the standard edition for $30 less 😂

@NEStalgia $50 in 2000 monies would be $84-91 today. The rest is subjective.

@LikelySatan people really need to learn economics and stop multiplying every dollar amount by monetary inflation rates like the consumer economy works on a slide rule.

@NEStalgia K thanks, fun exercise here.

@NEStalgia Nice job moving goalposts when both your points got proven wrong xD maybe next time look to see if what you're avidly complaining about is even real, dude.

And I'd like take this opportunity to call out Michael Douse - why can't I walk into my preferred retailer and buy this game off the shelf?

Locking distribution to (effectively) digital-only is a scum move.

@MrPeanutbutterz There's a standard physical release on Play.Asia (on sale for $50 rn) and a Deluxe Edition ($80, with the full game on discs and a lot of tat) on Larian's site.

@NEStalgia Yup, if all these companies manufactured according to demand for these types of items, It would kill scalpers.

Just release the game (JUST the game) in a standard Blu-ray case on one (or more) discs as needed. Job done and they might even get more sales!

@CrashBandicoat I'm genuinely sick of people acting like scalpers are the problem. If nobody bought from them, they wouldn't exist. The scalpees are the problem.

@LikelySatan I'm aware of that, neither of those are my preferred physical retailer though.

@MrPeanutbutterz I'm sorry. That sounds really tough. Mine is Level VII Games in Lakewood Colorado. They don't have it either. I WILL be Yelping.
Anyway just because those aren't your preferred physical retailer (lol) doesn't mean the game is digital only. That's just your own qualifier.

Still sat on an unopened limited edition of fire emblem fates (the only we all games and the dlc campaign on one cart.) it’ll fund my retirement.

@Yagami When everything is a digital walled garden, maybe. I get a little careful when we start talking about the second-hand market being bad for consumers. It's different now though, with bots buying up a bunch of games before any real person has the chance.

@MrPeanutbutterz If your local game store is independent you might be able to ask the manager or someone else working there to order it for you.

The only game stuff I sell online is decades old and not available in stores anymore. And I always sell as Auction only, not high Buy It Now. In this day and age, unless you can pre-order it, this is what happens with Limited CE. It sucks.

Scalpers do annoy me, but the companies selling stuff in limited numbers know full well what they are doing. Giving items resale potential can turn anything, even overpriced tat into something that everybody wants all of a sudden.
Limited run (generally) do give a time window, not a number limit, so they don't tend to sell out at least, as long as you keep track of their releases. It's just a shame I live in the UK, I'd probably buy a lot more from them if it wasn't for the postage fees.

@LikelySatan At the same time "jumping through Larian's various hoops to procure a physical copy" doesn't mean it's readily available like, you know, walking into my preferred (or any) physical retailer like I did for Divinity Original Sin 2.

@MrPeanutbutterz Annnnnd some would say it's more convenient to just order it by mail. Like me. That's my qualifier. Now the rest of the things you said are lies. So there.

@LikelySatan It'd be easier for me to get it by mail too from my physical retailer of choice if Larian were assed with not being anti-consumer ***** with this game. If it was pre-ordered I'd have got it a day early in the post from my retailer too (including free postage!).

So there (or something, lol, all good).