Did you know that the Collector’s Edition of Cyberpunk 2077 sold out recently? Sure, the hype for the game has been persistent, but consider that the price on the Collector’s Edition pre-order was $249.99, a big jump from the $59.99 Standard Edition pre-order.
Why Did People Buy Out the $250 Collector’s Edition?
Here’s what to keep in mind: you get the Collectible Steelbook, 10-inch V figurine, hardcover art book, metal pin set, metal keychain, annotated copy of A Visitor’s Guide to Night City, embroidered patches, and then the rest of the Retail items from the Standard purchase (listed later in this post). With CDPR’s sincere relationship with their fans, all of these items should come in justifiable quality.
So, $190 for additional physical goodies sounds like a reasonable luxury purchase, at least of a tier you would get from backing an ambitious Kickstarter project. After all, no additional content will be hidden from you if you do not buy the Collector’s Edition — this bundle really is to show support towards the developers.
And, the fact that it sold out only shows that a good number of fans agree on the value of the package. Whether you yourself agree on the value yourself or not, you have to admit that there were and are far worse pre-order values than what’s offered for Cyberpunk 2077. With these packages it’s usually the question of how much you get back for showing the support and the list for Cyberpunk 2077 Collector’s Edition looks quite inviting.
Trauma Team Figurine Worth More than the Collector’s Edition?
You can continue demonstrating your support for Cyberpunk 2077 by getting $10 lanyards, $28 hats, $23 t-shirts, $10.50 socks, and $30 posters from their store. Common, perhaps even cheaper prices as far as gaming merch is concerned.
Now, with that in mind, let’s talk about today’s announcement of a new figurine:
Wondering if this 15-inch figurine is understandably priced around $100-200 as a luxury item? Well, you are right. If “about” means “within the vicinity of a couple hundred dollars.”
One of the descriptions ironically reads, “Overdose, bullet wound, or unfortunate accident – or even all three at once, Trauma Team always respond with unrivaled speed and efficiency. So long as the cash keeps flowing…” The quote, amusingly, has been brought up in the mixed response demonstrated by the community.
A question of “can we join the Trauma Team in the game” carried through the responses and, perhaps, there is a point in that thinking: why does this figurine carry so much more value than the entirety of the Collector’s Edition combined?
Well, that’s a whole discussion in itself. Extreme amount of detail, it being larger in size and of higher quality than the Collector’s Edition figurine, the regular cost of hand-painted statuettes of its kind…
Yet, the luxury price does stand in stark contrast to what we are used to with CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 merchandise, and some are unhappy to see this price considering recent release delays and some criticisms of the gameplay starting to appear in the community. For these fans the game remains “overhyped.”
So, Why Pre-Order Cyberpunk 2077?
If you are like me, you don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on luxury video game products. It’s just the reality of life. Most eye-catching video game Kickstarter campaigns carry no value if they don’t make realistic promises and $50+ pre-ordering offers doesn’t feel as comfortable as 50% sales of that same game a year or two later.
Well, Cyberpunk 2077 was the kind of a game that was worthy a pre-order, at least to me. Many arguments can be made in regards to that, starting with the Witcher‘s massive success and the Cyberpunk 2077’s demo gameplay footage.
However, the deciding factor in my case was the CD Projekt Red’s policies regarding their product. Despite the massive resources that had to be spent on the game over the years, the custom NVIDIA and gaming hardware marketed along with the game, and the common exploitative practices of micro-transactions and re-purchasing between platform upgrades… well, CDPR showed us that they care.
A couple weeks ago a reassuring Tweet by the developers reminded us that we won’t have to pay for some digital game goodies that many other AAA developers place under a more expensive tier.
Not only do we get the game’s score (note how often that comes as a separate purchase on Steam), the Sourcebook, but also a newly added digital comic in the selection, as of mid-July.
And consider this option: the Retail version on Amazon is 17% off as of today and also includes the World Compendium, stickers, postcards, and the map of the city.
Many reasonably expect the game to be DRM-free (CDPR and GOG have always maintained this policy), the Retail delivery from Amazon would be on the day of release, and if pre-order price is to decrease further the difference will be reimbursed.
Think about any recent pre-purchase of a AAA video game of this magnitude that made your $50-59 purchase feel this justified.
Or, are you one of the people skeptical enough about the price or the game itself to continue watching the progress from the margins?
We are very curious about your experience.
Tell us about what influenced your decision and whether, in your opinion, CD Projekt Red is handling marketing and merchandise in a more fair manner than other large developers out there.
