Image via Complex Original
The collector's mentality is possibly one of the worst aspects of consumer culture today. Publishers and marketers know all about the compulsive need for some to buy literally everything with the words "collector's", "limited", or "special" on it. Naturally, with them assuming obsessed fans will buy literally anything marked as exclusive there's very little incentive to make the products actually worthwhile.
Now, there are collector's editions that offer some significant - albeit kitschy - value for fans (I'm lookin' at you Borderlands 2, stay classy) but a great many of these editions are trash with a premium price. For their flagrant disrespect to their fans, the companies featured should be tried and sentenced. These are the 25 worst collector's editions money should never buy.
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War
Contents: Gun unlock, a week of double XP, and a flask that you couldn't drink out of
This massive package offered fans of the Call of Duty games a chance to get a leg up on the competition by providing instant access to a high-level gun and a week of double XP, dramatically upsetting the balance of the multiplayer experience at launch. The real travesty of this package though was the included flask branded with the game's logo couldn't even be used as it was intended for prop-use only. The thing was literally sealed shut making it a worthless piece of metal you could keep on your desk and that's it.
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed
Contents: Miniature Altair action figure, DVD featurettes, an art book,and a Penny Arcade comic
While the Penny Arcade comic was definitely a cool addition for fans of the webcomic, most people excited for the Assassin's Creed collector's edition were hyped about the inclusion of a limited edition Altair action figure. Much to their chagrin though, the tiny plastic morsel was poorly sculpted featured no articulation and looked like it had been painted by Indonesian sweat shop workers who were forced to crank these things out by the thousands.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Contents: Replica coin, history book, bonus DVD
There's a lot of information held within the tomes of the Elder Scrolls series, but the history/art book they included in the special edition was about as blank as one could imagine. Offering little additional information that true fans (and likely purchasers) didn't already know, a DVD with bare-bones features, the pack's real draw was a large coin replica that wouldn't even fit comfortably in your wallet.
NBA 2k10
NBA 2k10
Contents: Kobe Bryant action figure, Kobe Bryant wall scroll, and a locker to hide your shamefully large collection of NBA 2k games in
We get it sports fans, you all love Kobe Bryant a whole bunch. As cover athelete for the 2k10 game though, he recieved the full treatment with the inclusion of a poorly made action figure and wall scroll bearing his likeness. As if that didn't make this package weird enough, it all came in a massive game locker designed to hold all of your NBA 2k games under lock and key so nobody would see that you bought literally the same game every single year since they started the series.
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Contents: A special, colorless Bakugan toy
I'm sure this may have actually been valuable to someone who enjoyed the collectible real-world game of Bakugan, but if you're picking up a virtual version of the experience you already enjoy it seems a little weird for the game to be calling you back to the physical version of the game by including another figure for you to play with. It's almost like the developers knew the game was awful and just wanted you to buy it for the figure alone...
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
Contents: Bonus DVD, in-game unlocks including a fake Darth Maul, and a weird USB stick with an elongated head
In an age where USB sticks are a dime a dozen and everyone's got at least 4 of them within arms reach at all times it's important to differentiate yourself from the pack by making one that not only looks like a jedi that's been through a strange medieval torture device, but also by making one that covers up any adjacent USB ports on your computer, ensuring that it's the only one you'll be accessing. Seriously, this thing is hideous and the fact that it only holds 2 GB is a crime against humanity.
Battlefield: Bad Company
Battlefield: Bad Company
Contents: In-game weapon unlocks, Behind the scenes DVD
Despite being a brand new (and unproven) franchise extension, EA thought the best way to help market its new action-comedy spin-off of the Battlefield series would be to market it to gold enthusiats. Thus Au-some package included 5 bonus in-game weapons (one per class because letting you use them all would be ridiculous) and a bonus DVD with a bunch of features you'd watch once, strategy videos that wouldn't reflect how people actually played the game, and a poster because you love showing off just how much money you blow on games.
Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2
Contents: Lithograph art piece, soundtrack, in-game weapons, and a cheap plastic laser cutter
After the success of Dead Space, EA spared no expense making sure the collector's edition a special experience for fans. No expense except the expense of quality manufacturing that is. While the soundtrack was a nice inclusion (the music is grand), the real draw was the laser cutter replica which was both ridiculously tiny and made of the cheapest plastic possible. Seriously, you can find higher quality toys at Dollar General.
Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online
Contents: Wearable badge of shame, an art book, in-game costumes, and trial codes to get your friends hooked on the game
Most MMOs offer you free trials like they're going out of style, but Star Trek Online thought it would be a good idea to offer 10-day samples only to friends of those who were disturbingly invested in the game at launch. Seriously, the biggest benefit of owning this collector's edition was that it came with a handful of free trials to give to your friends so they could see for themselves how not-worth-it the game was at your expense.
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3
Contents: N7 patch for your jacket, mass-produced lithograph, in-game perks, and an art book
The Mass Effect series has been one of the definitive franchises of this generation and to close it out in style, EA and BioWare thought this paltry offering would be enough to satisfy fans who had literally put hundreds of hours into the game by this point. Finding out that the best swag they had to offer was a cloth patch for you to sew onto your clothing was like finding out that a plastic spider-ring was the best thing you could buy with all your tickets at Chuck E. Cheese after hours of playing their games.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Contents: A prop batarang, medical dossier on Arkham patients, a bonus DVD, and an insanely large case
Batman fans are notoroius for collecting anything with an insignia on it, but the Arkham Asylum collector's edition pushed the limits of this by asking them to shell out an additional $40 for a cheap plastic (and unusable) batarang prop. The medical dossier on the Arkham Asylum villains was a nice inclusion, but didn't offer anything the in-game dossier didn't already tell you and to top it all off the case for all of this was absolutely massive, ensuring it'd never fit properly on any game shelf.
Perfect Dark Zero
Perfect Dark Zero
Contents: Bonus DVD, some Perfect Dark gamerpics, a shiny collector card, and 1 chapter of the associated novel
At time Perfect Dark Zero was released few knew just how badly Microsoft had messed up the company and the collector's edition to the much-anticipated sequel and first-step into the new console generation was to offer some significant fan service to those who'd been waiting since the N64 days for some premium Perfect Dark swag. Unfortunately for all the extra money they got nothing of substantial value and were asked to throw down more cash as the accompanying novel wasn't fully included, but rather only the first chapter. You know, because paper's so expensive.
Forza Motorsport 3
Forza Motorsport 3
Contents: A goofy keychain, car unlock, VIP status online, and a massive 2GB USB stick
What's cooler than action figures, art books, and soundtracks combined? The kind of stuff you could find at Office Depot, that's what! For the extra expense of the collector's edition, fans were given a stupid metal keychain to hang the keys to their woefully depressing real-world car and a USB stick with enough storage space to hold 150 pictures of cars they wish they were driving.
F.E.A.R. 3
F.E.A.R. 3
Contents: Creepy glow-in-the-dark pregnant lady statue, a comic book, and weapon unlocks
If you were one of the six people intensely interested in the F.E.A.R. canon, I suppose the comic book included in this special edition would have been worth something to you, but the inclusion of a super creepy, super poorly made, glow-in-the-dark statue of pregnant Alma made it a really weird purchase to explain. Seriously, if you thought the Dead Island: Riptide bust was a little bizarre or unsettling, you should take a good long look at this thing; at least with the bikini-zombie bust you couldn't see it with the lights off...
Tony Hawk: Proving Ground
Tony Hawk: Proving Ground
Contents: DVD of Tony Hawk doing skateboard stuff
In terms of content, the Tony Hawk: Proving Ground limited edition's got as close to zilch as you can get. With nothing more than a special slip-cover case and a DVD of skateboard tips and tricks from the titular celebrity, one's got to wonder how anyone at Activision thought this was worth anything more than the basic price of the game.
Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption
Contents: Golden gun unlocks, "Deadly Assassin" outfit, special horse for killin' stuff
Nothing's cooler than walking into an online match and letting everyone know you spent more money than them by having them all stare in awe at your gold-plated weaponry. It's a sign of true opulence and totally worth the additional price Rockstar asked for this gem. If it weren't bad enough that the limited edition came with literally no physical goods, all of the digital ones were made available online mere months after release.
John Woo's Stranglehold
John Woo's Stranglehold
Contents: A copy of the movie Hard Boiled for PS3 owners, near nothing for 360 players
Including John Woo's famous Hard Boiled for fans willing to grab the special edition was a genius move considering Stranglehold was a sorta-sequel and watching the flick before playing added all sorts of extra value to the experience. Unfortunately 360 players just got to hear about it through a making-of DVD as the film was only included on the PS3 version. Considering that the included film wasn't even in HD despite being on Blu-Ray.
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Contents: Unlockable weapons, some stickers, an art book, and a USB drive in the shape of a business card
The inclusion of a really unique business-card shaped USB stick promised players the opportunity to take a splinter (get it?) of their spy experience into the real-world, but when folks got the collector's edition it turned out that the stick was more than busted. To add insult to injury, because the content on the drive was made entirely inaccessible Ubisoft released it all for free on their website making the would-be rare content hyper-accessible.
Fable 2
Fable 2
Contents: Not any of the stuff they promised, just a DVD
Fable 2's collector's edition has to be one of the worst blunders in manufacturing these cash-ins of all time. Originally planned to include a special case, a set of Fable themed tarot cards, and a little bobble head, something happened during production that caused the team at Lionhead to scrap inclusion of all of these things leaving the final product with nothing more than a crappy DVD with some lame features on it.
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII
Contents: Bonus DVD and... that's it...
In terms of extras, the collector's edition for Final Fantasy XII goes down in history as one of the weakest offerings of all time. Coming with literally nothing but a special case and a bonus DVD with featurettes you'd watch once it was painfully sparse and offered nothing extra for fans who were willing to shell out their hard-earned cash for the privilege of such disappointment.
Tony Hawk Ride
Tony Hawk Ride
Contents: A special-edition goofy plastic skateboard
As if spending money on this travesty of a "game" wasn't bad enough, some folks actually went the extra mile and shilled out for a collector's edition of Tony Hawk Ride that included literally nothing extra, but offered up an "exclusive" version of the stupid plastic skateboard that featured a red top rather than a vanilla black one. I cannot think of a worse thing to spend your money on.
Record of Argarest War
Record of Argarest War
Contents: Pervy pillow case, big-tittied mousepad, and a DVD full of pseudo-porn
Imagine walking into Gamestop and asking for this package, maybe not knowing what was inside. Try and imagine the look of horror on your face (and the employee's) as they handed you your special edition packed with enough half-hentai spank material to accompany your game. Then again, you could be one of those weirdos that's genuinely into this stuff, in which case we ain't judging. Let's just say it's probably better if you ordered this one off Amazon though.
BioShock
BioShock
Contents: Sample-sized soundtrack, bonus DVD, and a broken Big Daddy figure
Whoever thought putting a brittle plastic figurine loosely inside a massive game case didn't really think this one through. Scores of folks who shilled out extra cash (and faith) on the first BioShock game were treated to a miniature Big Daddy figurine that likely either had its drill snapped off or came in several pieces. Folks spent forever waiting on replacements for these things, but most didn't even bother - it was tiny and barely worth the effort fixing.
Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm
Contents: An invite to the Gears of War 3 beta
This has got to be one of the absolute worst marketing tactics ever deployed on the gaming public. At a time when everyone was clamouring to find out more about Gears of War 3, Epic released Bulletstorm's Epic Edition with nothing extra save for an invite to the beta. Get this, you went out of your way to find one of these copies so that you could help the company stress-test its servers. America. Capitalism. Genius.
Halo 3
Halo 3
Contents: Scratched discs, DVD featurette
If you were one of the folks that was rich enough to buy the limited edition but too broke to afford the kitty cat sized helmet edition of Halo 3 then you may have had the good fortune of taking home your prized game after waiting all night long outside your local Best Buy only to find that your game disc was scratched due to some remarkably awful packaging design. Not only were scores of Halo fanboys forced to wait for Microsoft to issue replacement discs, but the bonus content they had to enjoy while waiting was barely worth the DVD it was printed on.