Game stores these days are known for allowing gamers to pre-order videogames. These “down payments” are rewarded, sometimes, with special items, 
known as Pre-Order Bonuses. Most of these items are T-shirts, collectibles, companions to the game (art books and journals of characters), or even accessories for the system itself, like system face plates, DS cleaning cloths, or PSP key fobs. Sometimes, however, the item is in-game content. This may include a special quest, weapon, item, mount, or vehicle.
These in-game items create some controversy sometimes when they are given out. Some of them will skew gameplay to reward major advantages for certain players and not others, thus discouraging some players from even trying to play and making the game feel biased towards the consumer who got to put down five dollars before the game came out. On the other hand, some of these items are purely aesthetic. A war rages on and, as with any other situation, gamers take sides on this issue.
Andrew Reiner, Executive Editor of GameInformer, believes there are two sides to this story. “On one hand, people love free stuff. The idea of getting a bonus item, even if it is as insignificant as a rainbow theme set for all weapons in the game, seems to drive people to pre-order.” Andrew continued, “On the other hand, I’ve always been of the mind that all content in a game should be available in a game. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get it.” He went on to explain his thoughts on equal rights of all players playing a certain game. “What if I lived on an island with no Gamestop or mail service and I had to paddle my boat to a Wal-Mart (to buy games)? But, all of my Xbox Live friends shop at Gamestop. I’m boned! They’ll enjoy double XP or quicker kills. I have to wait two months (to have the ability unlocked). That sucks.“
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354 days ago
This is a topic rather dear to my heart, and I’d like to share some thoughts on all this.
First, I think pre-order content entices the gamer to abandon their caution. That is, it encourages them to order a game before they’ve had a chance to rent it or read reviews. "Duh," I know; that’s the idea. I think it’s a bad one insofar as the gamer is concerned.
I’m also strongly against the pre-order gift being in-game advantages, even small ones that are numerically in balance with other weapons or items in the game. I suppose I can accept them also being given to other players later as a compromise between rewarding the pre-order and not skewing things, but the simple fact of it is that unless you do that, the other player has access to more tools to hone their play-style than the person who ordered ’late’ does. Both paid the same price, but one now has an advantage in flexibility at the very least. It’s the same as how a Street Fighter player with access to Ryu AND Ken has an advantage over the guy who can only pick Ryu. Equal starting resources is important.
I’m more fond of out of game items as pre-order gifts. A Phoenix Wright DS stylus, a soundtrack CD, or whatever... those are easier to swallow. They’re neat little trinkets and fun to have, but not having one doesn’t really hurt your gameplay. It nonetheless annoys me due to the ’abandon caution’ thing above, but I can live with this.
However... I’m rather upset at the whole thing right now, as Gamestop burned me on this recently. They enticed me to pre-order Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS) by offering a free art print. I saw photos of the print before ordering, and it was a fine looking piece of art. As a regular fan of the series who was coming off of a bad experience with Gamestop, I figured that was enough to pull me back in. Then I received my order a few days ago... and there was no art print. Turns out they got zero (0) from their distributor, and thus couldn’t give out their promised pre-order gift. This was on top of three other more serious breaches of good faith by Gamestop in the last few months, and was basically the final straw. You can’t bait the customer in with a false promise, and if the failure to live up to it isn’t your fault... you still need to do something to make it up to them. They can keep their pre-order gifts, I’ve opted to take my business to companies that treat me right.
In any case, this was a pretty solid look at the matter. It’s good to see you gave your own feelings on it with some examples, rather than just quoting industry members.