Risen 2 - Pre-Order DLC Bonus - "Treasure Island"
 

Deep Silver sent us a press release announcing a pre-order bonus DLC for Risen 2 titled Treasure Island. Those who pre-order from "selected territories at participating retailers" before the April release will get Treasure Island for free, otherwise worth 800 points / equivalent in real money:

Thanks to Frozen Fireball for a similar submission.

More information.

I proposed to my girlfriend while on stage for a production of Treasure Island. That was fun :p

Hmmm! Here we go again with these pre-order DLCs. Thank god for PC versions and digital distribution - I will wait few month before buying at a lower price.

This is much worse than the KoA approach, where simply buying the game new gets you the DLC for free. I'm not a huge fan of that type of incentive either, but at least it isn't as heavy-handed as this and seems like a fair compromise for all involved - it doesn't have an effect on those who buy the game new and gives a little incentive to discourage used sales, nothing more. This "pre-order" bonus, however…I'm kind of shocked and disappointed that a company like Piranha Bytes would pull something like this, and in my opinion, it's very counter-intuitive for a medium-sized "under-dog" company that has garnered loyal support for not acting in this manner to do this.

This is far from a "I refuse to buy!" situation, but still, I'm very disappointed in PB. If bigger companies can be ripped apart for doing things like this, then it's only fair to take PB to task for doing the same dang thing.

Yeah, can't say I am thrilled about this. I half expect them to be freely available some time in the future ala Witcher but still… I'll just ignore that crap, for now… :)

Though obviously disappointing, I don't see how this is worse than KoA. The KoA approach reduces the value of a used game, whilst this does not (when the pre-order option has gone, new games and used games are on equal footing). Unfortunately pre-order bonuses are becoming more and more common.

Piranha Bytes are probably my favourite developer (and therefore have a bit of goodwill to draw on), so I will pre-order it. They are balancing on a fine line though, and if the content was exclusive to pre-orders I wouldn't buy the game. I'll accept PB copying Bethesda (and this includes eventually releasing a Risen 2 Gold), but I'll turn my back on them if they go down the Bioware route…

PB is the developer, not the publisher. Selling the game is not their business.

I don't have a problem with them offering an incentive to buy it now. I rarely buy a game at release since I know I can wait and get it at a much lower price. This rewards me for going ahead and making the plunge, though with a PB game it was a given I was going to make an exception and get it as soon as it's out anyway.

I remember when I bought The Witcher 2 from Good Old Games, there were several things I got for pre-ordering - some music, artwork, wallpapers, and a 10% discount. I guess that isn't the same as DLC, but it was extra incentive.

Ha! I was waiting for this double-standard.

So, on the one-hand, it's terrible for everyone who buys it new from any vendor to get a bonus but on the other, it's acceptable to only get the bonus if you buy pre-release from the right vendor in the right territories?

Hilarious.

I don't really have a problem with DLC in general but what I'm disappointed in is that Steelbeard's treasure is "only" getting the DLC treatment.
The whole Steelbeard quest was the major side quest in the first game and now it is concluded via a pre-order DLC in Risen 2? WTF? That doesn't seem right.
The quest was already a bit half-assed in Risen with no real conclusion so I would have hoped that this quest would have gotten the attention it deserves in Risen 2. This should -in my opinion- have been a major story arc throughout the entire game instead of being a completely optional, separate quest line.
I'm also wondering how they are going to do this exactly. They can't really let us haul away a major treasure as part of a DLC quest. It would screw up the balancing big time. Which means that they are going to have to have a more or less lame explanation at the end of the quest why the treasure has become unusable or (nearly) worthless… which again wouldn't do this potentially epic quest line much justice.

Not good…

You have a point. As I stated in the earlier KoA thread, my problem with online passes is that there are three gamers in my family. I am forced to pick or choose who gets to activate the pass on their profile and have everyone play on the same profile, or buy two more online passes, adding to the cost of the game overall. This pre-order DLC would have the exact same issue if I were to buy it on the 360.

I wasn't looking at it from that angle since I was planning on getting this on the PC. I only buy titles that they want to play too on the console. My kids are only into more action oriented RPGs such as KoA, Mass Effect, and such. I never could get them interested in the Gothic or Elder Scroll titles.

"selected territories at participating retailers"

So, I'll more than likely not be able to get this. Either through region lock, or by importing it instead of buying from the "right" retailer. I could have lived without in game items, but Steelbeard's treasure quest? That's cruel.

I'm laughing pretty hard at this as well, so predictable.

Oh you can still get by other means.

Not too thrilled about this concept. I think Moriendor summed it up well.. this is not something I want to see as a DLC.

I like this. I like this a lot. They're finally rewarding those of us who pre-order. We pay the original price (normally about 40 bucks) for our day one purchases and yet someone who bought the game in the bargain bin got exactly the same content.

Although I agree that the DLC shouldn't have been about Steelbeard. That was in the first game and everyone should be able to see that quest. What they should have done was make a new quest.

They shouldn't be rewarding people simply for having blind faith, and they shouldn't "punish" people who are wise enough to wait for a game to actually come out and analyze whether or not the game is actually worth buying it at full price - previews and past reputation alone are hardly enough to go by in making an informed decision (Gothic 3 at the time of release, anyone? Dragon Age 2?). Why not "reward" anybody who buys the game period, ala CdProject Red, or maybe "reward" anyone who purchases the game new at any point instead of used? Seems like a much better way to garner goodwill and offer a fair incentive to encourage the purchase of a game than holding interesting content hostage unless one is willing to take a big risk in blindly buying a game before anything tangible is known about the game's quality.

People like me who are likely to purchase Risen 2 in the crucial first week shouldn't feel "locked out" of content simply for wanting to know if the game is truly good or not. By holding content out in this manner, I feel "encouraged" to instead wait for a complete or "GoTY" edition at a discount price instead of buying it immediately without the complete game. This isn't a simple "costume" DLC that I would never want in the first place; this is an interesting quest line that has ties to one of the better side-quests of Risen 1 and should be a part of the full game.

So anyone who pre-orders should get no incentive to do so or reward?

The industry is trying new things in order to make a profit and as long as they stay away from making me pay a monthly fee to play their game then I'm fine with them experimenting. Especially with experiments where they reward their customers who have a wee bit of faith in their product.

Didn't I already say that they should not have chosen a quest line from Risen 1? You're preaching to the choir about that one.

Pre-order should be cheaper because you are taking a risk getting it before the reviews hit. Crap like this should just be part of the main game. Stuff produces AFTER the release should be DLC.

Fair enough, I see your point even though I personally think it could be handled in a different way. I guess I'll just never have faith in a company purely on the basis of name and reputation alone, as each game functions as its own separate entity and should - in my opinion - be judged separately as well. Risen 2 is going to be vastly different from Risen 1, and while I am very happy that PB is being creative and trying to go in a different direction, Risen 1 and the Gothic series can't be used to judge whether or not I'll enjoy Risen 2. I'm very positive that I will, but I can't be certain until the game comes out - and I don't want to "miss out" on additional, interesting content for waiting a mere couple of days to see how it turns out before commiting to a purchase decision.

I haven't pre-ordered a game in years, but I've bought several within the first few days, with Skyrim, Human Revolution, Frayed Knights and The Witcher 2 being the most recent examples of week one purchases - is that really much different from pre-ordering?. Perhaps a better compromise would be to offer this sort of DLC for free to anyone who buys the game new within the first 2 weeks or even a month. I will always emphatically prefer that this practice not be used at all,in any shape or form, but that seems like a decent compromise that is more "fair" than limiting the incentive to pre-orders alone.

I was more disagreeing with the first part of the quote, and because this questline is the "reward/incentive" for pre-ordering, I used it as the basis for my opinion.