Pre-orders (Official Thread)

I was thinking about it (the super deluxe edition part), but eeeeeeeh, it's his money 

Lets be fair about this...

ALL significant MP DLCs for ME3 were free.
BioWare most probably will introduce the same scheme in ME:A.
Only thing you will buy are RNG packs + maybe some small DLCs which add some purely cosmetic customisations to armor/weapons ect.

As for SP, its obvious they have to introduce paid DLC, but if they drop Lair of Shadow Broker quality DLCs, I'll gladly pay for those aswell.

Oh, I agree.  I was being snarky.  I think it's perfectly reasonable for companies to engage in microtransactions (although too many take it way too far) given most player bases would balk at 100-120$ for a game.  I thought the ME3 model was brilliant.  Include the MP game with the SP game, provide all future maps as free add-ons, and let people chose if they want to pay for packs that may (or may not) provide a competitive edge.  Oh, and you can still earn all the same stuff without dropping a dime.  Pretty good system imo.

I think that the Super Deluxe edition is a digital distribution, as of now. The only two physical editions I've seen come with the Nomad models.

Who knows though, with strong enough demand that could change.  Either way, I went with the Deluxe pre-order just to be sure I'm ready at release.

Oh, you SOB!
*pulls out a Carnifex*
You don't get to walk out alive.

Editions may become clearer once the game actually has a shipping date  .
Even if you wait until February to review options at that point, it's not as if anyone is going to run our of pre-orders (aside of collectors' editions).

And despite any argument from the 'nooooo never pre-order, aaaarghhhh' purists, it's entirely your choice 

Bioware haven't confirmed yet if Ryder dances like Shepard, and you people already had preorder?, what's wrong with you guys?!

Is there an ETA on the MS store preorder?

I just redeemed bunch Xbox gift cards and am waiting patiently for it hehehe.

I have already accepted the fact that nobody can rule the dance floor like Commander Shepard. I just hope I atleast can outshine Liam.

I would just like to know if I meet the system requirements.  Some website I went to suggested I didn't, but it said the same for DAI and FO4.  Both work fine.  However, if I have to buy a new computer I might wait on the preorders.  Speaking of pissing people off... I play on a laptop, and I'd be replacing it with another laptop.  Given the expense for a gaming laptop, I don't know that I'd want to spend the extra $70.

The bonus packs you get from pre-ordering the Super Deluxe edition or whatever will not actually help. Let's do some math and look at ME3MP's store/progression (since I believe they mentioned that the store in Andromeda will function similarly).

Alright, so the Super Deluxe edition (which we'll call "SD" from here on out) costs $20 more than the Deluxe edition. You get one "free" pack in Multiplayer for 20 weeks by pre-ordering SD, and if we do some quick division, we can see that the packs you will get are going to cost $1. Maybe they'll be in the in-game store for $1.49 to make SD purchasers feel better or something, I don't know. So for $20 more, you're getting one "free" pack for 20 weeks (and free is in quotes since you're pretty much pre-ordering microtransaction items, which is an impressive amount of fuck).

How does this tie in to ME3MP? Well, it just so happens that there's a pack in ME3MP's store that also costs $1! Now this obviously isn't a perfect comparison since we don't know anything about the economy in Andromeda's MP, but I feel like this can act as a pretty good indicator for what's to come. For your $1, you get two cards that each give you three of a match item (self-revives, full heals, instant ammo refills, or shots for a heavy weapon that one-shots everything and has a large blast radius), and then three cards that provide low-level consumable items like ammo modifiers, boost to shields/movement speed, etcetera. Any one of these three cards can be replaced by a character unlock card, weapon unlock/upgrade card, or attachment unlock/upgrade card. These items are limited by the tier system, so the items are guaranteed to be Common or Uncommon, and if my memory serves there is a very small chance of getting one Rare card, but I might be mistaken on that last point as it's been years since I had an un-maxed manifest.

Anyway, that's all well and good, but back to my main point about how this won't be as much of a help as it sounds. This pack in ME3MP could also be purchased with in-game currency for 20,000 credits. When the game first came out, this was a pretty significant amount, but as changes were made to payouts, this became less and less of an obstacle. As the game sits right now, you can get enough credits to buy one of these crates in two matches on the lowest difficulty, one and a half crates per match on the intermediary difficulty, and four crates per match on the second-highest difficulty (equivalent to Perilous in DAI). The highest difficulty (roughly equivalent to Nightmare in DAI) awards enough cash to buy seven or eight of them, but it's not really feasible for new people to play on it.

So in conclusion; If the past is any indication, for $20 extra, you're getting one bonus box per week (for twenty weeks) of items that will be of dubious usage after the first month, and flat-out useless after the halfway mark. And this timetable will scale depending on how much you play, so the more you play, the faster the boxes will lose relevance. Conversely, the less you play, the longer they will be helpful.

If after reading all that, you still want to get the SD edition, go right ahead. It's your money and you're free to spend it however you want. Just don't expect to have a significant boost (or even an appreciable one, provided you play enough) waiting for you. However, if you're still on the fence, I would strongly advise against it and to go for either the base version of the game or the Deluxe edition instead.