Also, let's lock all the emblems. Because that was a super awesome idea.

I'm still really, really bitter about that last one. Can you tell?

Whatevs. I'm over it. They don't have a sale from me, and they likely won't until it's bargain bin.

I was pissed that they didn't have the champion emblem (or maybe they did, and i never figured out how to unlock it). That had been my icon for Halo 2, 3, ODST, and Reach.

They didn't have mine either, and near as I could tell, it wasn't something Bungie had on lockdown.

It was kind of a slap in the face when upon entering War Games or whatever for the first time, you were prompted to "make your spartan your own", and I couldn't, because all the emblems were locked, and the one that'd been my identity for the better part of a decade was missing entirely.

Also, let's lock all the emblems. Because that was a super awesome idea.

I'm still really, really bitter about that last one. Can you tell?

Whatevs. I'm over it. They don't have a sale from me, and they likely won't until it's bargain bin.

I was pissed that they didn't have the champion emblem (or maybe they did, and i never figured out how to unlock it). That had been my icon for Halo 2, 3, ODST, and Reach.

I bought the Locus helmet for $5 on ebay for Halo 4. For me, it was worth it. I wouldn't pay stupid money ($100+ for blacksmith shader on ebay) for an in game item though.

I did the exact same thing for the Locus helmet. Definitely worth it.

I managed to snag the Halo 4 preorder bonuses for Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon, too. The Walmart "preorder deposit" was just a Halo 4 themed $5 Walmart gift card that I probably ended up using to buy caffeine for launch night. Not sure how I ended up with both Best Buy and Amazon bonuses, though. I know I only ended up with one copy of the game.

And I was more than happy to preorder whatever Call of Duty game was needed for the Blacksmith shader, and was then equally happy to cancel that preorder when my code arrived a few minutes later.

I'm totally cool with preorder bonuses as long as I'm not actually committed to purchasing the game after preordering ;)

-Disciple

Just curious about how the preorders work when doing the calculations. For example. In person, I can pay in full at GameStop. Or preorder online at GameStop or Amazon and you basically reserve the copy without buying it. So there is no guaranteed money really as you can cancel that order right up til and probably even a few days after launch. I understand that the preorders help you judge how many units may sell, but it doesn't give you a guaranteed amount of sales.

And I did it for the bonuses. Having unlockable bonuses ensures I will not ever pre order a game. It is why I didn't get a PS4 for Destiny, too. I knew I would get that stuff eventually, so I thought "eh, no biggie," and stayed within my ecosystem.

So yes, 343 has stuck to their principles, which I applaud. They will probably lose a ton of preordery sales they could have had, though.

343 has gone up in my estimation because of that, BUT, preorder bonuses are good for business.

Which is better. Guaranteed pre-order sales and then subsequent returns, or just straight sales?

The discounted cash flow model says that guaranteed pre-order sales are better because money now is worth more than money later. This is partially because inflation is assumed, and partially because a preorder now, even with the chance of a return later, is viewed as less of a risk than straight sales later, and the discount rate goes up the longer you wait for "later" to get here.

Whether it is true in practice or not depends on whether or not the financial loss represented by the returns is greated than your assumed discount rate.

Also, let's lock all the emblems. Because that was a super awesome idea.

I'm still really, really bitter about that last one. Can you tell?

Whatevs. I'm over it. They don't have a sale from me, and they likely won't until it's bargain bin.

I bought the Locus helmet for $5 on ebay for Halo 4. For me, it was worth it. I wouldn't pay stupid money ($100+ for blacksmith shader on ebay) for an in game item though.

That listing isn't even honest - that shader wasn't exclusive to E3! You could get it before Destiny even launched, last year!

(also... $150? wtf)

People will take the codes and sell them on places like ebay.

Which often times doesn't make sense as I'll see and hear of people buying them for a lot of money, more then the price of the game.

I bought the Locus helmet for $5 on ebay for Halo 4. For me, it was worth it. I wouldn't pay stupid money ($100+ for blacksmith shader on ebay) for an in game item though.

If we could move to a system like 343 is doing on most games I'd be much happier when it comes time to deciding what and how many of a game to buy.

Which often times doesn't make sense as I'll see and hear of people buying them for a lot of money, more then the price of the game.

Who keeps the bonus then returns the game?

Crazy collector people like me :)

I preordered Halo 4 from nearly every retailer that had different preorder bonuses. I ended up selling most of the games on craigslist or to friends and used the DLC codes. I think I only returned one copy of the game.

Knowing I would be able to eventually get the preorder items would have just limited me to preordering one copy instead of multiples.