I may be out of line in thinking of this, but am I the only one who hates how recent preorders for many games turn out now? I can accept them showing up, it's a great incentive, and I'll admit influenced my purchases. But recently I am being turned off by how companies make several preorder options and make you choose one of these preset packs of items, with some of them possibly being unobtainable otherwise. Add to this that some employees have been lax in the past for giving me the pre-order bonus and sometimes never get them into the store, it makes me wish for some way to get the bonus without having to pre-order the content. Would there be any way at all for companies to go back to the old ways of making just a single pre-order pack? Normally I wouldn't care but with a game like Brink, I'd like the customizable options to be as vast as possible, and with the pre-order bonuses looking so spectacular it's almost a sin to deny players the use of them, especially if they wait to pick up the game.

I agree with what your saying. I pre-ordered Halo: Reach at Gamestop for their pre-order bonus and never got it.

Having an item only obtainable through pre-order (or other means) makes the item more exclusive and unique. If I pre-order Brink, and get one of the pre-order packs, I expect nobody else to be able to get what I have, unless they too pre-ordered. What I don't like, is when companies release pre-order bonuses, and then a week after the game is released, they offer the bonus as DLC. Why do they deserve the bonus? They had their chance to pre-order. If they chose not to, it's their fault, and they should lose out. But the gaming industry, like all businesses, is about money, and they know people will pay for that DLC, so they offer it.

As for not only offering multiple pre-order packs, but having different ones only available from specific merchants, is a bit ridiculous. If they offered the 4 packs, but you could buy them all at the same place, that would make much more sense - but again, making players order packs from specific merchants, is a business decision - probably to help guarantee that 1 retailer isn't making all the money. I don't mind them offering multiple packs - it helps add diversity - it's how they are executing it that bothers me.

The worst I've seen is with the Limited Edition of Bad Company 2, 6 early perks and 2 exclusive weapons. But guess what everyone can unlock those weapons at level 10 (2 hours of gameplay estimate) kinda defeats the point of 'limited' and 'exclusive'.

I can understand preorder bonuses as an incentive to presuade potential buyers, but it shouldnt be the only thing to persuade me. So sometimes you cant rly decide, you like the feel of the game, but you have only seen a couple of gameplay videos and there is no other way to tell, so you dont preorder and wait for reviews etc. Then you loose the option to get those bonuses, since you decided later. And often there is no other way of getting them but preorder and I dont like that idea.

For example current game Test Drive Unlimited 2. Should be coming out quite soon, but there is no substantial info to help you decide if you would like it. Screenshots, trailers, thats it. I like them all but all depends how cars handle - that means I still dont want to preorder something I dont know much about, so I ll miss some preorder cars. So i dont see those bonuses as an incentive more like taking advantage of ppl. Put out a demo with 2 cars and 1 track, give me 10 mins and I'll preoreder at once if I like it. But not like this - preorder or you will never touch these cars, no matter what the game is like.

Also another thing, with BRINK is, I like it a lot. Liked all games by SD. Also like preorder bonuses, lots of nice ideas. But the problem with it lies that I dont like just one of them and I dont think its fair to be forced to choose since there is no way of getting others later. I am huge fan of Fallout, grew up with Doom and like that Psycho pack revolver a lot, same goes for Specops pack. So what now? I like all of them but I have to choose. Why is that? Dont like that system really.

To me that's the only acceptable "bonus" you should get for Pre-Ordering apart from skins or other nonsense that does not influence gameplay...

If preordering (or buying a DLC) gives you an advantage over other players the game is a no-go for me.

I agree with the OP. Pre-order bonuses/packs should all be the same regardless of where/when you buy them. If it's something that's going to be added to the game later on as DLC, then there's absolutely no point of making it seem so exclusive.