Pre-order bonuses are a surefire way of instantly splitting your userbase. Usually it doesn't matter whether group A are wearing blue pantaloons and group B are wearing clown noses, those sorts of pre-order bonuses aren't really important. When you start talking about exclusive multi-player maps, on the other hand, you're starting to talk about damaging the community.
And that's just what's happening with Max Payne 3. Along with the Assassin's Creed III special edition, GAME have managed to score a fairly big pre-order bonus for Rockstar's next, an exclusive multi-player map. While it's certainly implied this map will be available to everybody at some point in the near future, it'll be interesting to know just how long this can go on for.
From the press release:
“We are delighted to be Rockstar Games’ partner for the launch of Max Payne 3,” said GAME’s Marketing Director, Anna-Marie Mason. “They have been a true supporter of our business and as a result of our great relationship, we’re excited to be able to offer our customers another superb game from Rockstar with the added bonus of the pre-order exclusive and the excitement of midnight launches. We’re really enjoying working with them to make this the biggest launch of the year so far.”
