10 Dumbest Ways You’ve Been Sold Video Games
3. Deus Ex's "Augment Your Pre-Order"
Square Enix have never been great at marketing their releases, but their decision to turn video game pre-orders into a fully-fledged 'mini-game' in the run up to the release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was met with such a huge backlash that the company eventually had to cancel the whole thing.
Because instead of offering a few extra skins or early in-game upgrades, the publisher set up a bunch of "tiers" - essentially Kickstarter-style stretch goals that would unlock substantial content like new missions and soundtracks - which could then be redeemed once global pre-orders hit a certain threshold.
It was a stupid idea, not only because nobody needs to pre-order anything in an era where access to copies of video games is at an all time high, but because it was spun in a way that made it seem like Square was giving you extra content for pre-ordering, rather than what they were actually doing: gating off features that should have been there in the first place.