Ghost of Yotei pre-orders went live today, and they came alongside the reveal of a Collector’s Edition which, as per PlayStation’s increasingly annoying tradition, doesn’t actually come with a physical copy of the game. Instead, this $250 version of Ghost of Yotei comes with a digital code for the game, and it’s starting to feel like nobody actually understands what game collectors really want.
This Collector’s Edition follows the tradition most similar releases do these days, where you get an array of knickknacks surrounding one, big centerpiece item. In this case, it’s a standing model of the Ghost Mask, which admittedly looks pretty cool. But man, if I’m spending $250 on a video game, I want a real copy of that game to put on my shelf, too.
I’m a video game collector, which broadly means that I like buying physical games to keep as a proper, tangible library. All those other goodies in these Collector’s Editions are nice and all, but the thing I really want to collect is the video game itself. If I wanted everything, I’d be buying the CE and rebuying the game itself on disc for another $70.
The fact that the CE only has a digital game shouldn’t be a surprise – Sony‘s done the same with Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and even the upcoming Death Stranding 2, and we’ve seen similar moves from publishers like Square Enix.
Perhaps the most infamous example was last year’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard Collector’s Edition, which didn’t come with the game at all, whether in digital or physical form. I’m starting to think that might actually be the more attractive way to go, though, because then at least collectors who want the game on disc won’t have to buy it twice.
