Throwing their hats into the pre-purchase ring, Runic Games have Torchlight 2 up for pre-purchase on Steam for $20/£14.99; release date is “Summer 2012” and the perk you get for pre-purchasing is a free copy of Torchlight (which you could gift to a friend if you already have a copy).
This is so much of a better deal than any of the other pre-purchase ‘offers’ I’ve seen recently, such as Guild Wars 2 (woo ‘free’ access to beta weekends) or Diablo 3 (no actual bonus for pre-purchase), and gives you a complete game to play while you’re waiting for the release that I’d give props to Runic for thinking things through.
If publishers want me to shell out money up front, these are the sorts of lines they should be thinking along.
I love their marketing that sneakily contrasts itself from the ‘other game’:
-LAN play
-Customisable talent builds
-Moddability
Sold.
Unless you live in the EU in which case 20$ transforms into 20E. Seriously thinking of changing my steam address to some of the flyover states because of that.
At last a pre-purchase idea that I can get behind, just wish I had the cash now
That free copy of the original was a huge draw for me. I got it so I could share the original with a friend who hadn’t played it.
If only all pre-purchases actually gave the customer something of value for their faith ….