Star Wars : The Old Republic - Pre-Orders

As most of the world knows, and definitely knows before coming here at the very least, Bioware has put up the section for pre-orders on their website however it isn't entirely known if Bioware has done this before anyone else. I've heard people say that Gamestop has been taking pre-orders long before today, and I'm sure other retailers have been doing the same.

In any case, the main selling point for pre-ordering seems to be early access to the game in the order of which you redeem your pre-order code. I assume this means that there's going to be a “early release date” at which they start allowing people into the game, as well as a normal release date. Rather than allowing people in game now for instance.

Bioware also seems to be doing the actual editions differently than World of Warcraft, and games that usually have a standard edition, then a Collector's edition with a few extra things. Instead, ToR will have 3 editions, one being standard, then digital deluxe, and finally Collector's with the last being the most expensive. Here's the list of things they sell the product with, and furthermore, what I think about the actual product.

Collector's Edition

-30 days of game time
-Color Stone which changes colors of attacks apparently
-Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue (which I think is interesting)
-Game disks collectible metal case
-The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan
-The Old Republic galaxy map
-Custom security authentication key
-Music of Star Wars : The Old Republic
-High-quality Collector's edition box
-Flare gun
-Training Droid
-HoloDancer
-HoloCam
-STAP
-Exclusive Mouse Droid
-Exclusive in-game collectors edition store

And it's priced at 150.00 before tax, which is quite a lot. I personally think WoW collector's editions have offered a bit less for much less. However it still covered most of everything that is included in this edition such as the music CD, a in game item, and case, also a art book which doesn't seem to be involved here unless one of the items is named differently. On the other hand, this collector edition has way more in game items exclusive to the collector's edition, as well as a statue, which is probably the most appealing part of the whole package to me. In any case, neither Bel, or I currently have enough money to get this, so we'll probably go for the digital deluxe version, but it's still up in air at the moment.

Digital Deluxe Version

30 Days of Game Time
Color Stone
Flare Gun
Training Droid
HoloDancer
HoloCam
STAP

While it has considerably less “stuff” than the Collector's edition it has enough to keep it, it's rival as long as the person is only looking for extra stuff for buying something in game. However at the same time it's value in that regard is reduced because the Collector's Edition still tops the in-game bonuses by having a in-game store, and mouse droid that's only part of the Collector's Edition. So it essentially is only a bit better than the regular edition to me, because I like in-game items when I buy games. The real thing for me here is that the price tells me that all of the inclusion content is priced at 20 extra dollars, that would mean everything else in the collectors edition should be 80 dollars worth to one's perspective. Of course, the entire marketing audience for Collector's editions are for people who're super huge fans, and probably wouldn't have too many qualms about shelling out 150 dollars for the whole package.

Standard Edition

Color Stone
30 Days of Game Time

Of course this one has the least but will still probably be the most dominant as it's the cheapest (if it isn't then that's pretty surprising), priced at 60 dollars, it's fairly standard.

While I personally think I would have no doubts about getting the Collector's Edition if I had money to spare, usually since I do that means I'm going towards the standard edition. The reason for my wanting the Collector's edition is that I'm a huge fan of exclusive in game pets as the droid mouse seems to be, and while the Darth Malgus statue doesn't look amazing, it would be neat to add to my room. I also have previously bought few Collector's Editions (WC3,WoW, and WOTLK) in the past so adding ToR to that would be nice. So essentially the buy to me is the statue and the droid mouse, everything else being extra.