Watch Dogs is now out; here’s our Watch Dogs review.
Maybe you’ll pre-order Watch Dogs. That might be a thing to do, given that it’s one of the most important PC games of 2014. But will you order the Special Edition, or the Limited Edition? The Uplay Deluxe Edition, or the Digital Deluxe Edition? Put a foot wrong and you’ll miss out on one or all of the 10 DLC packs Ubisoft are divvying out between the game’s various versions.
Simply put: Watch Dogs has been split into more strands for its release than an old shoelace.
Here’s a handy chart, taken directly from Watch Dogs’ Wikipedia page. Cross-reference it with your own copy in order to work out what on Earth it is you’ve bought.
Watch Dogs is probably going to be really good. It’s been the subject of a hefty delay, mainly to ensure that all of its systems speak to each other in compelling ways. It’s currently the games industry’s strongest example of big money thrown behind new ideas.
But this peripheral stuff? The augmented reality cards, the exclusive badges, the steelbooks, the artbooks, the 23cm Aiden Pearce figurines? The equipment packs that throw out the carefully tuned balance of the early game to ensure publishers don’t have to pay a cut to another retailer? They need to calm down. Because this proliferation means we’re no longer really sure what we’re buying anymore.
Watch Dogs is out on PC on May 27.
Thanks, Derek Daniels.