Featurette: Is The Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 2 Worth The Extra Money?

The Hardened Edition packs more Call of Duty stuff, but is it worth more?Activision bloody well knew that Modern Warfare 2 would be the biggest game this year, so they decided that a mark-up on pricing was warranted. Hey, why not? Screw over gamers for a bit more money. It’s all fair game in business, right?

Well, I was pissed off. I generally have four rule of thumbs when it comes to buying a video game:

1. I will not buy a single player game unless the game’s longevity spans further than 30 hours.
2. I will not pay retail for a game, because I cannot afford to.
3. I will not buy a limited edition copy of a game, unless the pricing of it is the same as the standard edition.
4. I will only pay retail if I have either a gift voucher that covers some/all of the cost, or trade-ins of games I don’t play anymore and never will again covers some/all of the cost.

And as best I could, I have held up these principles, by not buying a single game that would break one of these rules.

So when Modern Warfare 2 was announced, I knew that I would probably end up breaking the rules to get a copy on launch. I would have for Uncharted 2, but as luck would have it, Tesco Direct’s pre-order pricing back in August saved me from doing so. I pre-ordered Uncharted 2 for £31.97, at a 20% saving.

I could have pre-ordered Modern Warfare 2 for £35.97 there and then, but lack of funds meant I couldn’t. It’s bloody hard finding a job at 17.

So I was happy with Uncharted 2, but pissed off at Activision for pulling a dick-move on the gaming public. I knew that if I didn’t play the game from launch, I’d be at a disadvantage, both because of the number of people who would have played it and would be much better at it than me, and because I’d have the single player ruined for me by someone who’d already played it. I wanted to play the single player more than the multiplayer, because I knew the single player would be very different, whilst the multiplayer would be an improved model.

I bought Call of Duty 4 on launch day, and it was to good measure. I didn’t pay retail, by the way. I got a deal on it, and saved a tenner. And that’s exactly what I’ve done with Modern Warfare 2.

Supermarkets everywhere decided that they would massively drop the price of the game, in a desperate attempt to make more sales. Using my Maths skills, I worked out that if a shop bought 300 copies of the game for £40 each, and sold them at £30 each, they’d make a £300 loss, £600 if they sold it at £20, and £450 if they sold it at £25.

However, say the shop sold 40 copies at retail, which for Modern Warfare 2 is £45. They’d make a £5 profit per game, and £200 in total for 40 copies sold. Say the shop decides to sell it at £25, but they sell 200. They’d make a £15 loss per game, but they will have made 5x as much custom, which would have made £500. That’s £300 more than they would have.

In the weird world of finance, I guess you could say that it was a clever move for Sainsbury’s to price the game at £26. They made the move, and for them, it probably paid off. To put it simply, if they sold far more games than they normally would have by pricing at retail along with gaming specific shops like GAME, they would probably be making more money.

Morrison’s, who are known for doing this with new releases, followed suit, along with Asda and Tesco. HMV did an offer on the game where if you traded in one of three big titles, you could buy the game for £10.

GAME, Gamestation and Blockbuster in particularly, stuck to retail pricing, and they wouldn’t have sold well. The Blockbuster in my town said they sold 30 copies by 11am, and said they were happy with that. The Morrison’s down the road had sold 300 copies in under 3 hours for the 360 version alone.

I was going to go to Sainsbury’s and get the game for £26, since I have pretty much no money at the moment. They were out of stock. Tesco’s were out of stock. Morrison’s was out of stock. So was Asda. I tried Blockbuster, because I like Blockbuster, despite their trade-in values for cash.

I sold my 360 a little while ago, and I now only own a PS3, so if I was to buy the game, it would be on the PS3. I asked how many copies they had left on the PS3. They had 10 copies of the standard edition. I went home, rounded up some old games I never play anymore and Fifa 10 (Lovefilm will send me a copy of it) and headed back. When I got there, they said they had one more copy of the Hardened Edition, which cost £10 more than standard. Trade-in value for credit for the stuff I traded in came to about £39.

Now, usually I wouldn’t have been swayed by this, but a number of factors affected my decision. One, the Hardened Edition’s retail price is £65, I think. I’d have saved £10 there. Two, the remastered version of the original Call of Duty came with the Hardened Edition. I did want to play that. Three, it was the last copy, and I’m a sucker for making myself feel privileged.

I bought it. Used the credit and paid £16 extra. I was happy with that. I’d managed to stick to my rules of thumb, and I’d got a decent deal. Or did I?

…

No, I really did.

The Hardened Edition comes packed with the original Call of Duty as a downloadable game, an artbook with quotes from Infinity Ward and screenshots, and the game itself, which comes in a very nice steel case.

The steel case is the same size as a normal PS3 case, so it fits very nicely in my collection. I’ve scrapped using the sleeve, because it takes up room and the copy I bought in particular has a sleeve that isn’t in good nick.

The downloadable version of Call of Duty is probably worth it. Haven’t played it yet, but I’m excited to, and I know that the original is one of the better Call of Duty games. Plus, it would be about £8 on the PSN, and I would have bought it anyway, so I’m happy with that.

And the artbook. I’m not a fan of artbooks in particular, but this one is good. Some great quotes are tucked in there, and the artwork is very good. It’s a nice little addition.

Overall, I’m happy with owning the Hardened Edition, but I’m glad I didn’t pay retail. At £65, that’s just too much for a limited edition. At £55, it’s still a fair chunk of money, but it’s a bit more respectable. But I followed my code of game purchasing to good measure, and I don’t regret being broke for a while.

Modern Warfare 2 is a great game, and the multiplayer will no doubt keep me very entertained for a long time. The original Call of Duty is a great purchase, and I will probably play that today now that it is downloaded, and the steel casing and artbook are great pieces too. I do like the steel case.

I recommend it if you haven’t bought a copy of the game yet, but not for £65. Try and get it at a good price if you can. Anything under £50 with no trading in or vouchers is okay, because I’d say that the original Call of Duty is worth the extra bit of cash alone.

I don’t know about the 360 version of the Hardened Edition, but I’d presume it’s exactly the same, just with a bigger box.

No related posts.