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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Augment Your Pre-Order Program Cancelled

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Augment Your Pre-Order

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided brought publisher Square Enix under fire a couple of weeks ago over its dodgy pre-order system. Dubbed “Augment Your Pre-Order,” the program gave out certain rewards based on how many people signed up for it. Its design meant that it was impossible for anybody to get access to all of the game’s content, regardless of whether or not they pre-ordered. Now, Square Enix has announced the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided pre-order scheme has been cancelled.

“We’ve spent a lot of time reading through all of your comments, working to understand how we can try to make things right for you,” Square Enix wrote on the Deus Ex website. “After much thought and reflection, we decided to close down the program and make all of the incentive content available to anyone who pre-orders Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or purchases a Day 1 edition of the game. Additionally, the release date will no longer be changed in accordance with pre-order numbers, and everyone will gain access to the game on February 23rd, 2016.”

That last sentence is talking about one of the pre-order incentives. The system had five levels of pre-order bonuses, with the level rising based on how many people had laid down their cash for the game. The final level would have seen the game released four days earlier for those who pre-ordered.

Square Enix says they’ll make sure those who’ve already pre-ordered Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will get all of the bonuses. They also tried to explain why they went with this bizarre pre-order system in the first place. “We wanted the program to give you more choice about what you received in terms of pre-order incentives – because we’ve seen in the past that when we choose those packages ourselves, and split them across regions, it has caused frustration.” When it became apparent that Augment Your Pre-Order was causing even more frustration, they cancelled it.

Rhiannon likes video games and she likes writing, so she decided to combine them. As well as writing about video games, she also belts out the occasional science fiction or fantasy story, edits videos, and eats strawberry oreos. In that order.

Gaming

Sony Has a “Monopoly” on the High-End Japanese Gaming Market, According to a US Senator

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The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant.  Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.

The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.

Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”

This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.

What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?

It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”

It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.

Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades?  Let us leave that up to you.

 

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Consoles

Eating trash, Pizza Possum destroys the PS5

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Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered.  It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.

We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.

Your thoughts on Pizza Possum?  Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?

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Consoles

The Mercenaries, a free piece of DLC for Resident Evil 4 Remake, launches on April 7

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Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.

The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.

You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?

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