Elden Ring Preorders & Collector’s Edition: Should you Preorder?

The Preorders for Elden Ring have finally opened, and with them the reveal of the many Elden Ring Editions including the gorgeous Collector’s Edition. These highly coveted items can come with steep pricetags, and many gamers feel like preorders in general are a questionable practice. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at Elden Ring’s preorder bonuses, collectors edition, and the overall publishing history of FromSoftware and Bandai Namco to determine: Should you Preorder Elden Ring?

Elden Ring Preorders & Collector’s Edition: Why You SHOULD Preorder this Game

Elden Ring is coming to Plasytation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X and Steam on PC. With so many platforms, it can get confusing to figure out what you get where, so here is a handy list:

Standard Edition (59.99)

• THE FIRE RING
• Adventure Guide*
• Bonus Gesture*
• PRICE: $59.99

Deluxe Edition (79.99)

• Game: ELDEN RING
• Digital Artbook & OST
• Adventure Guide*
• Bonus Gesture*
• PRICE: $79.9

Collector’s Edition (189.99)

• Game: ELDEN RING
• Digital Artbook & OST
• Malenia statue 9 inches
• Steelbook
• 40 page artbook
• PRICE: $189.99

Premium Collector’s Edition 259.99

• Game: ELDEN RING
• Digital Artbook & OST
• Malenia statue 9 inches
• Steelbook
• 40 page artbook
• Official Helmet Replica 1:1 Scale
• PRICE: 250 Pounds

Should you Preorder Elden Ring

Now that you know what is available, comes the question of: should you preorder this game? This may be a simple question for some who are set on purchasing, and also for those who never preorder, but it is an important consideration for many gamers, so we will explore it in full.

The Preorder Process

Preorders for physical copies of games are usually not fully paid upfront and easily cancelled, so it should instead be called a “reservation” that can be cancelled up to a specific point in time. Digital preorders, however, can become more binding as consoles will charge you the full amount immediately and have stricter cancellation or “refund” policies. For example, PlayStation Store refunds can be issued for pre-ordered content, as long as the request is made before the release date, or within 14 days of purchase, and the content has not started to download or stream. So if you preorder a game and want to cancel it after the pre-release download, you would have a much harder time.

The negatives of Preordering

In this day and age of misleadingly beautiful trailers, gamers take a gamble on the publisher’s word that the game is indeed as good as it looks. Previews are usually handed out to select outlets that may favor one aspect or another, and early footage is often cherry picked and disclaimed as “not final”. This “not final” used to mean “The graphics look bad because we aren’t done” but it now can mean “The graphics look better because its a trailer we’ll drop half of these features by launch”.

Additionally, preorders often offer very little in addition to the full launch price of the game, meaning that there is little bargain to be had, and the value of the purchase is only worth it for those who are certain they will want to play the moment the game is out. This of course expands to the proliferation of dubious value add-ons for digital deluxe editions that often promise you a new mount or weapon skin that is nowhere near the added USD ~30 dollar value for the “deluxe” version.

Recent Preorder Hype Fiascos

With the mounting disappointments the gaming community has experienced since the No Man’s Sky fiasco, the mind-bending disconnect between user and professional reviews on Last of Us 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, it has become apparent that a “wait and see” approach may be needed even with industry darlings such as Naughty Dog or CDPR.

The idea of a disappointing entry on a well-loved series is not new, of course, but the locked in preorder sales, late or inexplicably good reviews, and dodgy refund practices have made gamers consistently more wary of hitting that “pre order” button.

But Elden Ring is different

So the FromSoftware fan finds their hollowed self in a confusing situation. Preorder seems like a bad practice that “guarantees” a sale based on possibly deceiving footage and “fingers crossed” not-final-product promises. You were probably burned by your hype for Last of Us 2 and incredulous at the disjointed storytelling. You could have sworn by CDProjektRed as they had given you a full expansion for the price of a 2 hour DLC, only to find out half the game was missing and the other half didn’t quite work.

Is FromSoftware the next in line to fall from grace? Should you be waiting to read reviews and see extensive gameplay footage, or even a sale? What’s in it for you for securing a purchase now?

All of these questions are nagging at me as I click the preorder button, but I know I’m making the right choice, and I’ll share with you why.

Of the many highly publicized disappointments of recent years, I cannot think of one that relates to a developer of the consistent quality and staffing of FromSoftware. Yes the original Witcher title and Uncharted game came out in 2007, so it’s a couple of years older than Demon’s Souls, so theoretically the three developers had a good content streak for the same length of time. However that time was not even for all developers.

Note: This table only focuses on related titles.

If you look at the above table, you’ll notice the following things: Naughty Dog had a consistent director for all their previously successful games, and that director left. This is on top of the departure of Amy Henning, the creative director, in 2014. So the “carry on” of the Uncharted title was successfully delivered, but the burnout from the “crunch” of those projects led to the departure of key staff that was needed to ensure The Last of Us 2 remained true to its original title and fanbase.

CDPR’s story is rather different, as they had only produced one IP for a decade, but with immense success. This success led to significant corporate growth: The company became listed in the Warsaw exchange in 2016, and by 2019 the original 100 person team that developed the first Witcher game became 1100 people across 5 subsidiaries. This may mean little to gamers, but it is a crucial aspect of business management as employee reviews began appearing complaining about crunch and working conditions. This means that the development models that had worked so well for a one-company team of 100 was not scaling well to a 1000+ 5-branch operation, and the talent that had previously had to worry about product quality were probably now managing corporate resources and trying to direct the 10-fold increase in personnel. Coupled with the jump to a completely new IP and setup, we could have seen coming that the game may not stay true to what we enjoyed out of the publisher before.

Getting to FromSoftware, this is a completely different growth pattern. From has consistently stuck to developing games and publishing locally, then seeking larger publishers for international distribution. This means the core structure of FromSoftware has not changed much, going from about 100 employees in 2008 to 200 in 2020, 330in 2021. The developer’s main structural change was its acquisition by publishing giant Kadokawa, who wisely promoted Hidetaka Miyazaki so that he may further guide the company without any other changes. The slow but consistent rollout of titles from the developer is accompanied by the release of two new IPs, both of them making significant changes to their core game basis: Bloodborne taking attack on the offensive and sekiro guiding the player towards action rather than RPG. All of these games share a basic engine, meaning the development team is intimately familiar with it and as such each subsequent title has had more polish than the previous one.

Why I’m Preordering Elden Ring

Given all we have discussed, I think preordering a game is a personal choice for each gamer based on their economic situation and their expectations. This should be balanced against as much information as possible, so if you are excited for a title you should keep abreast of possible structural changes and directive departures at the developers and publishers, as these can impact your product.

In the case of Elden Ring, I am confident to say that FromSoftware has a consistent track record *for this kind of game*, has maintained the same director and related team in most titles, and has no had significant departures of key staff or explosive growth that may water down their quality. In addition, they are beginning marketing with 6 months to launch, following a now familiar pattern of trailer first, gameplay following, then a closed network test and sometimes an open network test before launch. The familiarity I have for the development cycle gives me reassurance that I can expect similar results, which is not something we had with LOU2 or Cyberpunk2077.

If you are still unsure, or rather wait for reviews, streams or even a cheaper bundle, that’s perfectly fine. But if you are a hardcore souls fan the information about the game should give you plenty to understand what you will be getting, without counting the most likely positive surprises from new mechanics. I believe FromSoftware has proven to us over 4 different IPs in the last 10 years that they deliver on their promises, and for that they get my money now, as I will want to be live and playing the moment that unlocks so that I may share this experience with the community at large.

So what are you plans? Are you excited for the collector’s edition or is it too expensive? Are you preordering the basic game or getting the plus options? Let us know in the comments.