There have always been editions of games released that are a bit rarer than others, which easily sets them apart from the others on the shelf at Gamestop or the webpages at Amazon, but what is so great about these special editions, setting them apart from the regular editions and why should we as gamers invest our hard earned money in them? In the past, there have been definitive special editions that have equated to must-haves. However, the interesting thing about the limited run of a certain game edition is that there is no reason or rhyme necessarily to why it gets purchased. Some are purchased because of love for the franchise or out of desire for a pre-order or packed in bonus that comes with the edition. Alternately, there are those who purchase collector's editions of first run, untested intellectual properties, which may very well not warrant a limited edition. But what compels people to buy items that may not really be collector's items? Additionally, in an age where many titles are critically-acclaimed even before their release date, who determines exactly what about a collector's edition is collectible? Overall, it becomes questionable as to whether this practice of various editions of video games presents a positive or negative branch on the tree of the game industry. Therefore, due to relative values of video game titles, it becomes a matter of what exactly is considered a collectible to members of the gaming community.
Special editions give gamers a positive outlook for a title they may have been waiting a significant amount of time for or have a deep rooted love of the franchise. I'll be the first to admit it, I am the proud owner of a few collectors’ editions and regardless of their relative value or not, I wouldn't have it any other way. I played the first Halo on the day the original Xbox came out, loved it and knew that Bungie and Microsoft had their claws in me relatively deep. So it was only natural when Halo 2 came out, being the first time I can recall really seeing an edition that differed from the regular version in a way that I actually wanted to own it. The sleek metal case and the offer of a behind-the-scenes footage was more than enough to make me lay down the money for a pre-order and subsequently wait in the cold for its midnight release at a backwater EB Games in Dekalb, Illinois. I still have it to this day and it sits nestled among my other Xbox titles right next to Halo where it belongs. But interestingly enough, it is the only unique case out of the games I own for that system.
Move one shelf up however and that number grows significantly. Gears of War and its sequel, Modern Warfare 2 and its predecessor, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Bioshock as well as my legendary edition of Halo 3 with the special edition controller from ODST leaning against it. Seriously, sometimes I wonder what drove me to buy them all. The short answer really is, they each were able to offer a quality item of some kind that was unique to the package and were capable of peaking my interest prior to or at the time of purchase. The long answer is that the games gave me something innate that I wouldn’t have otherwise found sealed in the plastic of the same old regular green box. Bioshock came with an awesome Big Daddy that still sits comfortably on my desk to this day, watching me as I write. Additionally, Mass Effect, Gears of War 1 and 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Lost Planet all arrived in gorgeous metal cases that I can still happily drool over to this day and my legendary edition for Halo 3 still sits dominating my shelf of video games. Point being, I love those special editions and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. However, there are some special editions I could easily pass up and for a multitude of reasons.
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