Diablo 3 delayed until 2012.

[Flip]

The CE was cut-off from pre-orders at EB back in November or December, they haven't been available to get for a while there. If you want one, you'll probably have to go to Best Buy or Target relatively early.

And the CE comes with a HELLUVA lot more than some garbage DLC (it's all cosmetic or useless or for games I'll never play) that I will be selling INSTANTLY. Here's the full list:

Diablo 3 Collector's Edition Contents:
208 Page Diablo 3 Art Book
24 Track Diablo 3 Soundtrack CD
Diablo 3 DVD Documentary
4 GB USB Thumbdrive shaped like a Soulstone w/ Diablo 3 Skull Base
Diablo 3 Full PC Game
Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction Expansion (On the Soulstone Thumbdrive)

And the useless DLC garbage
Diablo 3 In Game Cosmetic Bonuses: Glowing Angel Wings, Armor Dye, In Game Banner
WoW Companion Pet Code: Fetish Shaman
Starcraft 2 Unit Decals and Battlenet Portraits

This comes with more than the Skyrim CE and costs $50 less. Heck, they give you the full Diablo 2 on the USB drive for cryin' out loud! Comparatively speaking, that's actually quite a bit of extras for the additional cost.

It looks like it actually may be worth the extra $40, especially if some Ebay moron pays me $20 or more for the useless DLC crap. And if you don't think idiots pay A LOT for useless DLC you haven't looked. I often recover well over 50% of what I paid for a game by selling the useless DLC that comes with it, regularly getting more than what I paid. Especially if I buy a CE/LE/SE version. Ain't no one ever bitched about free, brand-new, big-name, AAA video games.

As much as I despise the value conjured up by the publishers for the useless digital "bonuses" they package in with games and charge you real money for (the CE/SE/LE versions), there are a ton of idiots who will seriously overpay for that crap. Basically, if you never have any intention of using the DLC you get with your game, toss it up on Ebay. And make that decision right away, it's usually worth more in the first few weeks (unless the game has real staying power). You'd be shocked how much you'll get for it. Ebay is chock-full of idiots with too much money and far too little brains.

EDIT: Holy shit, they really are limited this CE. Look what people are asking for it a month before it comes out (MSRP = $100)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=new
Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Diablo-III-Coll ... ames_Games

And one of those Ebay auctions has actual bids of $112.50 with 2 days + left. Wow

A lot of the extras seem... nice to have, but the superlatives stop there. I've never paid $100 for a video game and am not sure I ever will, because when you boil it all down, the game is what you are paying for. The art book, for example, I'm sure is beautiful, but its good for a few flips and then destined for the bookshelf for pretty much forever.

I dont doubt that there are idiots out there to make a quick buck on, and I dont fault you for taking advantage of this fact, but I guess I'm too lazy. I want to play the damn game, and I'm old enough to know that the extra knick-knacks are worthless in the long run. My D2 characters have long since been reset (i dont even think D2 is installed on this newer PC I'm using) and the D2 box with the book of cool art and music extras is rotting away in my basement.

[Shellie]

I'm a sucker for gimmick items like this:


ETA: I usually buy CE's of MMOs and games I really love, like Diablo. Yes, I just want to play the game and I fully admit they sucker me in with useless items I'll never look at. But dammit, I feel special having the CE!

[Zeus]

Flip, I can completely see where you're comin' from. But I'm the polar opposite of the recently departed Kup (he's really an extremely dangerous Leonodis/Sheldon mixture :-) where I'm a collector and I'm a sucker for the extra shit. Much to the chagrin of my wife, as my basement is overflowing now, I buy the vast majority of the CE/LE/SEs that come out. At least for the games I care about. I'm a collector at heart and it all goes into video games with a small amount of DVDs/Blu Rays as collateral damage :-). If I were concerned about only playing the game and treat it as a disposable item, I wouldn't care at all. But I keep all my stuff packed away in a collection, it's different for me.

And it's not just knick-knacks. Not all of us have played or own a complete Diablo 2. Now I will have a copy on that USB drive that's coming with it. It's really unique to each edition whether or not it's worth it to different people.

And kinda tied to what I was talking about, the main reason I'm able to do this is due to the selling of this DLC garbage that for no reason whatsoever has value. I still have my trade-in deals going, which allow me to get games for, on average, a little under half price. Now I can justify the CE/SE/LE edition extra cost based almost solely on the DLC offered in the upgraded editions. I can promise you that I'll probably get more than the extra $40 I paid for the CE on Diablo when I sell the DLC just based on the rarity already evident in that edition. Once the game comes out people will be clamoring for the extra DLC crap no one has.

So if we break it down, I will likely end up paying less for my CE (after all my trade-in deals, I'll have paid around $55+tax not including what I make on the DLC) that what I would pay downloading it from Blizzard directly. It's not just getting the extra stuff, it's the fact that I'm paying less for a physical copy with all that extra swag than a digital copy would cost me and will continue to be able to while EB has their trading deals open. I prefer to pay less for the same or better product and have that extra money for other things like more games or kids stuff (or the upgraded video card I need now). I know, I'm kinda weird that way.

[Shrinweck]

I finally got into the closed beta (lol).. guess I really get to see which characters I want to go with first when the game gets released, now.

Also Tessian apparently isn't getting this at release *eye roll*

Edit: Surprise, surprise - it's fun.

Edit 2: Was hoping this would provide the opportunity for me to decide which class I wanted to play more at release - the barbarian or the monk. Now I just want to play them equally as much. Thanks a lot, Blizzard :P