There’s something I don’t quite get about the modern video game industry.  Lately there has been a fair bit of rage and discontent directed towards pre-order incentives and I don’t quite get why.  I understand being upset with pre-orders as what is promised does not always live up to the delivered product (*cough*Destiny*cough*) but the disappointment with pre-order incentives still floors me.
It’s not disc-locked content as most digital incentives are largely aesthetic, and if not tend to require a decently sized download.  In the case of MKX the pre-order incentive is an exclusive character that has long been in the series but rarely been playable.  That’s a great incentive to pre-order if you ask me.  Free physical merchandise or content that is doubtlessly going to be released as paid content down the line seems like a great thing to incentivize early adoption, but it’s being hated upon.
“In no other generation did this happen!  I didn’t have to pay forward for extra stuff in Megaman!”
No, you didn’t.  Granted, when Megaman was first coming out and during the last few generations the videogame industry was smaller and competition was less.  Companies didn’t have to put out more to try and draw the eye of consumers because there were fewer competitors vying for the consumer’s money, and so there was no need.  Look at the market now and that’s not the case.  Games come out all the time and often with a decent amount of competitors in the same release window.  To ensure that the consumer spends their money on a certain game of course developers and publishers are going to have incentives to adopt early, especially as success in ENTERTAINMENT IN GENERAL is often determined within the first couple months of availability.
“But no other industry does this bullshit!”
Yeah, they kind of do.  Between limited editions, entry contests, reduced interest rates, added bonuses and special deals retailers and companies do stuff very similar to pre-order incentives ALL THE TIME.  The only real difference is that many of those added bonuses are positives outside of a single videogame, are in shorter supply, and tend to wind up saving more than a couple dollars 6 months later.
A pre-order incentive is intended to encourage buyers to commit to a game early, which can be risky at times.  They’re not evil though.  They very rarely give a player an advantage, and if they do then it’s only a timed advantage until others get ahold of the same months later.  If you don’t plan on getting a game in the first place, then there’s pretty much no purpose in complaining about the pre-order incentive for that game.  If you do plan on getting a game early on, then a pre-order incentive might be what pushes you from a maybe to a hell yeah, and that’s fine.  It’s a little extra on top and DOESN"T COST ANYTHING EXTRA save for an early investment that can generally be cancelled.  If you are interested in a game, but don’t want to or can’t get it early on, good on you.  You might miss a minor thing, or may have to pay an extra $5 for bonus content months down the line when the game is 20% off.