About a month ago, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal announced one of the most ridiculous pre-order programs for the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The scheme, called “Augment Your Pre-Order,” had five tiers of pre-order content that had options for gamers to choose from but each was locked until an unspecified number of pre-orders was achieved. The highest of those tiers was an early launch date for people who pre-ordered the game.

In the month since the launch, Square Enix was raked through the press and gamers mocked SquEnix. It seems that as a result of overwhelming public pressure, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have cancelled the Augment Your Pre-Order program.

In an announcement on the Deus Ex website, Square Enix claimed that there was a large amount of negative feedback related to the program so they decided to shut down the pre-order scheme. They said that the scheme came about as an alternative to the frustration that is caused by traditional retailer and platform specific pre-order incentives that cause a division in the player base. Instead, they instituted their own way of segmenting the player base by letting people choose their pre-order perks and allowing early access to only those who pre-order the game.

On the plus side for gamers, while the early launch date has been taken off the table, SquEnix and Eidos have said that all pre-order content will be available for those who pre-order the game. That means all three character bonuses, digital art book, digital soundtrack, digital comic book and digital novella will be given to those who pre-order the game. Personally, I think this is a stronger pre-order incentive than what SquEnix originally attempted.

In the end, I have to wonder what the pre-order numbers are for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Maybe I’m just being a massive cynic or a cut-throat businessman but if the tier pre-order program was getting people to throw money at Square Enix or GameStop or Steam for those perks, why would SquEnix cancel the program? Putting on my analyst’s hat, I can’t help but think that if there was more money to be made, this program out be ongoing, PR disaster be damned. Then again, we’re talking about Deus Ex again so maybe they had this contingency in the back pocket all along.

Still, though, it looks like their listening to the fans by cancelling Augment Your Pre-Order. You have to give them points for playing that right.

Source: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided