Dragon Age 2 Pre-Order-Exclusive 'BioWare Signature Edition' Offers $20 of DLC for Free

Pre-order Dragon Age 2 and you'll receive the 'BioWare Signature Edition' for free, with an estimated $20 of content including in-game goodies, developer BioWare has announced.

Available exclusively by pre-ordering, the fancy edition of BioWare's fantasy RPG sequel packs a download code for an extra playable character and new missions, the digital soundtrack, and "an exclusive in-game digital armory featuring a variety of weapons and other digital items."

BioWare has previously offered $15 of free downloadable content with new copies of Dragon Age: Origins as well as a hefty chunk of free DLC for new copies of Mass Effect 2 via its 'Cerberus Network', hoping to dissuade players from buying pre-owned games. It seems that pushing pre-orders may be the next step for the program which publisher Electronic Arts refers to as 'Project $10.'

"Over the past 15 years, we've been privileged to have the support of a passionate community of fans, who continue to grow in number with every game we release," said BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka said in the announcement. "The BioWare Signature Edition of Dragon Age II is a chance for us to reward loyal fans who pre-order the game by providing them with additional high-quality content for free."

Dragon Age 2 is slated for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 8, 2011. However, the BioWare Signature Edition will only be available until January 11, 2011. After then, you'll only get plain old Dragon Age 2.