XCOM: Enemy Unknown experiments with pre-order bonuses on Steam

Ever keen to experiment with digital distribution, Steam is trying something unusual on XCOM: Enemy Unknown pre-orders with publisher 2K. Rather than offering fixed bonuses, Steam will unlock increasingly fancy goodies as more people pre-order, including extra character customisation options, Team Fortress 2 hats, and a free copy of Civilization V.

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Ever keen to experiment with digital distribution, Steam is trying something unusual on XCOM: Enemy Unknown pre-orders with publisher 2K. Rather than offering fixed bonuses, Steam will unlock increasingly fancy goodies as more people pre-order, including extra character customisation options, Team Fortress 2 hats, and a free copy of Civilization V. Everyone who pre-orders through Steam will help the "reward" drive, which seems to hope it'll inspire a little of that Kickstarter feeling. Customers are fast approaching the first unlock, a pack of cosmetic XCOM pretties including shiny new armour, paints for armour, and a recruit with the classic X-COM: UFO Defense flattop haircut. The flattop also features, in the second tier, a pack of TF2 goods. This offers that good old flattop for the Soldier, a creepy sort of alien head for the Pyro, and a very swanky medal. Lastly, if loads and loads of people pre-order, everyone will also get a free copy of Civ V, or a gift copy if they already own it. Of course, Steam's charging the full $50 for XCOM, so you might instead fancy buying it from somewhere that simply knocks a few dollars off the price instead. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 9.

New screenshots of the user interface on PC

From The Chatty
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    September 7, 2012 6:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, XCOM: Enemy Unknown experiments with pre-order bonuses on Steam.

    Ever keen to experiment with digital distribution, Steam is trying something unusual on XCOM: Enemy Unknown pre-orders with publisher 2K. Rather than offering fixed bonuses, Steam will unlock increasingly fancy goodies as more people pre-order, including extra character customisation options, Team Fortress 2 hats, and a free copy of Civilization V.

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      September 7, 2012 6:19 AM

      Haven't been able to find other place that sells it lower than $50 with the bonus (at least the classic/elite squad) included, unfortunately. Any fellow shackers know about deals etc (like Borderlands 2)?

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      September 7, 2012 6:20 AM

      wh0a this is p. cool

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      September 7, 2012 6:23 AM

      Bought it physically, and seeing the prices from Steam in Europe, no can do.

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      September 7, 2012 6:50 AM

      I still feel pretty jaded over Civ V's many levels of failings, but since the original X-Com is probably my favorite all time game I'll likely end up preordering it. I do like this idea of preorder bonus goals more than segmenting preorder bonuses based on where it was ordered from.

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      September 7, 2012 6:59 AM

      [deleted]

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        September 7, 2012 7:07 AM

        That's the only bonus I don't give a shit about.

        The TF2 hats, I could do without too.

        But seriously, I felt majorly burned by Civ V. :(

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          September 7, 2012 12:34 PM

          If you played it at launch and were frustrated by the bugs or the crappy AI, you really should grab G&K and give it another go.

          Yes, the state the game shipped in was unfortunate, but that's been true for many games, including Civ III. The important thing is Firaxis has listened to the feedback and has put a lot of work into the game since then. It's still not perfect, no, but it's a lot better than it was.

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            September 7, 2012 4:24 PM

            [deleted]

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            September 7, 2012 5:24 PM

            [deleted]

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              September 7, 2012 7:53 PM

              Stack of Doom was a pretty crappy mechanic though. It always did seem like a weak spot of the Civ series that the game had all this depth, yet the military "strategy" consisted of piling things into a big stack and beelining for the nearest city. I can see why they wanted to change that.

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            September 7, 2012 6:54 PM

            Everything I read about G&K seemed to indicate that if you weren't really thrilled about civ V you wouldn't really like G&K since it just continued on that direction.

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              September 7, 2012 7:43 PM

              Well, yes. It is an expansion pack after all, not Civ VI.

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          September 7, 2012 12:34 PM

          If you played it at launch and were frustrated by the bugs or the crappy AI, you really should grab G&K and give it another go.

          Yes, the state the game shipped in was unfortunate, but that's been true for many games, including Civ III. The important thing is Firaxis has listened to the feedback and has put a lot of work into the game since then. It's still not perfect, no, but it's a lot better than it was.

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        September 7, 2012 7:07 AM

        LOLOLOLOL!

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        September 7, 2012 8:04 PM

        its like bonus herpes with hiv.

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      September 7, 2012 4:40 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 7, 2012 4:54 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 7, 2012 7:46 PM

      At first I thought the pre-order bonus was going to include original x-com uniforms but it appears its just the flat-top haired soldier.

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