Pre-ordering. It’s so hot right now.
We heard 2015 is the year of pre-ordering like crazy. No, wait a second…
Retailers are dangling cold hard cash incentives as pre-orders of Grand Theft Auto V go live today. Depending on your region, the best deal in terms of price is at Green Man Gaming, with up to 22% off for the finally-coming-to-PC game.
Update 5/12/15: Deals updated below.
Here are all the pre-order deals available as of writing:
- GTA V at GMG for $48
Use code: HAPPY5-THBIRT-HDAY20 - GTA V at DLGamer for $46.19
Use code: DLG-VJNBKACO - GTA V at Gamesplanet for £31.99
No coupon required for this 20% off - GTA V at Rockstar Warehouse for full price
Freebie: choose 1 from 9 Rockstar titles
Prices for GMG after coupon are €46.80 in EU and £31.20 in UK.
As an added twist, all retail copies of the game for the PC are shipping with Rockstar Games Social Club keys and require the Rockstar DRM — something L.A. Noire fans may be familiar with. Even if you buy the game on the Steam store, you’ll still need a Rockstar Games Social Club account to play… which I suppose is required for the GTA Online component.
Having said that, it’s another DRM to deal with, so more DRM + pre-order = master race…?
Pre-order Bonus Details
The “dangling carrot” of the cash discount is a strong incentive from the aforementioned retailers, but Rockstar is also tossing other time-depending factors into the mix.
If you pre-order, you’ll get:
- $1 million in-game cash ($500k each for single player & online)
If you pre-order before March 31st, you’ll also receive:
- An additional bonus of $300k for GTA Online
- Free game:
- If you pre-order at Rockstar Warehouse, you get to choose from nine games.
- If you pre-order anywhere else, you get San Andreas (Steam key)
While these pre-order bonuses are nice, we’re pretty sure the in-game cash is a moot amount — one you can accumulate within a few days of gameplay time.
The free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a ~$3 value (lowest price we’ve seen was $2.81 back in February 2014), so it’s not much of a bonus in those terms. (MSRP is $15, though.)
The nine games from Rockstar Warehouse are individually valued anywhere from $3 to $6. Are these incentives strong enough to entice? Guess we’ll find out in the quarterly earnings release from Take-Two later this year.
Game deals brought to you by the crew at Dealzon. FYI: Sales from certain retailers help support Destructoid.
