And I did it for the bonuses. Having unlockable bonuses ensures I will not ever pre order a game. It is why I didn't get a PS4 for Destiny, too. I knew I would get that stuff eventually, so I thought "eh, no biggie," and stayed within my ecosystem.

So yes, 343 has stuck to their principles, which I applaud. They will probably lose a ton of preordery sales they could have had, though.

343 has gone up in my estimation because of that, BUT, preorder bonuses are good for business.

Which is better. Guaranteed pre-order sales and then subsequent returns, or just straight sales?

The reason I ask, is because it's very easy to return an unopened game for full retail cost after you get your pre-order bonuses on a receipt or emailed to you for launch. And is this why we see units shipped a lot of times instead of units sold?

Who keeps the bonus then returns the game?

"Hey guys, check out this 9 digit code on the Gamestop receipt I have framed!"

"That's for Borderlands 2. You don't even have that game."

"Yeah, I returned it unopened. But look at this cool code!"

And I did it for the bonuses. Having unlockable bonuses ensures I will not ever pre order a game. It is why I didn't get a PS4 for Destiny, too. I knew I would get that stuff eventually, so I thought "eh, no biggie," and stayed within my ecosystem.

So yes, 343 has stuck to their principles, which I applaud. They will probably lose a ton of preordery sales they could have had, though.

343 has gone up in my estimation because of that, BUT, preorder bonuses are good for business.

Which is better. Guaranteed pre-order sales and then subsequent returns, or just straight sales?

The discounted cash flow model says that guaranteed pre-order sales are better because money now is worth more than money later. This is partially because inflation is assumed, and partially because a preorder now, even with the chance of a return later, is viewed as less of a risk than straight sales later, and the discount rate goes up the longer you wait for "later" to get here.

Whether it is true in practice or not depends on whether or not the financial loss represented by the returns is greated than your assumed discount rate.

1. I have no idea if Recon was unlockable through gameplay.
2. Even if it was it wasn't any kind of priority for me. I never did the Vidmaster stuff in Halo 3, for instance.

Also, let's lock all the emblems. Because that was a super awesome idea.

I'm still really, really bitter about that last one. Can you tell?

Whatevs. I'm over it. They don't have a sale from me, and they likely won't until it's bargain bin.

I was pissed that they didn't have the champion emblem (or maybe they did, and i never figured out how to unlock it). That had been my icon for Halo 2, 3, ODST, and Reach.

They didn't have mine either, and near as I could tell, it wasn't something Bungie had on lockdown.

It was kind of a slap in the face when upon entering War Games or whatever for the first time, you were prompted to "make your spartan your own", and I couldn't, because all the emblems were locked, and the one that'd been my identity for the better part of a decade was missing entirely.