Dawn of War 2, PC

Apparently THQ thought that the best way to sell this game to their customers is by accepting money hats from 4 of the big retailers, who in exchange get exclusive DLC. This is not by any means a new practice, but I can't remember seeing it happen on this scale before.

These 4 retailers have decided that the best thing for them to do, instead of competing on price, is to compete on who has the shiniest bits of tinsel stapled awkwardly to the game's front cover. They hope to use exclusive DLC to distract you from the fact that they are charging you more than other retailers for the same product.

There are two situations that exclusive DLC amounts too.
1. An insignificant addition to the game, simple cosmetic changes maybe (like with Dawn of War 2)
2. A significant game changing addition, that either adds new mechanics, or new gameplay content.

Bear in mind that this stuff cannot just be bought, if you buy the game from a retailer not offering exclusive DLC, you cannot then choose to pay for it afterwards. So, there are two possibilities, either people are overpaying for bad DLC (and having to make the decision to do so before even playing the game), or a large proportion of the customers are not getting the entirety of the game they are paying for.

The four retailers with exclusive DLC are charging £22.99 - £24.99 for the standard edition + exclusive DLC, and oddly enough two of them are selling the standard edition and the special edition for the same price. The game can be got for £21.72 from a retailer which does not have a 'exclusive promotion' with THQ. In effect the exclusive DLC costs £1.37-3.37, which I guess isn't really a big amount, but it's more than the 200 Microsoft Points Bethesda wanted for their horse armour, and it amounts to the same thing.

When a publisher accepts a money hat from a retailer, they indirectly pass the cost of it onto the customers.

My advice? Pretty much what I always say - Buy the game from whoever is selling it for the cheapest, and as of right now, that is BlahDVD for the regular edition, and GAME for the special edition (the same value as the regular edition according to them).

Dawn of War 2, PC - £21.72 delivered

Dawn of War 2 [Special Edition], PC - £24.99 delivered

I am pretty sure gamers as a whole would be better off if how successful games retailers and publishers were was not determined by how much and how successful they market, but how honest and open their pricing models are, and then genuinely competing with each other.

I guess you could always just buy it direct from the publisher for £43.90.