: I picked that date because it's the most egregious example of a cutoff date.
: It's content that is only available to people that buy the game before the
: game itself is even available.
: I'm no sure what you mean by "more valid". An arbitrary cutoff is
: an arbitrary cutoff.
: Ideally, yes. All content should be available for as long as reasonably
: possible, especially in a digital marketplace where content could be sold
: for pennies and still make a profit. Granted, there are practical
: limitations to that (e.g. you're out of luck if you want to get the Halo 2
: map packs), but it's a shame to arbitrarily limit how many people will
: ever see some neat bonus content.

: Something I like about how Ubisoft handles the Assassin's Creed pre-order
: bonuses is that all of those pre-order bonuses, retailer exclusives, and
: even continent-exclusives eventually made their way bundled in DLC.
: Assassin's Creed Revelations literally had multiplayer characters that
: were Europe-exclusive until they were finally bundled with the last DLC.
: They were neat-looking characters, and I was glad that Ubisoft included
: them as DLC rather than leave them as exclusives.

: For another example, I much prefer 343i just unlocking Halo 3's Recon armor
: for everyone, rather than have it become impossible to acquire for anyone
: who didn't complete all of the Vidmaster challenges prior to the
: Bungie.net cutoff date. It's cool armor, so I'm glad more people got a
: chance to use it.

: Basically, I like the idea that someone would be able to experience
: everything that a game has to offer, whether they pre-ordered the game as
: soon as soon as stores allowed it, or fell in love with the game just
: yesterday.

I might make a distinction between stuff you buy and stuff you earn. Getting Recon was fun. (And thanks again to HBOers for carrying me over the multiplayer hurdle.)