Wolfenstein: The New Order ‘Panzerhund Edition’ comes without game

$100 package now available to order

Bethesda announced today that pre-orders are available for the “Panzerhund Edition” of Wolfenstein: The New Order, a limited-edition package which includes an 8″ articulated statue of the Panzerhund enemy, documents, patches, a steelbook case and all sorts of other stuff. You know what you don’t get for your $100? A copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order to play.

The “Panzerhund Edition” is a misnomer. You can’t call it an “Edition” if the central product you’re offering isn’t in the package. This is a collection of Wolfenstein memorabilia to accompany the release of a product, with a hefty price tag.

Bethesda, for what it’s worth, does make the absence of the game very explicit on the item’s order page, advising customers to, “Keep your pre-order at your favorite retailer and we’ll send you these goodies separately — this way we can ship these boxes worldwide and you’re not stuck waiting for your game to come along with an oversized, expensively shipped box.”

I have a better suggestion: Don’t buy this at all. While it’s nice that they’re willing to acknowledge manufacturing and distribution problems can result in the late arrival of products, it should be the publisher’s responsibility to ensure a complete package arrives when promised and allowing themselves to push that off on to the consumer is something to be discouraged.