Hi everyone! I’m Jefferson Dong, the SCEA Marketing Manager for Heavy Rain, and I have some great news for those of you anxiously awaiting the release of Heavy Rain. Get ready to place your pre-orders for this PS3 exclusive title because we’ve got something special for you. When you pre-order your copy of Heavy Rain at participating retailers, you will receive the first episode of The Heavy Rain Chronicles (valued at $4.99 each episode) titled, “Heavy Rain: Chronicle One – The Taxidermist,” which will be available (only to those who pre-order) when Heavy Rain hits store shelves. The Heavy Rain pre-order program begins TODAY!
What exactly are The Heavy Rain Chronicles? Each Chronicle will offer unique, stand-alone, playable short stories featuring one of Heavy Rain’s main characters, and a storyline taking place either before or after Heavy Rain’s original narrative. Similar to Heavy Rain, each episode will offer a unique journey and different outcomes based on the players’ decisions and actions.
Heavy Rain: Chronicle One – The Taxidermist will feature investigative journalist Madison Paige in one of her first cases tracking down a serial killer. Most of you are familiar with this episode as it is an expansion and update to the original “Taxidermist” demo that received such positive response when shown last year.
US and Canadian residents can place your pre-orders today at these retailers participating in the special pre-order offer:
US Locations:
Amazon
GameCrazy
GameStop (online and in-store)
Canada Locations:
Amazon.ca
BestBuy.ca
EB Games
FutureShop.ca
For those who don’t pre-order Heavy Rain, the first two episodes of Heavy Rain Chronicles will be available for purchase and download through the PlayStation Store after the release of Heavy Rain – the exact dates will be announced at a later date.
HEAVY RAINN
i hope we get a demo soon
Need confirmation for Japan realese.Since the chronicles are playable, I imagine they have trophy supports as well?
Withholding content to make me pre-order?
Congratulations Sony, you just lost a sale for Heavy Rain.
Yet again… why do things like this need to be separate.
And, to make it even less appealing, I don’t see Best Buy listed for the USA. Gamestop will never see a “new” game sale from me ever again. (Opening every single new copy is not a “new” game worth $60)
I’m thinking the physical copy of games needs to be lowered (maybe from $59.99 to at least $49.99) to make all this extra separate content seem more affordable to purchase. Lately, to get all of the content to a game you need to spend $70-$120+ (LBP especially!)… that is a bit out of control.
And then, to make it even more of a blow to day one buyers is the re-released edition of a game with all the content included for free and usually at a lower price for the disc at that time… First day buyers need to be rewarded as well, not just the people that waited a year+ to get the game.
AWESOME!!!Count me in!Heavy Rain is goty 2010
Good riddance to you drama queens. These narratives happen before and after the events of Heavy Rain. If you don’t want them, don’t pre-order and don’t buy them. If this is what’s keeping you from buying the full game, you really have issues you should deal with before gaming.
Agreed with 4 & 5, not impressed with this kind of practice, just lost another sale.
i didnt like when the developers said that they will ignore trophies, i love trophies and i will pre-order this game, but sony said trophies are required.
i will pre-order this game, will the downloadable content have trophy support? and will the full game have trophy support?
The game has full trophy support. You just won’t get an alert as soon as you get it so as not to interfere with the experience.
And to those saying they’re not buying Heavy Rain because of extra and optional content being for sale, I sure as hell hope you didn’t buy Assassin’s Creed 2, or Batman Arkham Asylum, or Fallout 3, or GTAIV, or Dragon Age Origins, or Tekken 6, or Borderlands, or Mass Effect 2, or Left 4 Dead, and the list goes on and on.
Totally lame. Instead of buying this game at launch I will now wait and buy a used copy so as not to support this kind of stupidity.
To me, games are a year after purchase, in that I almost always have the same game + all additional content and half the price than day one.
Why WHY not having this features as unblockeable content after beating the game like PS2 golden years???
Well, is not that you lost a purchase, that will be decided by the global reviews (because there are a lot of biased sites nowadays) of the game.
More a year after purchase for this one to me.
@11 – I don’t buy games with DLC. Period.
@ 10 WHChampion:
It’s mandatory for all the games to have trophies since january 2009, i don’t know the chronicles…
ANYWAS, THIS MUST BE IN THE BLU-RAY THAT WE WILL PAY $60, AT LEAST I HOPE THE GAME COST $35, BUT I KNOW IT WILL NOT…IT WILL COST US $60 + $25 OF DLC, THIS IS CRAP, NOT BUYING, SORRY YOU SCREWED
!i can’t wait for Heavy Rain
When one pre-orders, that money is going towards the game! Why is everyone crying about that? They need to know how well the game will do, and one way to see is through pre-orders! Welcome to MARKETING 101, and stop crying people! They wont want your sale anyways!
BTW… I will pre-order Heavy Rain this week!
Gamers are turning into whiny little [DELETED] with each passing generation. “waaaaah, they’re selling optional content that really has no impact on the game but i won’t buy it cuz they suck!! I was anticipating this game since launch and thought it was amazing and a day one purchase but now they lost a sale!! WAAAAAAAH!!!”
@#5 Gamestop doesn’t open EVERY SINGLE COPY of games. they open one to represent them to customers, the only reason it you would get an open copy is if you happen to buy the last copy they have everytime, looks like you’re the idiot. plus, if you preorder them, it won’t be open.
@ 11
The gta4 dlc, are ok, because they are expansions, the made them over a year after the original game, and are almost a new game, i have assassin’s creed 2 and they also screwed it not putting 2 chapters in the blu-ray, i will not buy that dlc, SCEA it’s telling you that since day 1 you will buy an incomplete game at full retail price…
This is one of my most anticipated games for the 2010 release schedule. If I can put down 5 dollars now and get all those extra side stories, I would definately be willing to preorder.
Sounds pretty decent to me.
Go ahead and wait a year to play a game that you were dying for just because of some optional content, and depriving the development studio and all its employees who worked on the game for years, a sale. Sure you get to play the game in the end but what do they get? They have lower sales and the studio is shut down or severely restricted on their next title budget-wise. So who suffers in the end? We all do because of your illogical thinking. It’s not like they’re saying, pre-order now or you don’t get Chapter 6. Or “if you want to finish the game, buy Chapter 8 and Chapter 12.” It’s just some frivolous bonus content!
Sick of this crap. I pay $60 hoping to get a full game and then there is extra content already in the works before release date. Lame.
So, wait–additional content (outside of the full game’s ongoing story) is now something that you should get for free all the time?
I want to live in your world guys. Additional content costs times and money to develop. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. It certainly doesn’t mean you’re going to get a gimped story out of the full game.
Finally Canada gets in on the bonus.
I’m not sure if anyone (besides whinny little girls) reads these boards, however, I was wondering if there was an offical release date. I went to amazon to pre-order and they listed dec 31, 2011, so I’m assuming that’s just a place holder b/c they don’t know the release date yet.
I am very excited about this game. It’s nice to see something new.
I’m not sure if anyone (besides whinny little girls) reads these boards, however, I was wondering if there was an offical release date. I went to amazon to pre-order and they listed dec 31, 2011, so I’m assuming that’s just a place holder b/c they don’t know the release date yet.
I am very excited about this game. It’s nice to see something new.
The game isn’t even listed on Amazon.ca!
@stlthriot
Welcome to the world of DLC. I can’t stand it either. Companies are holding out on features, clothing items, story, etc to make them DLC.
I shouldn’t have to pay extra to have the complete story. If the chronicles has an impact in the 60 game, then I shouldn’t be forced to purchase it to have the whole story.
Imagine purchasing a Blu Ray movie and having to pay 5 dollars extra to see the last 30 minutes of the movie. That is how I feel DLC is being handled and it is wrong for game companies to use this model.
@23
Withholding content before the game is even out is completely and utterly gimping the game.
OK, I will do. Bestbuy, here i come.
edit: WTF? No bestbuy in the US? WTF man. Fine, I guess I will go with Amazon
I love the idea of DLC. It has made great games like Fall Out 3, Borderlands, Batman, Folklore, and many more even better.
I’m so glad game companies are now providing more content and game fixes. Usually the price of DLC is fair.
@25
If you’re going to insult someone, learn to spell.
And you can pay for DLC all you want, but I hope you have some lube.
Can we get a date of release for heavy rain?
Anyone preordering it though. Im excited.
We will be announcing very soon. Stay tuned!