NVIDIA’s Summer GeForce Game Bundle Announced - Splinter Cell Blacklist
by Ryan Smith on July 9, 2013 9:00 PM EST
NVIDIA sends word this evening that they’re launching a new GeForce video card game bundle for the summer timeframe. This time around NVIDIA is partnering with Ubisoft to get their latest Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell Blacklist, included with most NVIDIA cards.
Much like the previously expired Metro: Last Light bundle, the Splinter Cell Blacklist bundle is for the GTX 660 and above, including the complete GTX 700 series, but strangely not NVIDIA’s most expensive cards, GTX 690 and GTX Titan. As is usually the case, all of the typical etailers are participating, with participating etailer and retailers throwing in a voucher for the game with qualifying purchases. The specific edition being bundled is the Digital Deluxe edition, which among other things includes bonus items and a copy of the previous Splinter Cell game, Conviction.
This promo comes about a month before the game actually ships - Blacklist won’t be shipping until August 20th – so GeForce video card buyers will have to sit tight for a bit before they can playing the game. The promo itself will run until the end of the year or until NVIDIA runs out of codes; though historically NVIDIA is likely to replace the bundle before the fall/winter game rush.
On a side note, while Blacklist isn’t being branded as a The Way It’s Meant to Be Played Game, NVIDIA’s press release did note that they’ve been providing engineering resources to Ubisoft as part of their deal. So “tessellation, NVIDIA HBAO+, TXAA antialiasing and surround technologies” appear to be NVIDIA additions to the game. Of note, this marks the first TXAA enabled game to ship in several months and the first such game released since TXAA creator Timothy Lottes left NVIDIA earlier this year for Epic Games.
Finally, for GTX 650 buyers, a quick check shows that NVIDIA’s $75 Free-To-Play bundle is still active for those cards. However that looks to be coming to an end at the end of this month.
| Current NVIDIA Game Bundles | ||||
| Video Card | Bundle | |||
| GeForce GTX Titan | None | |||
| GeForce GTX 690 | None | |||
| GeForce GTX 760/770/780 | SC Blacklist | |||
| GeForce GTX 660/660Ti/670/680 | SC Blacklist | |||
| GeForce GTX 650 Series | $75 Free-To-Play | |||
| GeForce GT 640 (& Below) | None | |||
Source: NVIDIA
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
18 Comments
View All Comments
Zap - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
"On a side note, while Blacklight isn’t being branded as a The Way It’s Meant to Be Played Game,"Do you mean Blacklist?
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
Yeah. I don't know where Blacklight came from. Sorry about that.c0pperbottoms - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Gosh I love Anandtech! Good editing, and when mistakes are made you guys actually fix them! Always a huge breath of fresh air in the tech blog-scape. Anand and Techreport probably tops for attention to detail.Gush over.
Parablooper - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Eh.Streetwind - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
The thing I don't understand is why Nvidia even offers different bundles for different video cards tiers. Okay, I can understand that the more prestigious bundles, like Splinter Cell here, might be reserved for the higher end cards (it probably won't be fun to play on a 650 anyway). But, what if someone buys a GTX 770 but doesn't care the least about Splinter Cell and wants the F2P Bundle instead? Why not give the customer the choice, at least on the high end? Nvidia would lose nothing in the process.chizow - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Probably because offering multiple bundles would be an administrative nightmare for retailers/etailers. If Nvidia took the burden of administrating it all via their website (offer a single code insert via retailer) and then made you register it on their site which opened up more choices (similar to Never Settle), that might work, but then that would shift the administrative burden to Nvidia.Probably more hassle than they are willing to bear.
Stuka87 - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
The F2P bundle is pretty much a joke. You have to already be big on playing one of the games that it supports to make it worthwhile. So unless its one of those three games, its worthless.hughlle - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Why can't they just sell the cards at realistic prices and let the customer use the money saved to buy a new game should they wish to buy a new game? :(Death666Angel - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Because the money they spend on the games/vouchers has nothing to do with the money the consumer would have to spend on them. So the price reduction by not having the game/voucher would not buy you that game or any at all. And there is always ebay if it is entirely useless to you.JPForums - Wednesday, July 10, 2013 - link
Also, perceived value. If you can keep the price of your hardware up and still sell them, then it is easier to segment your line-up. Also, it makes the competition look worse. While a lot of people probably instinctively know that game bundles help sell cards, not many can (or try to) quantify what the game bundle is worth when comparing competing cards. They usually just see that the more expensive card is still selling better and assume there is something better about it that they are missing. For people who are interested in the bundled game, its a double win as people tend to assume that if the game is bundled with the card, it will work optimally on the card.A friend of mine fell prey to this when he bought two GTX660Ti cards with Metro Last Light bundled. He'd had nothing but problems (both rendering and performance) with the game (and only that game). My GTX670s, meanwhile don't seem to have an issue with it (he gave me the second copy).