In this age of digital media and Internet deliverables, the idea that a few decades ago people were shelling out $30 to $50 for a 5¼" floppy disk in a cardboard box must seem bizarre and incomprehensible.
Digital or not, though, software today is managed entirely by your console or software platform's DRM systems. If you went to a brick and mortar store, you will most likely only get a DVD case and a quick install guide, but in the days before digital downloads started becoming common, things were very, very different. The absolute minimum you could expect with a game was a printed manual, often a thick tome containing instructions, backstory, and even hints.
More than that, if you were buying a game from one of the really notable production houses, you got what are known as "feelies". These were real, tangible props, ripped straight from the game world. They were often incorporated into the game's Copy Protection mechanism in order to make it a little less jarring. Such things are almost entirely of the past.
Nowadays, game publishers sometimes make "collector's editions" of certain games, which usually means that if one pays extra for the game one gets various feelies and supplemental materials included with the purchase. Feelies may also be offered as a Pre-Order Bonus. This trend is leading to something of a revival of the concept.
Japanese domestic video and game releases are often noted for their high-priced (and high-quality) feely content, primarily because of tighter retail controls which enable very high end pricing.
However, this trope is not exclusive to video games. Anime releases often come with these, as merchandise and DVD sales are a big part of the industry's revenue, and they make a natural combination. One of the most common inclusions is an "art box" meant to house further volumes. This was also fairly common with music releases during the '60s, '70s, and '80s, when the record companies liked to throw a lot of money behind record releases (even as cassette and CD sales overtook those of LPs). Stickers, posters, bonus 7-inch singles, and even iron-ons in the sleeve were common; because of the cost, these were typically only done with first pressings. Things like these are one reason that vinyl has always been popular among collectors.
See also Revenue-Enhancing Devices. Has nothing to do with Brave New World, nor to be confused with the Alternative Rock band of the same name,note or any innuendo.
Examples:
- The "Big Box Version" of Civilization III comes with a Humongous (with capital H) 150-page gameplay manual tome; the Vanilla Edition features this same manual in a puny little Adobe PDF file.
- In a similar fashion the retail edition of Civilization IV (thanks to the enforced use of DVD boxes) came attached to it's cunningly DVD-box-sized manual by a rather nice cardboard sleeve. Given the size of the manual, one could easily mistake it for a strategy guide.
- Civ II Gold Edition tops that, with a 250 page instruction tome, and a general reference poster (with the tech tree, terrain info, and unit info).
- Civilisation Chronicles, a compendium of Civ 1-4 with all expansions, came with a large manual compassing all the manuals, all of the technology chart wall posters, an interview dvd and a copy of "Civilisation: The Card Game", a game they never released independently, but still has card game reviews of it.
- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri didn't feature many feelies... but it did had an enormous manual, including things not requisite to understand the game, such as vital stats on Earth (including diameter, mass, atmosphere), Planet, and the primaries of both. It also had a wallchart of the entire (insanely complicated) tech tree, which could be very useful.
- Somewhat amazingly, they still didn't cram in everything, and put out a separate Strategy Guide with even more info, including a large color map of Planet.
- Dominions 3 comes with a three hundred page spiral-bound manual, written in a personable and readable tone and including a complete spell grimoire. Yet it doesn't even come close to explaining everything...
- The AOT: Wings of Freedom Treasure Box Edition includes a soundtrack, artbook, art cards, and six badges.
- The Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and The Blight Below Slime Collector's Edition includes a collector's box, slime strap, slime keyring, and slime plushy.
- The Sharp X68000 version of Genpei Toumaden came with a sashimono bearing the game's title.
- The Hyrule Warriors: Legends Limited Edition comes with a compass watch.
- The Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Collector's Edition includes a collector's edition box, map, steelbook, behind the scenes Blu-Ray, and a replica of Snake's bionic arm.
- The République Contraband Edition includes a collector's box, manifesto, and soundtrack.
- The Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkuni Liberator's Edition includes a presentation box, Vita peach skin case, artbook, soundtrack, and eight art cards.
- Werewolf: The Last Warrior came with a comic by "DE Comics".
- Batman: Dark Tomorrow came with a limited edition comic book.
- The NES game StarTropics included a letter from the main character's uncle. To get past a certain point in the game, a player needed to dunk the letter in water to get a secret code. Players lost the letter or bought the game secondhand often enough that the code (747) was even printed in an issue of Nintendo Power. The Virtual Console release includes a digital version of the letter that you can click with the Wiimote to "dunk" it in a bucket of water and reveal the code.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The original The Legend of Zelda came in a golden cartridge and had a poster-sized foldout map of Hyrule which had the locations of the first four dungeons marked and could be used for taking notes. (Much to the general annoyance of people who owned the original, this map has not been re-released with any of the remakes.)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past came with another large foldout map of Hyrule which also had the layouts of the first three dungeons on the back of it.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D had some feelies in other countries, such as "Deku Nuts" and an actual ocarina.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask also had limited edition gold cartridges (sans preorder since the Collector's Edition was also available through retail) with an added lenticular label.
- Preorders for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker came with a GameCube rerelease of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its Master Quest version on a single disc.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Collector's Edition also included a gold Wii Remote and a Music CD.
- Prima's Collector's Edition strategy guides for many of the new games include special add-ins, such as Niko's storybook for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or cloth world maps for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks actually has one on parchment.
- The PlayStation 1 game Alundra came with a partial map on cloth or a similar material, and the disc art was randomized between five different scenes.
- The cooking game Order Up! comes with a paper chef hat.
- One release of MediEvil came with a poster for the second game, which also had maps for the first few levels on the other side.
- Kid Icarus: Uprising comes with a 3DS stand and with six trading/AR cards.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle comes with a book of official artwork, a mini-soundtrack, and a small graphic novel... if you live in Japan.
- The Collector's Edition of Batman: Arkham Origins features a statue of The Joker in front of his array of Christmas Present Bombs. It also featured an opaque polybag with a warning stating that players should wait until the end to open. It contains a replica of Roman Sionis' iconic mask that fits on The Joker, as it's revealed towards the middle of the game that the clown has been masquerading as the mob boss the whole time.
- Similarly, the Collector's Edition of Batman: Arkham Knight contains a scale replica of the Batmobile from the game, complete with the ability transform into its tank mode. No spoilered-out polybag goodies this time, though.
- Every Sword Quest game came with a comic book that was an integral part of the contest tied to both of them; the games would provide cryptic clues that pointed to a panel and page number that had a hidden word on it. Finding all of the words (and using an even more cryptic hint in the beginning of the comic to discern which were red herrings) and ordering them would allow you a chance at the grand prize.
- The special edition of Metroid: Samus Returns comes with a music CD containing various songs from the whole franchise and the box art cover is reversible, which had box art for the original Metroid II: Return of Samus as a callback. Europeans got even more feelies on top of what was listed; a steelbook styled after the Game Boy cartridge with Metroid II on it, a download code for said game, an artbook, and a pin of the Morph Ball.
- Physical copies of the Nintendo Switch port of Cave Story includes a mini CD containing select songs from the Famitracker version of the game's soundtracknote ; physical copies bought from GameStop additionally feature a grab bag containing, at random, one of three keychains depicting Mr. Traveler/Quote, Curly Brace, and Balrog. A full-color physical manual is also included with all physical copies, but whether or not that counts as a feely (particularly in an era where physical manuals are, for all intents and purposes, extinct) can depend from person to person.
- Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Makai no Bookmark came with a card of Kokomelo for the trading card game based on the Zatch Bell! manga. The Card Battle for GBA likewise had an unique card portraying the cover art of the game.
- The physical release for Tunic includes a physical copy of the manual whose pages you collect ingame, some stickers, a map, and a download code for the soundtrack.
- Gold Rush! came with a map of the Americas, and a history book as a manual.
- Shadow of the Comet had a envelope which contained some of Bolskines letters and a report from the mental institution he was committed to, detailing his mental health decline.
- One of the first Full Motion Video CD-ROM games, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, shipped with a stack of miniature newspapers, each loaded with clues to the various cases. This was a continuation of the contents of its boxed-game original. The various "Consulting Detective" sets, and some third party "Call of Cthulhu" adventures set the feely bar very high in the mid-eighties.
- The company best known for its feelies was the Trope Namer, Infocom, whose Interactive Fiction game packages came stuffed full of swag. Each game included as part of its manual a full color printed piece, often a magazine or brochure from the game world, some innocuous device used as copy protection, and a pile of random assorted toys.
- Deadline, a police drama text adventure, started the tradition. It packaged a LONG list of items with the game including a police folder, an inspector's casebook, a bag with three pills, notes from police interrogations, coroner's notes from the "victim", an official memo from an in-game officer, a lab report of a piece of evidence in-game, and finally, a photo of the crime scene, complete with chalk outline. note
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984) included peril-sensitive (read: opaque) sunglasses, a packaged microscopic space fleet, lint, a "Don't Panic" badge, demolition orders for your home◊ and planet◊, and a packet of "no tea." Also no small towel; Infocom did its audience the honor of assuming they already knew where their towel was.
- The text of the second demolition order is pretty much the same as the first, run through a simple substitution cipher, but with a few amusing differences. Anyone got a bar code scanner to check out what names are signed?
- There are no names signed there. It's the same UPC barcode, repeated twice in the first row, flipped and chopped to pieces in the second row and again chopped to pieces in the third row.note
- Sherlock: Riddle of the Crown Jewels included another miniature newspaper, a London tourist's map, key fob and magnifying glass.
- The infamous Leather Goddesses of Phobos included a 3D Comic Book and the special glasses to read it and a scratch-and-sniff card you were instructed to use at certain points in the story. The comic as well served as copy-protection for the game, as there are two puzzles in the game that are impossible to solve without information from the comic.
- The Lurking Horror came with two feelies: a college I.D. card from GUE Tech, the school in which the game takes place, and for that moment when you first reach into the game's box, a rubber centipede.
- Hollywood Hijinx included a "lucky" palm-tree swizzle-stick, a Hollywood gossip tabloid, and a signed picture of Uncle Buddy with clues on the back.
- Moonmist included a brochure of the castle where the game takes place (which contained all the room descriptions; in most instances, if you tried to examine the rooms in-game, all you'd get would be "it looks even lovielier than it sounds in the tourist brochure), two letters to the player character from their friend Tamara, and a book about ghosts.
- Trinity had a really cool paper sun dial for you to construct, as well as a tongue-in-cheek comic book on the history of the atomic bomb (which doubled as hints to the time travel mechanic), as well as instructions on how to make an origami swan.
- Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur provided a monastic-style illuminated manuscript with poetry about the "canonical hours" to help players make sense of the in-game time system.
- Wishbringer came with a The Legend of Wishbringer novella and a magicnote stone.
- As it was sort of a throwback/homage to text adventures, Starship Titanic came with an in-flight magazine (which contained hints, if you read into it) and a pair of 3D glasses (used late in the game).
- G. Kevin Wilson's Once and Future originally shipped with a stack of postcards, letters and telegrams between a Vietnam War soldier and his family back stateside.
- Myst III: Exile had a collector's edition that contained a soundtrack, a "Making of" DVD, a tiny pewter statue of an in-game animal, and amusingly enough for anyone who's ever played the often confusing games, a full strategy guide.
- Space Quest:
- Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon included an Andromedan cutout mask.
- Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers included a satirical magazine called "Space Piston", which included an interview with the game's hero on his past exploits, advertisements for fake products, fake letters to an advice column on time-machine repair and a three-breasted alien centerfold reclining on the time machine that formed a central part of the game.
- Space Quest V: The Next Mutation shipped with a copy of a National Enquirer-esque tabloid magazine that featured more fake ads, satirical stories (Rednecks terrify family of aliens, Tribble gets bad case of mange), a horoscope and clues to solving a puzzle that would be otherwise impassible in the game.
- Space Quest VI: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier had the Popular Janitronics magazine, which like the above, was required to solve a Copy Protection code at one point. Unfortunately, the Compilation Rerelease omitted these. You can find some of these materials at the following link.
- Similarly, the Sam & Max: Freelance Police episodic games have Case Files that you can order. The first one included a "Max for president" button, a Ted E. Bear magnet, and a postcard from the moon, along with other things.
- These were a staple of the Quest for Glory games by Sierra. Generally the games included 2 instruction books, one that was straightforward and one that was more humorous.
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders came with a free issue of The Daily Inquisitor, the tabloid the protagonist works for. Several of the articles provide vital hints, such as how lightning can mend crystals.
- Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! came with the Cyber-Sniff 2000, a scratch and sniff card which would prompt you to use when the game would indicate a number and say "Cyber-Sniff 2000!" Which is nice when it's coconut oil suntan lotion, or ocean spray, but less than glamorous in Larry's cabin... which is the engine room with faulty plumbing.
- Heavy Rain includes a sheet of origami paper and instructions on how to fold a Spanish Pajarita origami like the ones the Origami Killer leaves lying around.
- Blackout contain a prequel novel describing the setting from some of the game's minor character's point of view.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came packaged with a hard-paper Grail Diary. The very detailed 63-page booklet contains Henry's field research about the Grail and doubles as a subtle Copy Protection method, as the in-game information and metapuzzles resort to it. The high quality of the book made it look like a collector’s item and some editors didn't realize the booklet was not a cosmetic addition so it was not included in any form in some versions. Wired wrote an article praising the quality of this feelie. The Steam version fortunately included it in a PDF file
- Star Control II included a map of the galaxy, used as part of the game's copy protection.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! video games tend to come with actual promo cards.
- Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Game Boy Color came with a special edition Meowth card.
- Driver: San Francisco had a collector's edition which, besides a replica of Tanner's Dodge Challenger, had a map with collectibles, a small comic book and a code for some extra in-game stuff.
- The Japanese version of Gran Turismo 4 features a 300-page book about cars, mechanics, and driving technique. The American version... seems to be missing 285 pages.
- Gran Turismo 5 had several special editions. The American Collector's Edition included a custom-etched keychain, a 1:43 scale model of the Nissan GT-R, a 300-page APEX Magazine book with hints on driving technique, tuning and future technology, a download key for five unique "Chrome Line" edition cars and a Certificate of Authenticity. The European version included all of these extras, with the exception of the scale GT-R. The Euro/Australia/New Zealand-exclusive Signature Edition contained the APEX book, another coffee table book of cars and locations, a GT-branded wallet and USB pen drive, custom-etched keychain, a download voucher for the five "Chrome Line" cars as well as one for six unique "Stealth" edition cars and a 1:43 scale Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. The wallet even contained an entry card for a Gran Turismo Academy-style competition where the winner would receive an actual Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
- A couple for Need for Speed:
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2005 came in two versions: the standard version and a Black Edition. The Black Edition had a second DVD which contained videos which went over the making of the game and other various things. The game disc also had an extra that could be used for a special challenge mission that was only in the Black Edition. It also features some pre-tuned cars for use in quick race mode.
- Need for Speed: Carbon also had a special edition of the game as well. This version has four cars that are not in the standard version of the game, along with three unique challenges, unique vinyls, and a second DVD that goes over how the game was made.
- The Carmen Sandiego games of years past often included special editions of commercial information manuals, such as the Fodor's travel guide, from which vital case info needed to be mined. In some editions of the game, they also doubled as copy protection, requiring you to use the specific edition of the book that came with your title to answer questions before the game could continue.
- The USA and World games came with The World Almanac and Book of Facts, which made for quite a large package.
- The Living Books series of interactive picture books typically came with a hard copy of the book they were based on, and a parental guide in a few other cases as well.
- Humongous Entertainment was rather fond of these. Activity books were the most common type, but in other cases there would be a few extra things — for instance, the earliest releases of Fatty Bear contained a frisbee and the SPY Fox series would include a "Spy Guide". Pajama Sam 2 and 3 included comic books, and the one included in 2 sets up the opening scene. Backyard Sports included cards of the characters. As later releases have stopped including these, though, they have become increasingly difficult to find, and even if you can find a boxed copy, it may not include the feelies.
- The Blaz Blue Chrono Phantasma Extend Chibi Heroes Edition comes with a collector's box, artbook, pin badges, and a plush Jubei.
- The BlazBlue: Central Fiction Limited Edition includes an artbook, soundtrack, and Noel Vermillion Nendoroid Figure.
- The Dragon Ball Xenoverse Trunks' Travel Edition comes with a Trunks figurine.
- Killer Instinct came with a CD entitled, "Killer Cuts", which featured studio versions of all the music in the game.
- Guilty Gear Xrd came with the soundtrack, and several key chains. Should be noted however, that previous iterations of the saga came with artbooks, soundtrack and keychains, the most complete version is the one from Accent Core Plus.
- The Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- Let's Rock! Edition includes a CD soundtrack, red vinyl soundtrack, and artbook.
- Early copies of Persona 4: Arena Ultimax came with an inflatable Teddie bop bag and a partial set of tarot cards (the rest of the cards were included with special editions of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth).
- The Gal*Gun: Double Peace Mr. Happiness Edition edition includes an artbook, wall scroll, soundtrack, and panties-shaped Mr. Happiness screen cleaner.
- Halo:
- The Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition includes a "making-of" DVD and a "Conversations from the Universe" booklet.
- The Halo 3 Legendary Edition came with all the bonus features of the deluxe edition, plus a mock-up of Master Chief's helmet—though not a wearable one. Unless your head was slot shaped.
- The Limited Edition of Halo Wars includes the prequel graphic novel Halo Wars: Genesis.
- Halo: Reach went up another notch with its feelies. The Limited Edition includes a replica journal from Dr. Catherine Halsey (the in-universe creator of the SPARTAN-II program); while the Legendary Edition includes the entire Limited edition plus a detailed statue of Noble Team (the game's central protagonists) made by McFarlane Toys.
- The Halo 4 Limited Edition includes an "Infinity Briefing Packet", a set of in-universe documents giving background on various aspects of the game's lore; these range from weapons schismatics to a journal entry by Spartan Ops's protagonist Gabriel Thorne.
- The Halo 5: Guardians Limited Edition includes dossiers on all the members of Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris, classified orders given to Spartan Locke, and a metal Guardian model. The Limited Collector's Edition includes all that plus statues of both the Master Chief and Spartan Locke.
- Modern Warfare 2 came in three versions: a bare-bones version with just the game, a 'Hardened' edition with a tin box and artbook, and a 'Prestige' edition which includes all of Hardened's stuff plus working night-vision goggles and a foam head of the main character's commanding officer to wear them (when you're not using them).
- Call of Duty: Black Ops continued this trend with the similar 'regular' and 'Hardened' editions. The 'Prestige' edition came with all of the 'Hardened' extras plus a working remote-control car modeled after the explosives-rigged RC-XD Killstreak reward for a similar premium.
- Unreal Tournament 2004 included several bonuses in the collector's edition, which—unusually for CE versions—came at no extra charge to those that pre-ordered. These included a second DVD containing "making of" videos, an extensive series of UnrealEd tutorials (which probably helped to kick off the massive number of mods and maps for that game), and even a cheap Logitech headset for making use of the then-new voice chat feature.
- Unreal Tournament III continued the tradition of rewarding pre-orderers, with a painted tin box, glossy artbook and another Making Of/How To Use UnrealEd DVD. Several game shops also had a promotion going that would net you a free copy of Unreal Anthology, a box set of every previous game in the Unreal franchise on a pair of DVDs.
- Duke Nukem Forever came in a "Balls of Steel" edition which included a desktop-size bust of his Dukeness, as well as a pair of dice, poker chips, a deck of cards, a numbered certificate of authenticity, postcards, a foldable paper standee, a comic book, and an art booklet.
- Perfect Dark Zero was released in a special edition 'Collectors Tin' which came packaged with a Special Edition DVD with Behind the Scenes Slideshows and Avatar Unlockables, Special Edition Comic Book that set things up for the prequel as well as one of 8 holographic 'Glyph' card, straight out of the Perfect Dark universe that could be use to access extra content.
- BioShock 2 had a special edition featuring feelies such as an art book and a vinyl of the soundtrack. BioShock Infinite brought it one step further with a box that had a keychain, a lithograph, and a figure from the licensed board game.
- Many video games based on toys come with an exclusive toy not seen in the normal toyline, such as Bakugan, Beyblade, Zoobles, Lalaloopsy, and even Zhu-Zhu Pets.
- And let's not even get into games like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, where the toys packaged with the game (and more sold separately) are integrated with the game and in fact the entire point.
- Indie Box is a company which specializes in creating special physical editions of indie games, complete with feelies.
- Anarchy Online came with a map of Rubi-Ka.
- The web-based MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing used to feature a "Feelies Pack" that you could buy from the website. Every Feelies pack came with a code that you could redeem for Styrofoam Packing Peanuts, an in-game item, which don't actually do anything for you besides show that you purchased a Feelies pack. The Feelies Pack is long gone but every so often Jick and Skullhead talk about things they could include in a second Feelies Pack on their radio show.
- Dofus is an MMORPG that can be downloaded for free, meaning there's usually no case or box available for Feelies. However, for their fifth birthday (and release of Dofus 2.0), a Collector's Pack was released. This pack included: one DVD with links to download the update, one leather-map of the game, one exclusive OST disc, one foil card of their Trading Card Game, one VIP-member card (giving access to a specific house in game, a life-long reduction on their online shop, and other advantages yet to come), one month worth of subscribing to the game, and a limited-edition resin replica of the Ochre Dofus (a MacGuffin from the game), which will never be sold again in the future. And that's not even counting some in-game advantages, like a complete exclusive panoply. For all the hardcore fans, it was US$30 very well spent!
- City of Heroes' special edition came with a (random) Hero Clix figure of one of the three then-Big Bads, issue #0 of the comic book about the characters in a video game built around making comic-book-style super heroes and, when you pre-ordered, codes that allowed you to unlock special sprint auras.
- Ultima Online Charter Edition came with a pewter UO pin.
- Warhammer Online went balls-to-the-wall, which is pretty fitting considering that "over the top isn't high enough" should be Games Workshop's motto: a hardcover collection of concept art; a hardcover graphic novel that's a semi-setup to how the Old World got into this particular predicament; the DVD of the game; a mouse pad; and a completely game-play-legal metallic miniature of the lead Orc and his Goblin buddy to be used in the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop game. Shame what's happened to the actual game over time...
- Every retail version of EverQuest's expansion packs came with a cloth or paper map of the world of Norrath and the new area that the expansion focused on. The Planes of Power went one step further and featured a figurine of the game's mascot character, Firiona Vie.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- Both versions of Final Fantasy XIV (1.0 and 2.0) had collector's editions released, including art cards, art books, Security tokens, and in-game goodies. There's also a digital version of the collector's edition which doesn't come with the physical goodies, but gives out the in-game items.
- The first expansion pack, Heavensward, had a collector's edition that came with a Blu-ray disc containing all the trailers from 1.0 to 2.0, an artbook, a small statue of a dragon mount, and a collector's box that all the items come in. It also gives out in-game items.
- The second expansion, Stormblood, also came with a collector's edition. Along with in-game items, the collection contained an art book, a cloth map of the game's world, a sticker with the expansion pack's logo, and a small statue figure of the Big Bad.
- A lot of merchandise from Square's online store contain download codes that gives out free in-game items as a bonus, such as the Namingway minion with the lore book and an emote with the Odin statue.
- Players who bought World of Warcraft when it came out in 2004 and continued to pay their subscription the full ten years (~$1800 over time) got an unexpected feelie - Blizzard sent them each an Orc Statue. The core game and every expansions all had collectors' editions with such goodies as making-of DVDs, artbooks, unique mounts and pets, decks for the Collectible Card Game, and sometimes early access to some of the expansion's new features (such as playable Demon Hunters in Legion).
- The Elder Scrolls Online's collector's edition, as well as that of its Morrowind and Summerset editions, each came with a statue (Molag Bal, the Dwemer Centurion, and Mephala, respectively), and a physical lorebook. Greymoor also had a statue of a Vampire Lord, but rather than including a book, it came with four coins, which were larger versions of the ones that had been given out at conventions for each expansion. All collector's editions also included a map printed in color.
- The physical version of 100% Orange Juice! (called the "First Print Edition") sold on MangaGamer's site includes a card containing a key for redeeming the digital version on Steam, a set of pin badges featuring different characters and two postcards featuring Star Breaker and Sweet Breaker.
- Mario Party Advance: The game came with a physical game board that could be used to play a unique sub-mode, moving physical pieces around on the board while playing Gaddgets on the GBA itself.
- de Blob comes with refrigerator magnets. Seriously.
- The German Jazz Jackrabbit came with a T-shirt.
- The Wii version of Super Mario All-Stars has an artwork book and a soundtrack CD.
- Kirby's Dream Collection, for Wii, came with a soundtrack CD and a book of artwork and Kirby history.
- Most of the LEGO Adaptation Game series have store-exclusive or pre-order edition versions that come with minifigures or minikit vehicles featured in the game.
- Although most players are likely to purchase The Cabinets Of Doctor Arcana as a digital download from Steam or Big Fish Games, there is a special collector's edition available for purchase. It includes the soundtrack CD and a collectible brass coin shaped like the Arcanum Amulet from the game. While the CD can be bought independently of the game, this collector's edition is the only way to acquire the Arcanum Amulet.
- Lexi-Cross shipped with an "HV Guide" that contained fake program listings. If you were playing the game for the first time, you would be asked for the title of a program scheduled for a certain time and channel.
- The booklet for Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box has the Molentary Express ticket stapled inside. It makes the Find-out-what-the-ticket-says puzzle much easier.
- The European versions of the games -at the very least- had pre-order feelies; Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box had a tiny phone charm of the Professor; Professor Layton and the Unwound Future had a Rubik's cube; Professor Layton and the Last Specter had a picarat/hint coin charm, and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask had a luggage tag which could be gotten through the European Nintendo Stars website.
- The Interactive Fiction game The Weapon includes a fictional newspaper which adds backstory.
- Lemmings 2: The Tribes was packaged with a full-colour illustrated children's book detailing the adventures of Jimmy McLemming of the Highland Tribe, travelling the island as he enlisted the other tribes' help in "the evacuation" i.e. you playing the game. There was also a fold-out chart of all the new lemming skills.
- The "Love is Over" Deluxe Edition of Catherine comes with several feelies, including replicas of Vincent's boxer shorts, one of his T-shirts, and a Stray Sheep pizza box, as well as a pillowcase featuring Catherine, a soundtrack CD and an artbook.
- The limited edition of Shenzhen I/O came with a copy of the game's extensive, necessary manual printed out and organized in a custom binder, with several other goodies such as a secret letter and a business card for the company you work for in the game. Even if you didn't buy this version, you're still encouraged to do this with the digital version of said manual having instructions on how to print and organize it in your own binder. Zach Barth, the game's creator, explained "for something that is a written programming language, you kind of need a written reference." Seeing as how this "game" is singular in that it's more akin to a real-life engineering job than a piece of entertainment, the fact that it requires you to RTFM does indeed follow naturally.
- Example of a collector's edition: The CE for Medieval II: Total War includes the following, in addition to the game itself: figurine in its own packaging, four high-quality artcards, "Making Of" documentary, soundtrack, game map
- Collector's Edition game manual with exclusive cover
- A special Collector's Edition "Building Planner" poster
- Exclusive game packaging
- Blizzard is generally very good about this.
- The collector's edition of War Craft III had lithographs featuring the four different box artworks; a thick manual signed by the games' designers; a DVD featuring the rendered cinematics from the game (as well as trailers and movies from previous Blizzard games); and a hardcover book containing concept art, high-quality screenshots, and backstory notes; and a music CD with the orchestral music from the game (though for some reason the cinematic music wasn't separated into individual tracks, but all in one suite); all packaged in a vinyl-covered slipcase. All for about $80 Canadian.
- Even the standard edition of WarCraft III came with a hundred-page manual featuring concept art, detailed descriptions of every unit and a dozen pages of backstory for the entire setting.
- The Diablo II Battle Chest came with a similar set of goodies, including Diablo I.
- StarCraft Battle Chest, quite impressively, features the original game and the Expansion Pack, a huge 70-100 page manual with tons and tons of game information and Backstory, and the two official Prima Strategy Guides for both games.
- The StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty collectors edition comes with a making of DVD, soundtrack CD, hardcover art book, and a USB thumb drive made to look like a dogtag (made of real metal, and it lights up when you plug it in) containing the original Starcraft and Brood Wars expansion. And it all comes in a huge box that resembles and opens like a spaceship bay door. Blizzard does something similar with the Heart of the Swarm collectors' edition, also including Battle.net avatars and a Zerg Baneling pet for World of Warcraft which are also available for the Digital Deluxe version.
- The first Homeworld game's manual is over one hundred pages long, describing in exhausting detail the society and politics of the planet the mothership comes from which gets burnt up in the third mission.
- The "Game of the Year" edition also came with a strategy guide and an OST disc.
- The collector's edition of World in Conflict comes with an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall. It also has a load of making-of DVDs, a documentary about the Cold War, and a nicer-than-usual box. The little chunk of the Berlin Wall is by far the coolest bit, however.
- Total Annihilation: Kingdoms came with a complete foldout map of the world of Darien and a huge backstory in the manual.
- The preorder premium for Anno 1404 was a bag of natural almonds. Seriously. Three years after you get tired of the game you can enjoy a nice nutty topping on your cereal. That's nice of the marketing department, isn't it?
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 developers knew their audience, and included a Girls of Red Alert promotional calendar.
- The Earth Universe Edition, published by German publisher Zuxxez, included all parts of the Earth game series (Earth 2140, 2150, The Moon Project, Lost Souls and 2160, including all patches up to that point, even community map packs), a T-Shirt, a leather organizer with matching pen (both of remarkable quality), a manual with almost 400 pages and a soundtrack CD. The price for the whole pack was around 15€.
- The manuals for the first two Guitar Hero games (the second moreso than the first) fall somewhat into this:
- The first one is decorated as if it were a marble notebook; the pages are ruled, the text is in a font designed to look hand-written, and there are random doodles and sketches in the margins.
- The second is titled "Guitar Hero Magazine" and is set up like an actual rock magazine. The cover outlines articles such as "A Rare Interview With Axel Steel" and "Clive Winston Retrospective" (all of which actually exist in the "magazine"), and the top mini-headline is "Getting Started | Controls | How To Rock | Star Power". The Table of Contents is designed like one in a magazine, and there's even a "Letters to the Editor" department.
- The original Guitar Hero games came with a sticker sheet that you could decorate your plastic guitar with. This might have, however, been an ingenuous ploy on the part of the developers, as a stickered-up guitar looks crummy and is worth much less on the secondary market. Given how hard the stickers are to remove, the best solution (to the manufacturers anyway) is to buy a NEW one.
- Project Mirai DX comes with a set of AR cards (if you lose them, you can also print them out on the game's official website). Early copies also included a wallet chain modeled after Miku's belt.
- Autoduel, a game published by Origin Systems who also published the Ultima series, came with its own miniature car repair set. This set included a very small hammer, wrench, and dangerously enough, Philips and Flathead screwdrivers. The screwdrivers were perfect for disassembling computers.
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura came with a massive manual, written in Antiquated Linguistics, covering all sort of things that are both related with the gameplay and, more importantly, providing an extensive insight into a lore of the world itself, often regarding things not mentioned anywhere else in the game. And a large poster with the map of the game. In the original release, the game was in a multi-disc case, containing also separate CD with OST. And beyond those, there were also boxes with a t-shirt (with box art print) added to them, with minimal difference in price of the game, thus still qualified for a Feelies.
- Bravely Default had a large box set containing an art book, CD, and a figurine of Agnès Oblige. The North American version was missing the figurine, presumably due to complaints about it being Off-Model. Since this version was much cheaper, most people considered it a fair trade.
- The Bravely Second End Layer Collector's Edition includes an artbook, soundtrack, and Agnes mini figure.
- The Dark Souls III Strategy Guide came with a "Darksign Journal" for players to use in how they saw fit.
- Dragon Quest I-IV on the NES came with maps and a monster and item chart.
- The Dungeon Master games came with a lengthy prose story in the manual.
- The Grand Kingdom Limited Edition/Collector's Edition comes with poster, artbook, soundtrack, decals, and collector's box. The Grand Edition comes with an artbook, soundtrack, Parade poster, Lillia poster, cloth map, 6 lapel pins, 6 mini art prints, transparent decal stickers, and collector's box.
- Several of the Mass Effect games came with additional props or books that tied in to the game universe.
- The "Limited Collector's Edition" for the first game included a 36-page booklet, Galactic Codex: Essentials Edition 2183, that gave a general overview to the lore, creatures and planets found in the galaxy, along with an artbook and bonus DVD. The Polish Collector's Edition had all that, plus an N7 t-shirt, mousepad branded with the USS Normandy and a USB drive with the franchise's logo on it.
- The Collector's Edition for the sequel had a unique feelie in the form of a "Cerberus Network" card, which had a code that could be redeemed for additional content (later included standard in all subsequent PC digital releases). The set also included a comic book, an artbook and a making-of DVD.
- The third game's Collector's Edition has an N7 fabric patch, a lithography of the Normandy SR2, an artbook and a comic book.
- Mass Effect: Andromeda inverted this with its "Collector's Edition", which included either a diecast or remote-controllable replica of the ND1 Nomad, but did not include the actual game (but did include a steelbook to put it in). As a result, some retailers that sold the CE bundled a standard-edition copy of the game with the pricier item.
- Most of the Ultima games came with a cloth map of Britannia, along with other game-specific feelies. For the record, these were:
- Ultima I remakes came with a cloth pouch containing five coins.
- Ultima IV came with a metal ankh.
- Ultima V came with a symbol of the Codex.
- Ultima VI came with a black moonstone.
- Ultima VII came with a triangular symbol of the Fellowship.
- Ultima VIII came with a pentagram coin.
- Ultima IX Dragon Edition came with an ankh pendant and eight virtue tarot cards.
- The Lunar series of games for the PlayStation offered substantial feelies, including hardcover 70-page instruction manuals, cloth maps, the soundtrack, and a replica of a pendant worn by the second game's heroine.
- This was a hallmark of the late Working Designs production house. Another of their game remakes, Growlanser Generations, came with a replica of the jewelry-based weaponry the two games in the set used, among other things. They never skimped on the quality, either. The downside, of course, was that this increased the games' prices significantly. Which wouldn't have been a problem if these bonus items hadn't been put in every game box — there were no separate "standard" and "special" editions, making the games much more expensive than their Japanese versions (and every other game on the market).
- Final Fantasy IV The Complete Collection came with a set of five trading cards featuring the main characters of the game series. The Japanese edition came with an art book, a guide, and a CD soundtrack.
- Final Fantasy VI came with a map of the World of Balance and World of Ruin.
- The collector's edition of Final Fantasy XII comes with a DVD detailing the history of the past games, including an interesting "movie" of Final Fantasy VII
- The collector's edition of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII included an artbook, in-game Aerith DLC and most memorably, a working pocket watch with the game imagery on it.
- Mystic Quest for the gameboy (also known as Final Fantasy Adventure or Seiken Densetsu 1) came with a world map. Still it was easy getting lost.
- The 'Chaotic Evil' Special edition of Neverwinter Nights 2, which, in addition to to standard game, contains the full version of Neverwinter Nights and its two expansions, a paper map of the game world, a booklet of concept art, a ring embellished with the logo, and a Troll miniature. It also confers several minor in-game goodies too. It costs approx $8 more than the vanilla game by itself.
- Baldur's Gate:
- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn had a pre-order edition and a collector's edition; each resulted in a different special merchant with powerful equipment appearing somewhere in the game. These were later added to a simple patch for download. However, the game's manual was very nearly a bludgeoning weapon (and would have been a good one if it had been hardcover instead of spiral-bound), and the collector's edition, at least, came with a cloth map, other versions came with a map-poster and a novel.
- The Baldur's Gate manuals were typically longer because only half of the manual was dedicated to the game itself. The other half was dedicated to the D&D second edition rules (abridged) as interpreted for the Infinity Engine. And then the other half was just a list of all the spells in game, which by BG2 borders on a Hyperspace Arsenal.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, an Action-Adventure Gaiden Game prequel taking place a few centuries before the main series takes place, includes the first Feelie for the series in the form of A Pocket Guide to the Empire. The Pocket Guide is a booklet which gives the first detailed look at the setting of the Elder Scrolls universe written from a (sometimes unreliable) in-universe perspective, with notes and sketches added by the previous owner in the margins.
- Morrowind comes with a full-color map of Vvardenfell done in the style of an in-universe cartographer. The collector's edition also included a pewter Ordinator figurine, a booklet titled The Art of Morrowind, and the game's soundtrack on CD. Both expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, likewise come with similar maps of Mournhold and Solstheim, respectively.
- The collector's edition of Oblivion comes with a replica of the in-game currency and a "making of Oblivion" DVD, as well as an updated edition (written some 400 in-game years later) of the aforementioned Pocket Guide. The 5th anniversary edition of Oblivion comes with a paper map.
- Skyrim came with a paper map of the region. The collector's edition also included a statue of Alduin, the Art of Skyrim book, and the "Making of Skyrim" DVD.
- While it didn't get any of the cool Guides listed above, the Elder Scrolls Anthology features all of the maps listed above, along with one for the entirety of Cyrodiil and one for the Iliac Bay region. The games themselves were contained in a nice-looking bookbox, where the discs were surrounded with artwork of the region each game is set in, screenshots of the game, and blurbs describing each game's premise.
- Golden Sun came with a partial map of the game world.
- The sequel came with a complete map of the game world, as well as a primer on the plot and characters of the original game on the flipside.
- And Dark Dawn came with... just a map, showing half the continent of Angara and the surrounding sea (area roughly equal to the first game's map), and all the things that had changed since the prior games. Since it was starting a new story, the primer wasn't needed, and the character relationship chart was full of spoilers, so it was pulled (and then leaked to the internet).
- (To quote Amazon.com) "The Fallout 3: Survival Edition is the ultimate Fallout 3 package that includes a life-size replica of the Pip-Boy 3000, the wrist-mounted device worn by characters in-game. The Pip-Boy 3000 has been painstakingly recreated and modified for real world display as a digital clock. In addition to the Pip-Boy 3000, the Survival Edition will include all of the items from the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition including the Fallout 3 game, a customized, metal Vault-Tec lunch box, 5" Vault Boy Bobblehead, The Art of Fallout 3 hardcover book, and The Making of Fallout 3 DVD."
- Fallout's manual was definitely a Feely. It was spiral-bound and written entirely in-character: it described a simulator sold by Vault-Tec. The manual included a chapter on nuclear weapons and nuclear war so you could understand what your ancestors did to the world to make it so dangerous.
- Fallout: New Vegas continues the trend with its special edition. It includes poker chips from each of the casinos in-game, a deck of cards with characters or places from the game on each card, a making of DVD, a comic book showing the backstories of several characters and a special platinum poker chip which has some significance in-game.
- Fallout 4 also has a "Pip-Boy Edition" much like the Survival edition above, with an updated Pip-Boy. This new model features a space for the player to put their cell phone, as there was a Pip-Boy Companion App that you can use with the game.
- The case for the Fallout Anthology was a feelie itself! It was a roughly 1:1 scale replica of the Mini-Nuke weapons from the game, and pressing the radioactivity symbol causes it to play a standard "bomb drop" sound followed by the series normal "Experience earned" sound effect. Unscrewing the top reveal discs of the first five Fallout titles (sans the infamous Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, as it has fallen into Canon Discontinuity and wasn't released on PC in the first place), including a space for the then-upcoming Fallout 4.
- The $200 Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition includes a wearable T-51B power armor helmet, a glow-in-the-dark terrain map of West Virginia where the game takes place, 24 collectible Fallout figurines, an exclusive Tricentennial steelbook, and a West Tec bag. Buyers were outraged that after a long delay, the bag was made out of nylon rather than canvas as advertised, and after people were displeased with Bethesda's compensation of 500 Atoms ($5 of in-game currency), Bethesda promised to ship out canvas bags.
- The original Final Fantasy for the NES game came with two foldouts. One had the map of the world along with key locations on one side, and maps of various dungeons on the other. The second had all of the weapon, item, and magic details on one side, and monster stats (albeit with the main boss shadowed out and several monsters provided with ??? vulnerabilities) on the other. And the 80-page manual included a walkthrough of the first half of the game, along with some other useful information.
- We're not even going to get started on the various feelies The Witcher has shipped with in its various versions. The Wikipedia article on it even includes a section just for the first game's "Enhanced Edition". Although it wasn't until the third game's collector's edition that they finally made full replicas of the protagonist's wolf's-head medallion.
- Chrono Trigger (both the original SNES and the DS remake) came with fold-out posters of art scenes depicting the characters.
- Some versions of Final Fantasy VIII came with a cloth map of the world.
- Wild ARMs 5 came with an art book depicting characters and scenes from all five Wild ARMs games.
- Atlus USA provides Feelies with some of its larger-profile titles through its Atlus Spoils program, which offers things like soundtracks, artbooks, and sometimes even plushies related to the game at no extra cost.
- The initial release of Persona 3 was delayed a few weeks so they could get their art book just right. The art book itself was full of interesting sketches and some spoilers; some of the material never made it into the game, such as concept art of the main character as a girl.
- Persona 3 Portable preorders (in certain areas) come with Junpei's hat.
- Even the most basic version of Persona 4 comes with a partial soundtrack CD.
- Persona 5 comes with a special steelbook case for early copies of the PS4 version. Launch copies without the steelbook instead get a controller skin. The PS3 version, likely to make up for the lack of extras, is $10 cheaper.
- Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth:
- Early copies included a partial set of tarot cards. The other cards were included with Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
- The $80 "Wild Cards Premium Edition" includes the tarot cards, as well as an art book, music CD, and a carrying case for a Nintendo 3DS XL.
- Every copy of Knights in the Nightmare, Luminous Arc 2, and Super Robot Taisen OG: Endless Frontier was released in a special box containing the game and an OST of the game. Knights in the Nightmare in particular featured about 32 songs on its OST, and featured a pre-order bonus of a 93-page artbook that went so far as to tell players that it might be best to hold off flipping through it until after the second playthrough.
- Raidou Kuzunoha 2 made waves, though; it was released in a special edition boxed-set, featuring the game, and a Jack Frost plushie, dressed up as the titular Devil Summoner
- Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey came with an OST. Unfortunately, the ones packaged with the game were defective. Upon being informed of the problem, Atlus set up a page on their site where a replacement could be ordered free of charge
- Shin Megami Tensei IV came in a large box with a music CD and art book. Of note is that the CD contained an exclusive live performance of a medley of all Cathedral of Shadows themes, and that the art book also doubled as a partial strategy guide.
- Atlus' release of Magna Carta: Tears of Blood came packed with an artbook.
- Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan and Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth each came with a CD containing rough drafts of the respective games' music. Additionally, the CD's case doubled as a booklet containing concept art and a couple of comics.
- The Alliance Alive had a collector's edition including a CD, art book, and keychain of Robbins. The game case also has a reversible cover that has a tabletop game on the flip side.
- The initial release of Persona 3 was delayed a few weeks so they could get their art book just right. The art book itself was full of interesting sketches and some spoilers; some of the material never made it into the game, such as concept art of the main character as a girl.
- The indie lab Introversion pretty much kicked this trope in the 21st century with Uplink and the completely game-separate digital riddles you have to crack to access the goodies. The /Misc folder of the game CD contains, in addition to "Diary of a Hacker.txt" and a few screenshots from the developers' desktops during the game's development, a mysterious file called "GameBible.zip" that's been password-locked with no explanation - with the password nowhere to be found unless you take a gander at the game's box and convert the seemingly out-of-place symbol string on the back from hexadecimal to ASCII. After the .zip cracks, inside you'll find the directories book1, book2 and book3. The readme.txt in the directory has the lead designer Chris Delay congratulating you for discovering the first Book, hinting at where the remaining two Books can be found. The second one is said to be found on the Uplink bonus disk available from Introversion. And the third one, "who knows where that might be hidden". The Last of the Bedroom Programmers, indeed.
- The American release of Earth Bound came in an oversized box which included a player's guide, written and presented in the style of a travel guide with newspaper clippings.
- Mother 3 was available in a Deluxe Box limited edition, which accompanied the game with a specially-printed Game Boy Micro and a Franklin Badge. Good luck getting one of these now.
- The Level-5 and Studio Ghibli game Ni no Kuni: The Jet-Black Mage came with an entire spellbook, with its spells actually usable (and required!) in-game. By referencing the book, players could figure out what to do in the game.
- Secret of Evermore came with a poster of two drawings that would seem to be ancient maps from the prehistoric and Roman areas of the game, plus a more straightforward map of the overworld.
- Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver come with the Pokéwalker, a companion virtual pet/pedometer integrated into the main games. Any Pokémon from one's game can be loaded onto the Pokéwalker and run on one of numerous courses, where one could find rare Pokémon and items and send them back to the main game; additionally, the Pokémon gains experience from steps counted on the pedometer by walking.
- If you preordered either you would get a pretty Ho-Oh or Lugia figurine, same as in Japan.
- If you preordered both at once, you got both figurines, but in Japan you would get an Arceus one as well.
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl came with a Dialga or Palkia stylus respectively.
- Pokémon Black and White Came with a DVD of the Jirachi Wish Maker movie in Europe for people who bought the game on day 1 or 2 in certain stores
- If you preordered either you would get a pretty Ho-Oh or Lugia figurine, same as in Japan.
- .hack//G.U volume 1's special edition came with an extra DVD with info about the first four games and a figurine of Haseo.
- The collector's edition of Two Worlds came with a tabletop RPG that featured a handy illustration of a four-sided die with five sides. The RPG was basically a D&D clone with a bunch of stuff left out to make it fit into a tiny book.
- In Germany, people who preordered the Royal Edition got:
- A sword (a full-size replica of the in-game sword Kilgorin, or Elexorien in some cases. About 80cm long, stainless steel)
- A letter opener version of a similar sword
- A full game world map
- The Knight Shift Soundtrack (and when it got published, a discount on the Two Worlds soundtrack)
- A T-Shirt
- A leather organizer with matching multi-purpose pen (red biro, black biro and pencil)
- A set of playing cards
- In Germany, people who preordered the Royal Edition got:
- Wasteland came with the famous Paragraph Book. Due to the technical limitations of the game itself, the story of it was in form of separate, physical script, with game prompting player to read the right paragraph. This served three different purposes: reading the story without the prompts made it look as completely different genre (with mission to Mars being the final goal), fantastic copy protection (players absolutely needed the thick manual to play at all) and allowed to make the game absurdly open-ended in its design, since the paragraphs allowed to wander in any direction without disrupting the plot of the game or need to trigger specific event flags.
- Record of Agarest War. Really Naughty Limited Edition. Ellis. Pillowcase. Vira-Lorr. Boobie mousepad. That is all.
- The Dark Spire by Atlus included a soundtrack CD.
- The Limited Edition of Kingdom Hearts: II.5 HD ReMix note contained a special pin. The Collector's edition featured a plush of one of the "Shadow" enemies, a hardcover art book, and a steelbook that could house the game and I.5 HD ReMix, the first compilation in the series.
- The Prime strategy guide for the original PS2 release of Kingdom Hearts II contained a replica of Jiminy Cricket's journal.
- Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan came with a battle chip for use with the Mega Man Advanced PET accessory.
- Mega Man X: Command Mission had the Mega Man Trading Card Game "Mega Man X" card, which referred players to the latter game's website for item passcodes to use with the former.
- Ys
- The limited edition of Ys SEVEN as released by Xseed comes with a soundtrack CD, an artbook with images from Ys Seven, Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys I+II Chronicles, as well as a cloth map of the world of Ys.
- The limited edition of Ys: Memories of Celceta came with a 3-disc soundtrack featuring music from various different Ys games and their remakes, a cloth map of Celceta, a compass with the Ys logo, and a thick 100-page strategy guide "written by" adventurer and series protagonist Adol, with a smattering of sketches and cover art covering the pages.
- Magical Night Dreams Cotton 2 for the Sega Saturn included a full-color 1998 Cotton calendar.
- Buzz Aldrin Race Into Space had a huge manual which detailed the history of the space race and provided all the context needed to enjoy the game.
- Loom and The President Is Missing both shipped with audio cassettes that gave supplemental information for the game.
- The older Maxis manuals, with their commitment to wit, wisdom and just generally going above and beyond the call of duty, were worth the price of admission alone. Of particular note were the Additional Information sections at the end of the manuals, such as Sim Earth's "Introduction to Earth Science", A-Train's History (of railways) section, SimAnt's abridged biology text on ants, and SimCity 2000's Gallery section, which included pictures, poetry and prose designed to stimulate and inspire city designers. The last survivor was SimCity 3000's manual, which despite being a real 100-page book, only features gameplay information.
- In addition to the manuals, some other Maxis games came with other feelies as well; Sim Golf came with a golf ball, while Sim Copter came with a pair of aviator sunglasses.
- Origin was generally pretty good about feelies. The manuals for the first, third, and fifth Wing Commander games, along with the Xbox Live Arcade game Wing Commander Arena, were presented in the format of an in-universe magazine.
- The first Wing Commander also included blueprint posters for several of the fighters you would pilot over the course of the game. The stats on these posters were also used as answers for the games' Copy Protection questions.
- The collections Kilrathi Saga (WC1-3, modified to work in Windows 95/98) and Prophecy Gold (Prophecy and its follow-up Secret Ops) also included brand new manuals made especially for the combined product, with data that the individual game manuals lacked.
- Falcon 4.0 featured an "Commander's Edition" of the game where the packaging was a three-ring binder filled with over 500 pages of manuals on everything from installing the game to the detailed avionics systems the game simulated. Also included was a pilot's map of the Korean Peninsula and even mission briefing sheets to be photocopied and filled out with your various waypoints, targets, radio frequencies, and fallback airfields.
- During the surge of flight sims during the early and mid-90s, extensive manuals were common "feelies". In many of the hard-core non-survey sims, a significant manual was a requirement not an "extra" as mastering the avionics systems was quite a feat in and of itself. Microprose and EA's line of Jane's games were particularly noted for their extensive documentation, befitting their status as hard-core sim titles.
- F-15 Strike Eagle III not only came with a thick, richly detailed manual complete with an entire chapter about the actual developmental history of the titular aircraft, a real-life account of one of the developers (who also happened to have been a real F-15 pilot during Desert Storm) and complete alternate histories for some of the 20 Minutes into the Future campaigns, but also came with a photo-essay book obtainable only through the purchase of the game about the actual real-life squadron the player flew for in the game, and authentic squadron patches.
- F-19 Stealth Strike Fighter for Commodore 64 by the same company came with a thick manual describing, among other things, the basics of aerodynamics, air combat maneuvers, detailed take-off and landing procedures, and extensive, if propaganda-ridden info about weapons and aircraft encountered in the game. In the box one could also find a keyboard overlay with controls, and two double-sided military-style maps (though the geographical detail was questionable) of the areas you flew over.
- Frontier- Elite 2 Came with a manual that was written in the style of an instruction manual for your spacecraft, a travel guide to many of the star systems featured (With a short explanation of the in game history), a book of short stories set in the game universe, and a wallchart of most inhabited star systems within the game. And the one floppy that the game fitted onto.
- The first Elite came with a novella named The Dark Wheel that was set in the game world.
- TIE Fighter initially included "The Steele Chronicles," which gave backstory to the player character and additional details about the campaign story through his perspective.
- The Software Toolworks game Life & Death included a surgeon's mask, two latex gloves, an "Operating Procedures Manual", a "memo" to "All First-Year Residents", a book detailing the "History of Surgery", parts of a book called "Anatomy and the Surgical Technique", and a beeper which served as the game's copy protection (as failing to return phone calls within the game would keep you from completing surgery).
- The manual for Impressions' "SimGreek" game Zeus: Master of Olympus was a humorous 180-page paperback of Democrates and his first city's meager beginnings as most of Greek's divine pantheon and some significant cultural figures advise him on the gameplay mechanics.
- Milo: "To build a Gymnasium, click on the Culture tab with as much machismo as you can muster. Then, click on the Gymnasium button with all your might. Now, let out a roar of triumph, and make sure that the Gymnasium is along a road so that it can function."
- Microsoft's earlier PC-borne version of the arcade flyer Crimson Skies came with an issue of Air Aviation Weekly, an aviation magazine, set in the game's late 1920's alternate history, with all the relevant gameplay information neatly tucked among the interviews, articles and era-flavoured advertisements.
- Flight of the Intruder, a flight sim about Vietnam-era Intruder-bombers, came with the book by the same name, by Stephen Coonts. At least the Amiga version did...
- Another example of a collector's edition: The Collector's Edition of The Sims 3 comes with a USB drive shaped like the iconic "plumbob."
- Early versions of Creatures 2 came with stuffed Norn plushies, affectionately dubbed "norndolls" by the fandom. They were actually created because fans requested Norn stuffed toys.
- Zoo Tycoon 2 came with a good quality writing pen that had a sculpted animal on top.
- Story of Seasons pre-orders typically come with stuffed farm animal toys, usually their Series Mascot, which is a cow.
- World War I combat flight simulator Red Baron came with an instruction manual; two additional booklets featuring ace biographies, combat tactics, and a brief history of the war in the air; and printed maps of the various fronts. The latter were helpful for orienting oneself in-flight within the game.
- The Collector's Edition of IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover comes with an extensive hardcover "Pilot's Instructions"-handbook, a reprint of pilot's notes for the Mk.I Spitfire and a fabric map of the English Channel area.
- X3: Gold Edition contains a soundtrack disc for the games, while the X-Superbox series collection has that soundtrack, four fan-made soundtracks, loads of art, PDF versions of several fanfics, and an encyclopedia filling out billions of years of backstory.
- The original Nintendo GameCube Animal Crossing (2001) came with a free 59-block memory card, complete with themed sticker labels. Playing the game with it reveals that this was less an "extra" as a "convenience"—the save file takes up nearly the entire card by itself.note The card was there so that players wouldn't have to buy a whole new memory card just for one game.
- The instruction "booklet" for Aces Over Europe was a nearly half inch thick tome with extensive sections on history, the science of flight, tactics and maneuvers, vehicles, weapons, and aircraft specifications. Actual setup and gameplay info was relegated to the back third of the book. Numerous period photos appeared throughout.
- The Cooking Mama spin-off Babysitting Mama comes with a stuffed doll resembling Yuto, one of the babies from the game. It's actually meant to be used with the game itself — the player is supposed to stick the Wii Mote into a pocket on the baby's back and use its motion-sensor capabilities to simulate taking care of a child.
- Caveman Ugh-lympics came with a very funny one-sheet newspaper, 'The Ugh-zaminer'.
- During the 16-bit gaming era, several EA Sports games included a foldout of player attributes and team ratings, which were not as easily accessible in-game as they would be in future generations.
- The Crusader games had fold-out newsletters, and much of the manuals was written in an "in-world" format. Incidentally, if you kept track of the dates and events in said fold-outs, it becomes clear that Crusader, Wing Commander, and System Shock are all, in fact set in the same universe!
- Doom Troopers: The original release of the game included an exclusive promotional card for use with the Doom Trooper card game.
- Gears of War 2, the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition came with a picture book explaining the back-story of the planet Sera (well, some of it, Wild Mass Guessing for this series lives off of it being vague), and inside the book was the very picture of Dom and his wife, Maria, that Dom repeatedly looks at throughout the game. It even had the in-game back of the picture message written on the back of the hard copy, as well. The Golden Lancer surely deserves a mention. As do the Gear-shaped "dog tags" that EB offered as a pre-order bonus in Australia.
- NIS America's Limited Edition of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls includes a Warriors of Hope pin and tie clip, and Kurokuma's eye patch and tie. The Japanese Limited Edition includes a coffee mug.
- Heroes of Might and Magic II and III come with fold-out cards showing creature statistics and town construction dependencies and a manual nearly reaching 150 pages.
- Colonization came with a large manual and nice fold out "cheat sheet" showing all the unit types and the buildable structures.
- Games by Purple Moon, another production house exclusive to The '90s, always came with them. Rockett's World games had dolls of the characters and Secret Paths games had plastic stones like those won from the puzzles; both came with cards for a series-specific card game. The rest of the dolls and stones, as well as booster packs, were sold separately. And if that wasn't enough, the first editions of the first games (released simultaneously) came with a shirt, a lip gloss and a backpack.
- A Japan-only limited edition of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth came with a "Gyakuten Meets Orchestra 2008" pamphlet, character illustrations and portraits, a DS cartridge case, the "Melodies of Gyakuten Kenji" soundtrack, and a "Memories of Gyakuten" Promotional Trailers DVD. (A limited-edition Ace Attorney Investigations-themed Nintendo DSi was also released.)
- The Corpse Party: Blood Drive Heavenly Host Edition comes with an artbook, soundtrack, and two figurines.
- The Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness Limited Edition comes with an artbook, soundtrack, pencil boards, microfiber cloth, and collector's box.
- The Steins;Gate 0 Amadeus Edition includes a presentation box, soundtrack, artbook, pin badge, and fairy upa figure.
- The XBlaze: Code Embryo Limited Edition comes with eight art cards.
- As well as a soundtrack CD and artbook, the NIS America Limited Edition of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair also includes a Monocoin replica, the "I'm sorry, I was born stupid" sticker from Chapter 3, and Monokuma-themed sunglasses. The Japanese Limited Edition includes a Monocoin replica, a small medal of the Hope's Peak Academy logo, Monokuma and Monomi keychains, and a plush of Monokuma's head.
- Lux-Pain for the DS came with an art booklet.
- The physical edition of the Doki Doki Literature Club! Updated Re-release Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! came with tiny standees of the main four characters, a download code for the soundtrack, a set of 17 stickers, a club membership card, and a copy of an exclusive poem written by Monika. The Nintendo Switch port also got a special inner coversheet resembling a notebook.
- The Grand Theft Auto games came with maps. The original on PC actually came with three maps on two poster-sized sheets, which contained maps of Liberty and Vice cities, as well as San Andreas.
- Red Dead Redemption came with a map of the game world.
- Saints Row:
- Saints Row came with an instruction booklet made to look like a journal written by an undercover cop within the Saints. As you played through the game, it became clear who the writer was.
- The Collector's Edition of Saints Row 2 came with gun mold packaging, an artbook, a double-sided map/3rd Street Saints poster and a gold bullet-shaped 1Gb USB stick containing wallpapers and buddy icons. The EB Australia-only Initiation Pack took that even further and added a Saints "ID card", money clip, EB vouchers, a Saints "rule book" containing character bios, shops and other information, plus a Saints basketball singlet all packaged in a Freckle Bitch's pizza box.
- Saints Row: The Third had something different depending on which country you got it from. The North American version came with a soundtrack and a computer headset that not only let you listen to music and communicate with your friends, but also auto-tuned your voice. The Australian version, however, had two special editions. The first one was the "Smooth Criminal" Edition, and it came with sunglasses, cufflinks, a bullet-shaped ice cube tray, and the soundtrack. The second one was the "Maximum Pleasure" edition, and it included a Professor Genki head, a Professor Genki keyring, and a Professor Genki banner pen.
- The special collector's edition of Spore came with not only 2 DVDs (one about the making of the game and another from National Geographic about how Nature and evolution inspired the game) but also a Art of Spore book that had early concepts, development pics, and ads for even more books about Spore.
- Terraria got a Collector's Edition after development (temporarily) ceased with 1.1.2. It included a physical CD, CD case with artwork, a small pickaxe, a poster, trading cards (physical cards, not Steam cards), character stickers and new players in the game start with a carrot that summons a bunny pet, matching their shirt color.
- The Pokémon Dialga and Palkia DS Lite came with a DVD of the anime adaptation of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness, a carrying case, and a Grovyle poster.
- The Nintendo 3DS comes with six AR Cards for use with the AR Games app (among a small selection of other games). The cards are a ? Block (the primary card that is used 90% of the time), Mario, Toon Link, Kirby, Samus, and three Pikmin
- The Nintendo Entertainment System, circa 1985, came with R.O.B. the robot.
- The Kasumi-chan Blue Xbox comes with a blue console and controller, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Digital Venus, and a five foot Kasumi dakimakura hugging pillow.
- GOG.com has digital feelies for many of its games, including PDFs of the manuals, wallpapers, soundtracks, and other files if you buy the games themselves.
Non-video game examples:
- Some releases go really whole hog, though: just check out Bandai Entertainment's English release of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya: cosplay items, single CDs, iron-ons, pillowcases with the three main girls on them...
- Lucky Star came with T-shirts packed into its limited editions.
- The Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] first season Limited Edition includes a soundtrack CD, booklet, novel, illustration and wall scroll. The second season Limited Edition includes a soundtrack CD, drama CD, booklet, illustration and wall scroll.
- The first part of the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann features a toy Core Drill with an LED light.
- The German version of Ikki Tousen shipped its collector's edition box with a pair of girl's panties.
- SHUFFLE! did this for one of its DVD boxes.
- The special edition Naruto DVD sets come with feelies such as figurines, headbands, wristbands, and storyboard books.
- The Complete Collection Ninja Nonsense box set came with a ninja headband and Onsokumaru squeeze toy.
- The first edition of the Japanese Get Ride! Amdriver DVDs came with a collector card featuring the characters. Unfortunatedly, since the DVDs didn't sell that well and Konami apparently produced too large a first edition, this meant you could still buy first edition DVDs over a year after release for the normal price...
- One DVD collection of .hack//SIGN included a box containing three pins. one of Tsukasa, Mimiru, and a pink baby grunty.
- The three-disk collector's edition of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva came bundled with a book of the storyboards from the film.
- The first printing of the Funimation Hetalia: Axis Powers Part 1 and 2 DVDs came with a limited edition bandana. This kicked off Funi bringing back limited editions dvd for some of their shows. The Limited editions for the movie and world series have continued to come with bandanas. Also a convention-exclusive white one was a freelie for spending 50 dollars at their booth, though some did turn up at an Anime News Network Panel.
- Really, Funimation is pretty good for feelies - Kodocha's English release by Funimation came with a fold-out art box and a little wallet-type bag with the series' cute animal mascot...thing, on it, too.
- ADV Films has been known to add some cool feelies from time to time though - in addition to most of their releases having a version of the first volume available with an art box, often they'll fill said box with extra goodies. Such as:
- The release of Azumanga Daioh (anime, obviously, not the manga) had an art box with the first volume, but every volume in the series additionally came with a booklet (featuring character design art and translation/pop culture notes), a reversible cover for the DVD case, and one or more decorative pins, featuring everything from various characters to the cute animal mascots.
- The release of Excel♡Saga tended to come with really... unusual feelies. Such as one volume coming with a "tapping sumo" game (and this was in addition to all the volumes already having on-disc features like Easter Egg -riddled menus, games, and "AD Vidnotes", which was basically Pop Up Video for anime).
- And perhaps the weirdest and yet most "appropriate": Najica Blitz Tactics — a Fanservice-heavy spy series where a "panty-shot drinking game" would have gotten you drunk by the halfway point of the first episode — came with an actual pair of Najica-branded panties. And a towel.
- The English release of Witch Hunter Robin Vol. 1 had a version that not only came with a full art box to house the rest of the series (and an actually attractive one, at that), but also a soundtrack CD, a shot glass, and a pair of "art cels" - prints of character art on transparent plastic much like an animation cel. It was kind of cool, especially if you were already the kind of fan who collects cels to begin with.
- The American release of the first volume of Comic Party, which came with an art box - a white box covered in sketchy, pencil-drawing-like art, with a clear slipcover that had animation-cel-like full-color character art that matched up perfectly to some of the drawings. It also came with a guide booklet filled with pop-culture notes (helpful, since the series is about the underground world of doujinshi and thus features tons of Japan-specific or doujin-community-specific references), as well as a mini-Pencil Board that was autographed (by one of the English dub's voice actors).
- The releases of the first three Pokémon movies in America had free trading cards given out to people who attended the movie. The home video release also had trading cards which were different from the ones given out in theaters. When the Victini movie had a limited release in 2011, people were given a giant Victini card, a pamphlets, a manga sampler, and a card for use with the Nintendo 3DS Poke Dex app which will allow you to see Victini.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time had a similar "card given to you when you see the movie" promotion like Pokemon's movie when Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light came out.
- For some Studio Ghibli examples, one American DVD of Ponyo came with a plush toy of the titular character's goldfish form, and a Japanese limited edition Blu-ray of The Secret World Of Arrietty came with a replica of the titular character's hairclip.
- When kids in Japan go to Pretty Cure movies, they get many free bonuses. First, there's a little flashlight-like object called a Miracle Light (the name will change based on the movie. For instance, the first Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage film had the Miracle Decor Light, and the Smile PreCure! movie had the Miracle Wing Light) which kids are supposed to use when during the critical moment of the film (this mostly happens when the Precure are weak and have no energy to battle, but occasionally, it's used for other things), usually turning the Pretty Cures into upgraded forms or giving them their power back. (In case you want to know, Miracle Lights were first used starting with the Yes! Pretty Cure 5 movie.) The second freebie is a paper visor with 2 designs (one on each side of the hat) and the third item is a Data Cardass card, used for an arcade game featuring Pretty Cure characters. Also, if you pre-order advance tickets online or at a theater, you can get a tote bag. Two separate bags are available for each film. If you buy your tickets at a Lawson's store, you can get a bundle of Pretty Cure-themed goodies as well. The Smile Pretty Cure movie had a book-shaped case with a bracelet inside, a movie guide and a bracelet with Candy on it. Later movies dropped the visor and Data Cardass cards, replacing them with a sheet of stickers. And since 2014, an exclusive collectible item based on the season will occasionally be given out (and in the case of Haru No Carnival, replaced that year's Miracle Light).
- The Miracle Lights are also given away with the DVD releases if you buy them on Toei's website, and some DVDs of the musical shows contain these as well.
- American preordered copies of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt came with a Heaven Coin.
- In the UK, the DVD of Princess Jellyfish came bundled with a plush keychain of Clara.
- The first edition print of the Anime/Vanguard manga came with a limited edition Blaster Blade card.
- Volume 37 from Berserk came with post cards, an autograph, and hear this out, AN ACTION FIGURE OF THE BERSERKER ARMOR, calling this expensive AND AWESOME for collectors is an understatement.
- Beyond the Boundary was released in America as a collector's edition complete with a plethora of goodies, including stickers, pins, art cards, a keychain of Mirai, a lanyard, Mirai's glasses and a certificate of authenticity.
- The VHS releases of the Cartoon Network-edited Tenchi Muyo! series came with keychains sporting HD versions of the characters.
- The tenth-anniversary Pioneer DVD releases came with full-on bronze medallions in airtight coin keepers.
- Vampire Princess Miyu: The TV series Ultimate Set comes with a music CD and metal Friendship Charm.
- In the UK (at least), Tiger & Bunny came with collectible Hero Cards and mini magazines with information about the episodes, character designs and staff interviews.
- Also in the UK, the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) came with a resin model of the Gate of Truth, an artbook and art cards, as well as a State Alchemist document signed by King Bradley - the latter of which was a preorder bonus.
- The special edition Japanese release of Tamagotchi: The Movie came with the Fureai Friend Chamametchi toy, while the American one came with the special edition of the Music Star toy and 3 figurines.
- In the UK, Contender Entertainment were quite fond of doing this with some of the anime they released on VHS and DVD. Early volumes of Yu-Gi-Oh! had limited printings which included a free booster pack for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, VHS volumes of Card Captors came with stickers, and some volumes of Beyblade would be packaged with a Beyblade top or keyring.
- Anime Limited tend to do this with their UK home releases of Blu-ray collector's editions, usually putting booklets, posters and stickers in. There's an ongoing list on the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition page for more specific examples.
- The Death of Superman came with black armbands with S-Shields printed on them for fans to wear.
- Some of the trade paperback collections of popular comic strips include them:
- Billy and the Boingers Bootleg included a flexidisk record with 2 of the band's "songs", for example.
- One collection of Doonesbury strips included an actual action figure of one of the characters.
- An issue of Fantagraphics' anthology comic Critters included a flexidisk of a song from one of the stories...with a B-Side written and sung by Alan Moore!
- A Blu-Ray of Toy Story 3 came with a Buzz Lightyear figure.
- The Blu-Ray and DVD of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted contain Marty's Circus Afro/rainbow wig he wore in the movie. The wig can only fit kids, but if you want to order adult sizes, there is a website link on the back of the box the wig comes in. The Toys R Us exclusive version also have a Beanie Baby figure included.
- Depending on which store you bought it from, some copies of Rugrats in Paris contained some free bonuses. Kmart gave you a keychain picture frame with Chuckie and Kimi, Walmart gave you a Chuckie straw, Best Buy gave you a joke book, and Target gave you a watch. During the theatrical release, a passport promoting a tie-in contest was given to patrons.
- Rugrats Go Wild! had a scent card that you had to scratch off when a number came on screen. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World did something similar.
- One DVD of Rise of the Guardians was packaged with 2 wind-up toys of the walking Sheldon Egg-inspired eggs.
- The DVD for Hotel Transylvania sold at Walmart comes with a plush doll of Mavis' bat form.
- One DVD of Brave came with a plush doll of Merida's horse.
- The Peter Pan Diamond Edition came with a POP! figurine of the titular character as a Walmart exclusive.
- The VHS release of Quest for Camelot came with a necklace whose charm featured Devon and Cornwall. Annoyingly, said necklace was under not the shrinkwrap on the new movie, but under the plastic of the clamshell cover — meaning that you either had to partly ruin the cover to get the blasted thing out, or you had a heck of a time lining it up neatly on your video shelf.
- The LEGO Movie
- The first movie's Everything is Awesome Edition 3D Blu-Ray combo pack comes with a Vitruvius minifigure and a "3D photo" of Emmet.
- The LEGO Batman Movie came with a Batgirl minifigure at Target, and a miniature Batmobile set at Toys 'R' Us.
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part has a Rex Dangervest minifigure and a Plantimalnote in its Target-exclusive release, and Emmet and a giant LEGO heartnote in its Wal-Mart-exclusive release.
- Wal-Mart helped promote The LEGO Movie 2's theatrical premiere by bundling the previous LEGO movies together with LEGO Dimensions minifigures of Wyldstyle, Gandalf, and Batmannote .
- Some DVD copies of The Iron Giant came with a figurine of the titular alien robot.
- A Walmart exclusive edition of Mr. Peabody & Sherman was packaged with a Mr. Peabody plushie. Meanwhile, Best Buy sold a lunchbox with their copies and Target had replicas of Peabody's glasses and bowtie.
- One release of Despicable Me included Minion goggles.
- The Walmart special edition of the Sing Blu-ray came with some character cards.
- An earth-shaped beach ball was packaged with copies of Escape from Planet Earth sold at Walmart.
- The 1994 VHS of The Fox and the Hound was available in a gift set with a Copper plush toy.
- The 1996 VHS of Pocahontas was available in a gift set with a Meeko plush toy.
- The 1996 VHS of The Aristocats was available in a gift set with an O'Malley plush toy.
- The 60th Anniversary VHS release of Dumbo was available in a gift set with a Dumbo plushie.
- Cinderella III: A Twist in Time: Some copies were packaged with the book Disney Princess: The Essential Guide.
- The original VHS release of The Prince of Egypt came with a beanbag of a camel◊.
- The Hercules (Pure Magic) VHS came packaged with toys of Hercules, Deianira, the Hydra, and Zeus◊.
- Two Alien box sets made feelies out of the boxes themselves: the Quadrilogy DVD in an Alien head display case◊, and Anthology Blu-Ray with a light-up Alien egg statue.◊ Predator, not to be undone, had the movies in a Predator helmet◊. And the combination of both in the Alien Vs. Predator: The Ultimate Showdown DVD box set includes two figures, a light-up base, and a comic book.◊ And a Region 2 edition of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem included a Predalien figurine.
- When the film Zotz, based on the book by Walter Karig, was in theaters, patrons were given plastic versions of the amulets.
- One version of the movie The Indian in the Cupboard on VHS came with a plastic Indian figurine, a plastic key and a 'keyhole' molded into the side of the VHS case. In addition, the insert on the VHS case was reversible, with the cover art on one side and a wooden cupboard on the other.
- DVDs used to come in big cardboard boxes twice the length of the actual case, in an attempt to convince people that there was more than just a disk being sold.
- The VHS tapes of Free Willy 3 came with a whale necklace identical to the one in the movie.
- Some original VHS versions of Bad Taste came with barfing bags and some came with extra cradboard finger to make alien's Flipping the Bird on the cover into less offensive inverted V-sign gesture.
- The theatrical release of The Last Mimzy had keychain versions of the titular character given to patrons on the first week of release.
- The original DVD releases of each part in The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition came with feelies: The Fellowship of the Ring came with bookends in the shape of the Argonath, a statuette of Gollum was packaged with The Two Towers, and The Return of the King included a miniature of Minas Tirith. Additionally, New Line Home Video ran a mail-in promotion for a free slipcase to fit all three volumes of the Extended Edition when The Return of the King was released.
- The DVD of the German movie Lauras Stern - Der Film had some stickers inside the case.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One - Avengers Assembled box set comes with a load of these, including various SHIELD dossiers of several Avengers, as well as a replica of the Tesseract.
- The Muppets:
- The 1993 VHS releases of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper were packaged with free watches. ("Did you say get a free watch? / Yes he said get a free watch!")
- Like Rugrats in Paris, The Muppets (2011) came with different items depending on which store you brought it at. Best Buy had a lunchbox, Walmart had finger puppets, Toys R Us had a poster, and Target had a bonus DVD featuring six episodes of The Muppet Show.
- The special edition DVD of Grease came packaged in either a T-Bird or Pink Ladies jacket - or, if you bought it at Target, a Danny Zuko letterman jacket.
- Originally, the DVD of Saw V came in a thicker-than-usual box displaying a blood-splattered plastic window, through which could be seen a saw blade that spun (complete with accompanying sound) at the press of a button. Unfortunately, the saw blades tended to get stuck in place and not move at all, and the package was withdrawn.
- Showgirls: The 2004 "V.I.P. Edition" includes pasties, shot glasses, playing cards, movie cards, and a poster.
- Warner Bros. often releases the most popular movies in their library as "Ultimate Collector's Editions", which package the movie together with some merchandise inside a giant box.
- Seeing as part of the premise of Jurassic World is that Jurassic Park itself has finally become a reality, it's not surprising that official merchandise tries to make it as authentic as possible. Best Buy distributed official "brochures" for the park and a children's sticker book book called "The Park Is Open" (itself written as something of a guidebook for the park) comes with Jurassic World visitor's passes.
- There was a special edition of Jurassic World that went way beyond that, including the movie discs in a tin container, and statuettes of the T. Rex and the Indominus Rex, staring each other down. They could even be separated or combined into a standoff pose!!!
- Some versions of Alvin and the Chipmunks have a Beanie Baby figure included.
- The Unbreakable DVD includes a trading card.
- The 2007 releases in the Walt Disney Treasures series each came with special gifts inside.
- The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit came with an Oswald button.
- Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic came with a reproduction of an old Disneyland ticket book.
- The 2005 release of Ghostbusters 1 & 2 (AKA "the Lime Jell-O variant") came with a souvenir scrapbook featuring some early concept work and interviews with Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, and Michael C. Gross (designer of the "No-Ghost" logo).
- The Blu-ray release for Interstellar includes a random frame from an IMAX film positive.
- Select copies of the Fred Claus DVD came with a Christmas ornament.
- Some copies of Ghostbusters (2016) had, weirdly enough, socks with the Ghostbuster insignia printed on them.
- The Little Rascals: The VHS release For Pete's Sake, issued to commemorate the Rascals' 75th anniversary, came with a plushie of Pete the Pup.
- The Criterion Collection:
- Their Blu-ray release of Dr. Strangelove packages its supplementary materials rather creatively: the "about the film" portion comes in the form of the Plan R documents, the "about the restoration" portion is packaged in the Holy Bible & Russian Phrases pamphlet from the Leper Colony's survival kit, and the "making of the film" portion is in the form of a miniature adult magazine, complete with a faux advertisement on the back based on Ripper's "have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water" monologue.
- Their Marriage Story Blu-ray includes replicas of Nicole and Charlie's lists of things they like about each other.
- The "Mr Blonde Deluxe Edition" of Reservoir Dogs (on VHS) came with a set of shades complete with case, a chrome toothpick holder, lighter and switchback comb, tub of hair gel, silver plated handcuff cufflinks, and dog tags.
- Arrow Video's complete Gamera box set came with a guidebook to Gamera's history, a hardcover reprint of Dark Horse Comics's Gamera comics and the prequel story "The Last Hope", and an illustrated map of Japan marked with all the locations visited by the giant turtle.
- The Legally Blonde Platinum Collection had DVD copies of both films packaged in a large purse-like box with replicas of Elle's journal and feathered pen.
- The A24 Shop-exclusive Blu-ray of Everything Everywhere All at Once comes with replicas of paper documents seen in the film, a multiverse map, and a booklet entitled "Every Evelyn All At Once".
- There are some "interactive books" which often come with feelies. There's one book about the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which came with replicas of photos, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, sketches, maps and other materials from the Carter expedition. There's also a nonfiction book series called the "Ologies," which cover such subjects as Vampirology and Piratology, which come with similar feelies in them.
- The Hunger Games trilogy book set comes with a replica of the mockingjay pin.
- Batman: Murder at Wayne Manor is a mystery story that comes with various pieces of evidence that Batman finds, such as a party invitation, a photograph, a drink coaster, and more. The solution is sealed, so the reader is urged to try to figure things out on their own first.
- S contains several paper inserts, such as letters and postcards, which offer elaboration on both the deepening relationship between Eric and Jen as they scribble in the book, and also their quest to try and uncover the mysteries of its main narrative and author.
- Crime Dossiers, a series written by Dennis Wheatley and published in the 1930s (described in detail here). In this variant on the classic detective novel, the reader was challenged to solve the mystery based on the included documents, letters, interview transcripts etc. and—yes—physical clues, including such examples as a cut-out piece of a curtain, a torn photograph (for reassembling), handkerchiefs smelling of various perfumes, or a poisoned pellet to be tasted.
- Blood Splatters Quickly comes with a miniature pink angora sweater, that "dresses" the book.
- Some special editions of Discworld novels came with feelies, usually created by the Discworld Emporium. Going Postal had the earliest Penny Patrician stamps, Making Money had Royal Bank dollar notes, Unseen Academicals had football cards, and Raising Steam had a first class ticket for the Hygienic Railway.
- An early example can be found in Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, a Little Golden Books publication from 1950 that included Band-Aid brand bandages in each book. This was part of a campaign run by publisher Simon & Schuster (who owned the Little Golden Books imprint at the time) and Band-Aid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to promote the sale of Band-Aids to children. The inclusion of real Band-Aids in each book was advertised right on the front cover, and a publisher's note described how young readers might use the included bandages to protect cuts and scratches, or just during playtime:
Some day, perhaps, you or one of your toys may get bumped or cut or scratched. When that happens, you can really use one of the BAND-AID Adhesive Bandages in the front of the book.
- Another Little Golden Books publication from 1952, Nurse Nancy, embodied a continuation of the partnership between Johnson & Johnson and Simon & Schuster to promote the sale of Band-Aid brand bandages to children. Aside from the Product Placement of little Nancy using brand name Band-Aids to treat her neighbors' scraped knees while teaching young readers basic first aid, a sampling of real Band-Aids were included in the back of the book. The sorts of bandages included with the book varied between printings, from "patches, strips, and spots" in beige, to brightly colored bandages shaped like stars, clovers, and strips. Like its predecessor Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, the inclusion of real Band-Aids for readers to play with was advertised right on the front cover.
- All the Mystery Science Theater 3000 sets released by Shout! Factory (Volume 13 onward) have come with 50s-style movie posters for the four episodes in the set. In addition, the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Volume 13) came with a Crow figurine, Volume 16 a Tom Servo, and Volume 19, Gypsy.
- A copy of the original volume 1 of the "MST3K Shorts," came with a pair of real boxer shorts.
- The Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "Adventures in Friendship" DVD contains a red cardigan sweater cover with a zipper. Would this make it a McFeely?
- The first three seasons of Fraggle Rock featured various materials from the production of the show. Season 1 featured replicas of the notepad that Jim Henson developed the show on. Season 2 featured the pitch book that used to sell the series to broadcasters. Season 3 featured reprints of conceptional sketches from the show drawn by Michael K. Frith.
- Lassie: The VHS release Lassie Come Ho-Ho-Home came with a Lassie holiday plushie.
- Early copies of Noddy in Toyland: Noddy and Friends came with stickers.
- The special edition of the Inai Inai Baa! DVD "Pachipachi Parade!" comes with replicas of Wanwan's puppets Pakupaku-san and Pakuko.
- Monk: When the boxed DVD set of the first season was initially released, it came with a single, factory-sealed antiseptic wipe.
- The Beatles:
- The original release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band included a sheet with cutout masks and badges designed by the Beatles themselves. The original idea was to include a baggie with (presumably already cut-out) badges, little pencils, and other trinkets; but would have proven too expensive.
- The White Album includes four photos of the original band members, plus a poster including lyrics, credits and a collage of more photos.
- The 2012 re-release of their movie Magical Mystery Tour, in its most definitive package, contained, in addition to the movie and the soundtrack on vinyl, a ticket to the titular tour.
- One Japanese bootleg CD issue of the Hey Jude compilation included a free 45 of interview clips... and a bag of pot. Don't expect to see it on E Bay anytime soon.
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Wedding Album came with so many goodies that the box was enormous, and many stores opted not to carry it.
- The LP release of Prince's album Controversy contained a large poster of Prince showering in his underwear.
- The Rolling Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers featured a cover photo taken by Andy Warhol of a man's crotch in blue jeans with a working zipper.
- The Public Image Ltd. album Metal Box (1979) was originally shipped in a 16mm metal film cannister instead of a sleeve; reissues as Second Edition switch to a more typical sleeve. The idea behind the canister packaging was to take the idea of "deconstructing music" literally by being so tight that buyers had to scratch and smudge the three records to get them out. A 1990 CD reissue brought back the original design, but with an 8mm canister this time around.
- The first run of The Return of the Durutti Column by the Durutti Column featured a cover made of sandpaper meant to destroy the artwork of the albums on the shelf next to it, borrowing a scrapped idea for Public Image Ltd.'s Metal Box; later copies featured a traditional pressboard sleeve with a completely redone cover.
- Live at Leeds, by The Who, was in its vinyl release packaged with several replicas of documents from the group's early days, including a rejection letter from EMI and their contract from Woodstock. The replicas were convincing enough that a good many people, upon coming across them secondhand, were at first convinced they'd discovered the genuine article. One of those contracts showed up on an episode of Pawn Stars and went for $200, but only because Rick (who did know what it was) didn't handle the sale.
- Klaus Schulze's Timewind included an excerpt from the graphic score of "Wahnfried 1883", which can be seen here. Furthermore, the CDs of the Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition had a vinyl texture on top.
- This article from Cracked talks about Easter Eggs hidden in albums, but #9, #3 and #1 on the list could count as feelies too.
- Pre-orders of the Deluxe 10th Anniversary edition of The Postal Service's Give Up came with a set of postcards of the band. These postcards were also available at participating record stores, given out to customers once they purchased the album.
- Spinal Tap's fictitious live album Jap Habit was said to be a 3-LP set that also included a paper kimono and sushi samples.
- The 2010 Deluxe Edition of David Bowie's Station to Station included a poster and replica memorabilia from 1976, ranging from press kit material to fan club goodies.
- Cheech & Chong's album Big Bambú had a cover designed as a reference to a well-known brand of rolling papers; the inside of the album contains a single, gigantic paper. This is actually referenced in the last track on the album, where one of the characters shows another the biggest joint he's ever seen and explains that he got the papers from Cheech and Chong's new album.
- Laura Veirs' album Warp and Weft includes some paper intended to be folded into an origami crane; Veirs pledges to donate a dollar to a peace group for every crane returned to her. This is in reference to the track "Sadako Folding Cranes".
- The vinyl release of Alan Silvestri's score for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, released for the film's 30th anniversary, came with a replica of Roger's love letter to Jessica written over Marvin Acme's will.
- Pink Floyd:
- Vinyl copies of The Dark Side of the Moon often come with a pair of sticker sheets and two posters.
- Playing off of the album title, the LP release of Wish You Were Here (1975) included a postcard depicting the "water" photo of a diver that doesn't splash.
- The 7-inch single for "High Hopes" from The Division Bell also came with a poster, while the 12-inch single of the song came with a set of film cards and an etching on the back of the disc.
- The Immersion boxed sets of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here (1975), and The Wall had an array of feelies◊, including a scarf and marbles!
- A literal feelie was handed out by Die Ärzte for winners of a fan contest: Their album "Runter mit den Spendierhosen, Unsichtbarer" packed in a blue plush sleeve for instant handgasms.
- Tying in with its concept as a parody of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Frank Zappa's We're Only in It for the Money originally included a cutout sheet with Zappa's facial hair, a pigtail, a mock dollar bill, a hall monitor badge, a human nipple, and a standee of Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
- Initial LP copies of Yellow Magic Orchestra's BGM came packaged with a foldout poster, a flyer for the book Omiyage, and postcards featuring photos of the band, while early LP copies of Technodelic included a small pamphlet with the song lyrics. The 2019 SACD reissues include both in a shrunken-down size.
- The initial LP release of School's Out by Alice Cooper included a pair of tissue paper panties wrapped around the record. Reissues got rid of them after they proved to be a fire hazard.
- The special edition of Spiritualized's "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" came packaged to resemble prescription medicine, with the CD being contained in a foil blister pack.
- Vinyl copies of the Eagles' Hotel California came with a fold-out poster of the band, with the photo later being incorporated into the CD booklet.
- Dark Adventure Radio Theatre is a profligate user of this trope. While the CD release of the original four episodes was fairly modest, with a collector's box shaped like an old radio set and some period-accurate news clippings and other accessories, the feelies have grown progressively more ambitious as the series has progressed, culminating in their Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition of the Call Of Cthulhu: Masks Of Nyarlathotep audio adaptation. The complete box set includes piles of in-universe documents, replica cult artifacts and even a full cultist costume... and a price tag that would be more than enough to finance a real globe-trotting expedition in 1920s money.
- MAD Magazine CD-ROM collection Totally MAD came with a roll of toilet paper.
- A very limited edition of John Wick's (no relation to the the John Wick franchise) Thirty came in a wooden box with replicas of many of the in-game magical items.
- The Call of Cthulhu adventure "Horror on the Orient Express" came with a boxful of feelies, including train tickets and luggage labels, and a Kickstarter-funded reprint added even more.
- Games Workshop started in recent years to do special editions of some Warhammer 40,000 books, including extras such as portfolios including all the artworks from the book as posters or sets of coins to use as objective markings in-game. Since the 8th edition of Warhammer, the main rulebooks get released in "Collector's Edition" and "Gamer's Edition", with the latter being just the regular version of the rulebook coming with a backpack made to carry rulebooks and codexes plus some other thing such as dices or tokens (except for the Gamer's Edition release of the 2013 edition of the Apocalypse book, which came with an army-carrying case)
- Magical Industrial Revolution: A Pre-Apocalyptic Setting Guide, by Skerples, is a Gaslamp Fantasy where the growing sciences are based on the workings of Dungeons & Dragons magic, set in the Victorian/Edwardian London-inspired city of Endon. While the game comes in a fluff-heavy book, three pamphlets, all written to be in-universe props, are sold as bonus content. These are used as player handouts to help new players better understand the city, the local laws and customs, and magic theory.
- Transformers:
- The Transformers' DVD case, which transformed into a feeble Optimus Prime.
- The Transformers UK Season 2, Part 2 DVD set includes the comic "The Beast Within".
- Similar to the Quest for Camelot example, the VHS release of the Animaniacs movie Wakko's Wish came with a rolling toy of Yakko, Wakko and Dot on snowboards stuck under the plastic. Other copies had an ornament.
- Adventure Time:
- The third DVD single, Jake vs. Me-Mow, features a replica of Finn's hat.
- Likewise, a Jake hat was included with Jake the Dad. Also, the Card Wars DVD came with a Cyclops card from the in-universe game.
- The Dungeons & Dragons - The Complete Animated Series US DVD box set by BCI Eclipse includes a D&D 3.5 "Animated Series Handbook".
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox included a Reverse-Flash figure with some releases.
- The Cleveland Show's first season boxed set featured a close-up of Cleveland's face, complete with fuzzy, felt moustache.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: The VHS releases Classics II and Have Yourself a Stinky Little Christmas, released during the 1994 holiday season, each came with holiday plushies of Ren and Stimpy respectively.
- Gravity Falls:
- Disney's first DVD of the show, Six Strange Tales, features a replica of Journal #3 inside the case.
- Shout! Factory's Complete Series Collector's Edition Blu-Ray comes with a poster of the intro's photo depicting the main characters, and a reproduction of the letter one of them gives another in the Grand Finale.
- South Park:
- The DVD box set A Little Box of Butters contains little goodies based off of Butters, including an Inspector Butters badge, a check from Paris Hilton, a pimp chain, a lost chapter from a book he wrote, and a "What Would Butters Do" bracelet.
- The DVD box set The Cult of Cartman contains an "Eric Theodore Cartman Society" sticker and membership card.
- Winnie the Pooh:
- The 1993 releases of the original featurettes were available in gift sets with plushies of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore.
- The first three volumes of the "Learning" series came with free flashcards.
- The complete series Blu-ray for Batman: The Animated Series comes with postcards depicting key moments from the series and POP! figures of Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn.
- The complete series Blu-ray for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! will come with a mini Scooby-Doo encyclopedia and a POP! keychain of Scooby.
- The VHS release of the Gargoyles pilot movie included a small board game, which was to be used interactively with the special features on the tape.
- In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Squeaky Boots", said episode and Sandy's Rocket included scratch and sniff cards for specific scenes. This episode only had one sticker, which was used when Mr. Krabs dips the boots in fryer oil, shrinking them.