Packaging
The Collector's Edition comes with an outer slip pack that is specific to your platform. It's a variation on the regular edition with more of a leather book cover look to it. Plus it says "Collector's Edition" right there on the front, which is handy. The inside is a four-panel digi-pack that is actually non-platform specific (think "Lord of the Rings" movie collector's editions, we did). The right panel holds your manual, map, reg card, and inserts. The one next to that holds the disc for whichever version you purchased. The disc tray on the left side hold your bonus DVD (see below), and the pocket on the far left holds your Pocket Guide and coin (see below and below, respectively).
Bonus DVD
The bonus DVD will include some extra features like concept art and renders and screenshots and so forth, but the real meat of it is the behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Oblivion. This documentary was done by the very talented folks at thinkfilm (www.thinkfilm-inc.com), who are very well known and have done film work on a lot of very big TV shows and movies (West Wing, Armageddon, etc) as well as some great documentaries. They spent quite a while in our offices capturing the story of what people do and how they do it. The documentary uses our preparation for E3 last year, when we were preparing to show the game for the first time, as a story-telling device to show you all the different aspects of the game's development. We've created a short trailer of the documentary that will hopefully whet your appetite to see the whole thing. Download the Quicktime Movie (33.8 MB MOV) or the Windows Media File (17.6 MB WMV).
Septim
We had this idea to do a real cool replica of the coins, or Septims, that appear in the game as the official currency. We wanted it to be something that was the right size, had the right texture, and really felt like a coin someone would use and carry around Tamriel. The end result was really spectacular, honestly. When I passed around the samples I got from the folks everyone on the team was really excited. It looked and felt exactly like it should, like something that just got plucked right out of the world. We didn't change a thing.
Pocket Guide to the Empire
Like the coin, we wanted another "relic" from Tamriel in the box. It's 112 pages and looks and feels authentic. We did a pocket guide before with the Redguard manual, but this is an all-new edition. It has a lot of history and information about how things got to where they are, and why. Rulers, wars, great leaders, famous people, memorable events, and so on. It's simply dripping with the lore and flavor that make The Elder Scrolls what it is.
The Collector's Edition will be available for PC and Xbox 360 both in North America and throughout the UK, Western Europe, and Australia (including localized versions for France, Germany, Italy, and Spain)