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The era of extravagant collector’s editions worth several hundred thousand dollars seemed to have passed about a decade ago, but a VR digging game brought it back with a bang, or whatever the sound of the excavators was.

Dig VR, as you might imagine, is a VR game about digging. It comes out on November 14. Available to pre-order for £11/$15, which goes up to £15/$20 at launch, a ridiculously over-the-top new Deluxe Edition has just been announced and can be yours for a cool £500,000.

The main attraction here are two JCB 100c-2 excavators, each with a unique coating. One is a bright yellow with Dig VR stuck on it, in place of the JCB logo, and another has Ashville Aggregatesan aggregate company on this subject. Delivery is not included in this price, so you will need to cover these yourself, which means customs duties and import taxes if you live outside the UK. If you want to buy it now (for whatever reason), it could take up to six months to arrive.

As well as these excavators you get a tour from JCB, a trip to ‘dig it’, a ‘heavy equipment playground” in Las Vegas, a Meta Quest 3 with a code for the game, a personalized helmet and high visibility jacket, a family ticket to “Diggerland” and, above all, a bonus sticker sheet.

Games released via expensive collector’s editions are a popular hobby in gaming, although they seem to be a bit rarer over the last ten years. Here is a list of some of the most iconic:

Virtual reality

Best VR headset: which kit to choose?
Best graphics card: you need significant GPU power for VR
Best gaming laptop: don’t be tied to your desktop in VR

In conversation with several PR reps, it was explained to me that part of the reason we don’t tend to see this style of marketing anymore is due to the rise of digital gaming and the decline in costs of producing digital-only content versus, say, an excavator.

Of course, the profit generated by these huge physical editions is not the main attraction, but for some it is much easier and more profitable to market in other ways. Ironically, the less marketing relies on these big editions, the more impact they have when released.

Of course, the point of these hyper-expensive collector’s editions is to get people talking (and writing) about them and Dig VR, with all its excavator-related goodies, attracted me too. Although it’s really this sticker book I’m looking for.