Pre-order schemes don't have the best reputation with PC gamers, and this one for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided seems likely to raise some eyebrows. The game's  release date was announced earlier today as being February 23, 2016. However, if enough people preorder, it will actually be come out on February 19. This is the final flourish of Square Enix's tiered preorder campaign, which promises various sorts of bonuses in exchange for hitting preorder goals.

There are five tiers in the "Augment Your Preorder" program, each containing items that can be selected as a preorder bonus. The first tier, for instance, includes the Intruder Pack, Enforcer Pack, and Classic Pack, each with various sorts of in-game equipment aimed at supporting a particular style of play. The second tier offers the choice of a digital art book or a soundtrack "sampler," the third tier is a bonus mission, and the fourth tier is a digital comic book or novella.

But it's the fifth tier that's really interesting. If enough people preorder, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be released four days early. That indicates some really solid confidence in the announced launch date, but it could also be seen—and is being seen, based on a number of reactions on Twitter—as gaming the system.

The only way Square could reasonably guarantee an early release date is if the date it announced is intentionally pushed back from the actual ready-to-go date. The "you won't get this content if you don't preorder" threat (which, let's face it, is what this is) rings hollow too, since all this bonus stuff is already guaranteed for the retail collector's edition, which "will include all the in-game content and rewards from Augment Your Pre-order."

I haven't seen any indication of how many preorders are required to hit each tier, and so I suppose it's possible that Square Enix could goose the progress bar, if necessary, to make sure that all the preorder bonus options are available to everyone. After all, I can't imagine even the most tone deaf marketer seriously suggesting that a company dangle and then withhold content because consumers didn't throw enough money at it up front. But the mere possibility that it could happen is bad enough: I loved Human Revolution and I'm hot-hot-hot for Mankind Divided, but I can't get behind a program like this. Sorry, Square.

Earlier today, the official Deus Ex twitter account tweeted what I suppose you'd call a release date teaser, i.e. the above image but with the important numbers covered up by two Eyes of Providence, with the caption "Today is going to be an interesting day." An hour later they tweeted the unobscured image with the date in that backwards format they use in the States, so I'm afraid "interesting" may have been pushing it.

In fact, the most interesting thing that I can see is that Sony presumably had some kind of deal that let them reveal the release date—naturally only mentioning the PS4 version of the game—half an hour earlier than the Deus Ex account itself. But not to worry, we waited to make sure the PC version would arrive on the same day and apparently it will, on Steam, on February 23 next year.

Not sure if you'll want it yet? Check out some gameplay or watch the devs have some fun with a Let's Play.

New Yorkers have spotted marketing for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided disguised as propaganda posters pasted around the city, with detailed illustrations to emphasise the fictional threat of "augs", i.e. augmented humans. Kotaku spotted the posters on Uproxx, but the photo above is from All Games Beta.

Hopefully even those with no awareness of the Deus Ex games will realise the giant mechanical hands don't represent a real phenomenon, but if they don't the URL provided - AugAware.org - redirects to the Deus Ex website. One commenter on a Reddit thread, where a user shared a close-up of one of the posters, expressed disappointment that Square Enix didn't create a separate site. Given that UK newspaper The Sun once thought the Sarif Industries site created for Human Revolution was real, maybe it's better this way.

The posters also feature a triangular QR code that All Games Beta reckons unlocks posters that take the opposite position - "Stop the division", "We are stronger together", etc. I couldn't get it to work, but here's my favourite:

If you've tuned into Deus Ex: Human Revolution's entertaining and insightful director's commentary you'll have a sense of Jean-Francois Dugas and Jonathan Jacques-Belletete's ability to laugh about their own project. Now you can experience that in video form with this 42-minute let's play, featuring canny observations about Jensen ("his shoulders were so damn wide") and cut environmental details ("this is where we used to have George Bush's face"). It's good fun.

There's a Mankind Divided tease hiding in there too, relating to your VTOL pilot, Malik.

"Speaking of Malik, a lot of people are so bummed that we're not bringing her back in the stuff that we've shown yet of Mankind Divided. How come she's not your new pilot?"

"Time will tell."

"Time will tell, yeah."

TIME WILL TELL. Human Revolution's dynamically lit, high-poly, slim-shouldered sequel is due out next year. You can watch 25 minutes of in-game footage right now.