GameStop Pulls OnLive Coupons From Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[TheEvilCheese]

GameStop, you are in the wrong here. You could have refused to sell the copies with OnLive coupons, but taking them out and not making it blatantly obvious that you'd done so is nothing short of theft.

Well done, you now look even worse in the eyes of the consumer, and OnLive looks brilliant.

To play Devils Advocate a bit, they did say Square never told them about it when they were buying it, maybe they wouldn't be able to return them. But still, dick move extradinare, they should have made it clear you wouldn't get it.

That's not the point, if this is the case they should have taken it up with square (and I'm sure square have plenty of retailers to fall back on). By trying to sell it as they wanted to, they have changed the product from what is advertised and any consumer has the right to a full refund. On that note, the clever thing to do would probably have been to let it slide, save face make money and not end up in a probable legal dispute. I mean really, how many people are going to use the OnLive coupon anyway?

 

[Hungry Donner]

It does seem unfair to include these, but at the very least Gamestop should tell every costumer buying this that the coupon is not included. Considering that they haven't I'd hope they accept a full return.

 

[SnipeHunter11]

How is he trolling?
Read the escapist article, it doesn't mention it being a PC only problem. Personally I assumed this was a 360, PS3 problem for 3 reasons. 1) Most gamestops don't even sell PC games anymore, hell the 6 gamestops around Chicago that I visited in the last year or so stopped selling PC games years ago. 2) Why would PC gamers care about OnLive? If a person is buying Deus Ex for the PC they probably have a gaming rig capable of playing the damn thing, so why sign up for a service that is essentially PC games for people who don't own gaming rigs? 3) It is fairly hard to open a PC gamebox without anyone taking note. They have those clear sealing stickers on both ends of the box, most people just take a knife and cut straight through the sticker to get into the box, because if you try to peel the thing you're most likely going to tear a piece of the gamebox with it.
And considering Soviet Heavy also said repackaging, both him and Notsonimble were thinking this was a console problem. Notsonimble bought a 360 copy, his wasn't opened. Soviet Heavy said they repackage console games all the time, notsonimble retorted that while yes they can put on the plastic shrink wrap, gamestop doesn't have the xbox green seals that usually come on the top/side/ and or bottom of the case.

So where is the troll here?

It's not necessarily trolling... it's just some people apparently don't realize that the picture is a part of the article. You know, the one that says to remove the coupon from all the PC versions of the game? The article doesn't mention it, but the allegedly damning email does.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'm amazed that people still shop there. This is really just the latest evidence that they do everything they can to screw over the consumer. Even if they do eventually get their cloud gaming service off the ground, how much is DEHR really going to be going for at that point?
What a bunch of pricks.

 

[fozzy360]

I didn't see 'PC' in the article, but I guess it was implied or something. I was wrong, even though what I said was all true, so I must be a troll?!

Regardless, the Gamestop in Tinley Park (South Suburbs of Chicago) doesn't pull that open every games box and reseal it crap.

The article says "all boxed copies," which is somewhat misleading. All boxed PC copies of the game had that bundle.

To your second point, many Gamestop stores used to do this, but now they'll just open the game up and keep the disc at the front desk while the box sits out on the floor. Never liked that practice myself, and this is just incredibly...dirty.

By the way, any legal bros here aware of the legality of the situation? Can they really do this and get away with it?

 

[Beautiful End]

Some games are opened at GameStop and the boxes are put up for display (Why we don't use a dud box and cover art for this purpose is beyond me. Although that would mean we would have t do that for every single game in the store..) So if you snatch the last copy at that store, yes, your game will be open BUT BRAND NEW ANYWAY. It sucks, I know.

And yeah, I see this as a dick move. But let's analyze this: Imagine McDonalds gives a coupon for a free hamburger when you buy one of the same value. Now imagine if they printed this coupon on...I don't know, all the BK water cups. Just bear with me, please; I know it sounds redunkulous.
What would BK do? They would probably stop giving away drinks with their meals. Or they would change their cups. Some customer might say "Hey! Where's this coupon I heard of?" to what some employee might reply "Sorry, we had to remove them because they promote McDonalds. :/"

Very few people are gonna stop and analyze this like that. They just hear the word Freebies and they demand stuff. No, I am not defending GameStop simply because I work there. GameStop has its dick moves (Like trade-ins) and that's the management's fault, not the employees. What I think GameStop should have done was add some sort of incentive to kinda say "Hey, you're not getting that one coupon but we're giving away something else instead". But again, that's not up to them, it's up to the developer that decides to give something away via GameStop.

I don't know. I see my beloved Square Enix pulling the biggest dick move here for not telling GameStop.
"WHOOPS! We forgot to mention that the games come with a coupon from your rival. So...too late! if you wanna sell any copies at all, you gotta sell the copies we gave you! *TROLL FACE*"

 

[draythefingerless]

Some games are opened at GameStop and the boxes are put up for display (Why we don't use a dud box and cover art for this purpose is beyond me. Although that would mean we would have t do that for every single game in the store..) So if you snatch the last copy at that store, yes, your game will be open BUT BRAND NEW ANYWAY. It sucks, I know.

And yeah, I see this as a dick move. But let's analyze this: Imagine McDonalds gets a coupon for a free hamburger when you buy one of the same value. Now imagine if they printed this coupon in...I don't know, all the BK water cups. Just bear with me, please; I know it sounds redunkulous.
What would BK do? They would probably stop giving away drinks with their meals. Or they would change their cups. Some customer might say "Hey! Where's this coupon I heard of?" to what some customer might say "Sorry, we had to remove them because they promote McDonalds. :/"

Very few people are gonna stop and analyze this like that. They just hear the word Freebies and they demand stuff. No, I am not defending GameStop simply because I work there. GameStop has its major dick moves and that's the management's fault, not the employees. What I think GameStop should have done was add some sort of incentive to kinda say "Hey, you're not getting that one coupon but we're giving away something else instead". But again, that's not up to them, it's up to the developer that decides to give something away via GameStop.

I don't know. I see my beloved Square Enix pulling the biggest dick move here for not telling GameStop.
"WHOOPS! We forgot to mention that the games come with a coupon from your rival. So...too late! if you wanna sell any copies at all, you gotta sell the copies we gave you! *TROLL FACE*"

GameStop just had to do one thing, and thats take it up with Square Enix. this act however, has completely undermined any chance they were in the right. Square didnt think this would affect gamestop that much(to get the coupon, you have to buy the game, and by buying the game, youre giving gamestop money, so technically, this ad for onlive is giving gamestop money), so they forgot to mention it. what gamestop did, was infringe on IP and actually mess with what YOU are buying. this is against the law. its the same thing if they took the serial key for the game and used it, while still selling you that game. this is theft, and punishable by law. dont defend them. of all the paths they could of taken, they took the one that grants them no right and can actually cost them lawyer and lawsuit money, as well as emphasizing their image as idiots and greedy people.

 

[pacifien]

If this was a GameStop upper management call, some of the store managers had the decency to ignore it because my copy from GameStop had the coupon.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Just one more reason to add to the very long list of reasons I don't buy games at Gamestop - not that they seem to want my business anyways, what with how I'm a PC gamer. Shopping for PC games at Gamestop is a colossal waste of time in almost 100% of all circumstances, whereas if I want a physical boxed copy of a game I can just walk into Best Buy and pick one up with no hassle, because they actually stock PC games.

Not that I would necessarily care about not having a coupon I wouldn't use, but it's the principle of the thing.

 

[Keith K]

It would be worth it if Square Enix decided to announce they would no longer be selling their products through Game Stop and would be taking legal action against them as a result of this.

Won't happen but it'd be good.

 

[Mortuorum]

I really hope for GameStop's sake they ran this past legal. This has "class action" written all over it and, as Andy said, this really doesn't pass the smell test. And for what? They've already gotten the customer's money; why do they even care if the customer plays with the disk in the drive or using OnLive? It's not like GameStop is going to give the customer a refund for their opened boxed copy.

Sure, the customer could give their OnLive coupon to a friend, but (1) most gamers are going to hold onto the coupon "just in case"; (2) my experience is that many PC gamers buy the PC version for the ability to mod the game, which I would bet OnLive doesn't support; (3) it may be illegal to transfer the license (subject to the terms of the coupon); and (4) any friend that does play using the OnLive coupon would probably not have bought the game anyways.

This isn't meant to be a troll post. If you're aware of some way that GameStop is actually losing money here that I'm missing, I would genuinely like to know what it is.

 

[omicron1]

The problem here is that it's not a freebie. It's part of the package. In some cases (good Internet, crappy laptop) that onlive subscription might be the only way for a customer to play. Taking it out would be like taking the "free digital copy" coupon out of a multiformat DVD case, or taking the free steam copy out of PS3 copies of portal 2. It's anticompetitive, quite possibly illegal (especially after the public revelation of the presence of said coupons), and most definitely immoral.
Thus, I will be going to my local gamestop and requesting a copy of the game... With a caveat that I will not buy it if the onlive copy is missing. Let's see if lost sales makes any impact on them, eh?

 

[major_chaos]

for some reason this doesn't bother me much. I've never had a bad experience with Gamestop before and I HATE onlive with every fiber of my being (that and the fact that I fail to understand the "boo-hoo the box is open gamestop is evil" thing) so i'll let this slide.

 

[Beautiful End]

Some games are opened at GameStop and the boxes are put up for display (Why we don't use a dud box and cover art for this purpose is beyond me. Although that would mean we would have t do that for every single game in the store..) So if you snatch the last copy at that store, yes, your game will be open BUT BRAND NEW ANYWAY. It sucks, I know.

And yeah, I see this as a dick move. But let's analyze this: Imagine McDonalds gets a coupon for a free hamburger when you buy one of the same value. Now imagine if they printed this coupon in...I don't know, all the BK water cups. Just bear with me, please; I know it sounds redunkulous.
What would BK do? They would probably stop giving away drinks with their meals. Or they would change their cups. Some customer might say "Hey! Where's this coupon I heard of?" to what some customer might say "Sorry, we had to remove them because they promote McDonalds. :/"

Very few people are gonna stop and analyze this like that. They just hear the word Freebies and they demand stuff. No, I am not defending GameStop simply because I work there. GameStop has its major dick moves and that's the management's fault, not the employees. What I think GameStop should have done was add some sort of incentive to kinda say "Hey, you're not getting that one coupon but we're giving away something else instead". But again, that's not up to them, it's up to the developer that decides to give something away via GameStop.

I don't know. I see my beloved Square Enix pulling the biggest dick move here for not telling GameStop.
"WHOOPS! We forgot to mention that the games come with a coupon from your rival. So...too late! if you wanna sell any copies at all, you gotta sell the copies we gave you! *TROLL FACE*"

GameStop just had to do one thing, and thats take it up with Square Enix. this act however, has completely undermined any chance they were in the right. Square didnt think this would affect gamestop that much(to get the coupon, you have to buy the game, and by buying the game, youre giving gamestop money, so technically, this ad for onlive is giving gamestop money), so they forgot to mention it. what gamestop did, was infringe on IP and actually mess with what YOU are buying. this is against the law. its the same thing if they took the serial key for the game and used it, while still selling you that game. this is theft, and punishable by law. dont defend them. of all the paths they could of taken, they took the one that grants them no right and can actually cost them lawyer and lawsuit money, as well as emphasizing their image as idiots and greedy people.

Yes to all that. They are breaking the law and delivering an incomplete product when people bought it for full price. Yes, you're right.

They could have handled better, of course. But I also understand why they did it. Right idea, GameStop? Maybe. Right execution? Nooooooo.
Again, maybe Square Enix thought that was fine. But the problem was they ASSUMED it was cool. Taking it up to Square Enix could work now, but the fact is that by the time the games are being shipped, developers already have the codes and extra stuff ready to be handed out. Fixing this would have taken longer and they only had maybe a couple of days or weeks before the game was launched.

The way I see it (And I might be wrong), by the time GameStop found out, it was too late. nothing could have been done. They did what an angry kid would have done and that was probably not right. They had every right to be pissed, though. Just imagine someone gives you a gift that you wanted; a pair of pants. But they're purple and really belong to a relative. You might get angry and in a fit, you might rip them apart and throw them away. Then said relative walks in and says "Oh, those were my pants. You're paying for them now". Is your relative right? Yes. are you to blame? Kinda but it's not like you got angry out of the blue.

So the way I see it, it's a weird situation. Both sides are to blame but like I said, I think Square Enix pulled the biggest dick move here.

 

[dfphetteplace]

I'm sure they all went in the garbage and none of the employees, their friends, nor eBay customers got ahold of any of these coupons.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

US law allows that? They steal part of the product.

 

[Tanis]

How is my game 'new' if it has already been opened?

 

[scnj]

I wonder if Game and GameStation will do the same.

Doubt it. GAME aren't currently beta testing their own game streaming service.

No, but they are owned by GameSpot's parent company. It'll be interesting to see if this initiative is company wide.

 

[Xanthious]

for some reason this doesn't bother me much. I've never had a bad experience with Gamestop before and I HATE onlive with every fiber of my being (that and the fact that I fail to understand the "boo-hoo the box is open gamestop is evil" thing) so i'll let this slide.

Allow me to explain to you why Gamestop selling opened copies as new is rather hypocritical and underhanded on their part. If I were to walk in to a Gamestop buy a copy of a new, unopened game while standing at the counter in front of the employee, remove the wrapping, then immediately decide I don't want it they are going to tell me it's a "used" copy and only offer me trade credit of about a third of what the game is worth. Now when they open a game it's a whole other story. If they open it it's fair game to sell it as new. Either an opened copy of a game is used or it's not. They shouldn't try to have it both ways.