GameStop Pulls PC Version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[RaikuFA]

Raiku: they aren't sending them back yet, they are just pulling them to the back room. The memo from the Gamestop higher ups said they can fill any existing pre-orders with those copies pulled to the back room. You just won't get the coupon obviously.

ok, good. id hate to see people upset over not getting their game and tghats all the topics will be about

 

[DaxStrife]

"GameStop: We just don't know how to not be dicks!"

Seriously, their response to a scandal that amounts to consumer theft is to stop selling the game entirely? Why does that sound similar to Rupert Murdoch's nuking of News of the World after rumors of illegal phone-tapping got out?

Also, if you want to make a good digital distribution platform, it would make you look less evil if it didn't come from a place called "Spawn Labs."

 

[Krantos]

I don't like Gamestop.... But they were in the right on this one. They came out and told people what they were doing and why, and Square even admitted they put the coupons in there without telling Gamestop.

Yeah, that's kind of a big thing.

 

[MeTheMe]

I don't think Gamestop was in the right here, vertainly it was wrong to not tell them they were pagaged with a coupon, but when you react like that? Childish. I don't hate Gamestop, they're troublesome with their buisness, and it makes them frusterating.

 

[AbstractStream]

Really Gamestop? Really??
Geez, they should have done that in the first place. Steam is the way to go for PC games. Yes, I am on THAT bandwagon.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Well fuck, I was going to go out and buy it in a couple days.

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

Why don't you just buy it from a real store?
One that doesn't try and completely rip off consumers.

 

[Waaghpowa]

*Insert obligatory Gamestop sucks comment here*

I assume this was a USA thing only, there was no mentioned of my copy coming with a coupon. Not like I would use it mind you, I think Onlive, and streaming in general, is a pile of ass.

 

[thenewprince]

I can understand how customers feel and how game-stop feels. Yet we have to look at the long term affects of the choices they've made. Telling your staff to pull coupons out of all the games sold, as well as opening new copies is unacceptable. The right decision was to remove the games from the store and return them and let Squeenix handle the situation on their own. This is going to be a scar on gamestop for a while, and they already have enough to worry about when it comes to their future in digital downloads. GS is 200K in the red right now as it is and 17% of that is (estimated) because of the increase of direct/digital downloads directly from the publishers.

Get it right GS or you can give Block Buster a call for advice

 

[Baresark]

.... It's a steamworks title.... at no point can you not have it on a competing digital service. Wonder what's going to happen to Skyrim now.

Steam isn't a streaming service (yet)...
As far as I understood, this was a dispute over the fact that OnLive was included in the box, and since Gamestop is soon (apparently) opening their own cloud gaming service, they didn't want to contribute to a competing service...

Best Regards

I stand corrected. I completely derped. You are right, it was because they included it in the box without prior knowledge of it being there.

 

[Richardplex]

I don't like Gamestop.... But they were in the right on this one. They came out and told people what they were doing and why, and Square even admitted they put the coupons in there without telling Gamestop.

Yeah, that's kind of a big thing.

Actually they didn't, they told people after they bought the game, got home, and found a distinctive lack of a coupon.

 

[Andy Chalk]

They let you get away with that kind of line here at the Escapist?

I can get away with murder around here as long as I keep the paperwork clean.

Remember that.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

As far as I know, the Augmented Edition is still on the shelf, and the regular editions will still be available to fill preorders. Nobody's getting hosed.

 

[xdiesp]

Sorry but I can't choose between the pawn shop for kids and the most decadent, corrupted game company in the world.

 

[Irridium]

Well fuck, I was going to go out and buy it in a couple days.

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

Why don't you just buy it from a real store?
One that doesn't try and completely rip off consumers.

Because if I had other options, I'd use them.

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

As far as I know, the Augmented Edition is still on the shelf, and the regular editions will still be available to fill preorders. Nobody's getting hosed.

Hm... that's good to hear. I'll have to go check it out then.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I'd care more if I could remember the last time I picked something up at a GameStop. I could be wrong, but I believe the last time I purchased a game that wasn't through Steam or Amazon it was the Diablo Battlechest at Target, and that was a long time ago.

As others have said, it seems inappropriate for GameStop to remove content like this from the box, but it's also inappropriate for these coupons to be included in the first place. If either side had been more up front they probably could have avoided this.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Well fuck, I was going to go out and buy it in a couple days.

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

Why don't you just buy it from a real store?
One that doesn't try and completely rip off consumers.

Because if I had other options, I'd use them.

But you are online. You do have other options. A million of them.

I have a gamestop 2 blocks from my house and I would rather import a game from a foreign site than shop there.

 

[subtlefuge]

I wouldn't go so far as say that Square and OnLive were in the right, but Gamestop was definitely in the wrong.

They don't rip the GFWL or Steam logos off of their game boxes. They don't check all of the inserts for every game for any sort of advertisement. They don't pull the MS points or Xbox Live cards, despite the fact that it exposes customers to the Games on Demand service.

Basically, there was a promotion that was actually valuable, and Gamestop abused its position as a retailer by trying to pull one over on unsuspecting customers, rather than dealing directly with their vendors like every retailer should.

Still, it sucks to know that this could have all been avoided with a little openness. However, it's best to blame the party that actually screwed over the customers.

 

[Irridium]

Well fuck, I was going to go out and buy it in a couple days.

Will they still be selling the Augmented Edition at least?

Why don't you just buy it from a real store?
One that doesn't try and completely rip off consumers.

Because if I had other options, I'd use them.

But you are online. You do have other options. A million of them.

I have a gamestop 2 blocks from my house and I would rather import a game from a foreign site than shop there.

Downloading through Steam: Can't do it due to crappy internet.

Ordering physical copy online: Due to many post-office troubles in my area, delivery times have been bloated to stupid levels and are all over the place. There's a good chance I wouldn't get the game for many weeks. Would be 10x worse if I ordered from a foreign site.

Buying from another store: All other stores have piss-poor PC selections, and the game is already sold out in those stores.

So I don't really have much options.

 

[Fearzone]

I can see opening the boxes and removing the coupons as being controversial, though even with that I have no objection if they take returns on opened boxes.

If they won't sell the game at all, that is a simple business decision and should be met with no objection whatsoever.