I'd have to pay 54 euros for Augmented Edition on steam, instead I bought it from an online store in my country for... wait for it ... about 44. 10 euro less, that's a BIG difference for me. And when I was abroad in Finland I actually bought one game from Gamestop, they charge way more than steam. If I were You guys I'd try to find a retailer who is local and doesn't screw people over.
GameStop Pulls PC Version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
It does seem a bit odd, I guess if the disk breaks and your files are gone due to a crash or something, you can redownload it for free with that service, but I'm not sure.Draconalis said:
It would be more understandable if it were a different platform thing like Portal 2. I got the PS3 version that came with a free Steam version. I use both copies, PC for single player and PS3 for (local)multiplayer.
One thought cries out in my head:
Why the sod didn't they do this in the first place?!
I'm with them on not selling it because of the coupons, but they really shouldn't have gone about it the way they did. And what really, really put them in the wrong was how they didn't tell anybody and just tried to get away with it in silence.
The truth will out as they, might as well try not to have it bite you in the ass when it does.
Why the sod didn't they do this in the first place?!
I'm with them on not selling it because of the coupons, but they really shouldn't have gone about it the way they did. And what really, really put them in the wrong was how they didn't tell anybody and just tried to get away with it in silence.
The truth will out as they, might as well try not to have it bite you in the ass when it does.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand this.dogstile said:
What kind of "dick move" did Square do, exactly? How is it different from Steamworks being required? Steam is probably the biggest competitor to Gamestop. Do they send all the Steamworks games back? No, they don't.
It would have been different if they sent the shipments back and requested a coupon-free retail shipment instead. However, what they did was just pillage the product that they sell directly to their customers, without their knowledge. I'm sorry, but that's quite a big dick move in comparison. Cracking the seal to a "new game" I just bought? That would piss me right off..
So once again, Gamestop exploits it's own customers because they had a hissy fit about money. Imagine that.
There are always tons of promotions given out with retail games, as already stated in this thread. Microsoft Points, Steam, etc.
Although I've never bought a single thing from Gamestop, I can understand why so many are pissed. At least they got the balls to do the right thing now, let's hope everyone learns from this mistake is all I can say.
I don't understand where Square Enix went wrong at all. It's their right to put whatever the heck they want in their product, including coupons for competing services with or without telling anyone. It's their product! No, it doesn't help Gamestop's streaming service, but Square Enix is under no obligation to be neutral toward all other companies.
Also, considering Gamestop's biggest money maker is damaging to game developers and publishers, they really shouldn't be upset when anyone partners with places other than them.
Also, considering Gamestop's biggest money maker is damaging to game developers and publishers, they really shouldn't be upset when anyone partners with places other than them.
Yes, Coca-Cola should *CLEARLY* check with Pepsi every time they want to run a promotion, since they're sold in the same stores.Sober Thal said:
Companies which have direct-sale online shops clearly should be banned from printing their website on their products, too!
There is not a single moral, ethical, or legal principle which requires Square-Enix to consult with a *COMPLETELY UNRELATED THIRD-PARTY* every time they make a business decision.
Do you think publishers consult with Joe's Video Game Shop when they make a deal with Gamestop to offer preorder bonuses? Do you think Gamestop sees anything wrong with that?
Don't know if someone already answered this but here it goes (again, maybe):V8 Ninja said:
SOME GameStops sell PC games, mostly the big stores (As in size, obviously). Their selection isn't that big, with only about a shelf of PC games and a very poor selection of games. New or popular titles are easy to find (Alice, WoW, AC: Brohood, Fable 3, etc.) but anything beyond that cannot be found there. But they do sell PC games, just like some GameStops still sell the original Xbox games.
Yes, but the problem is that it's as if GameStop had walked into Joe's store and handed out discount coupons to all of Joe's customers, right there at his store in front of him. Sure, those coupons were still being given away outside Joe's store and you could probably find them in today's newspaper issue. But still, the fact that GameStop did it right there in Joe's store in front of him is what makes the whole thing insulting.RvLeshrac said:
I'll explain this before you get too far into the wrong ideas, because it's quite clear to me you don't understand businesses and how they operate when it comes to advertisements and promotions. The same can be said of most of the other people commenting here, Gamestop hatred notwithstanding.RvLeshrac said:
By your logic, you think Square Enix is completely free of any wrongdoing by not telling the companies who buy their products ahead of time about promotions and freebies inside the item related to alternate services of delivery, even if they might conflict with another company. In this case, Gamestop and OnLive.
Best Buy doesn't stream game content, nor do Fry's or Amazon, even though they also sold the game. Gamestop is about to, so that free coupon for OnLive is something that may directly affect future sales if sold. If their sales could be threatened by packaged-in promotions, then they reserve the right to halt the sales of the product and remove the item in question to be replaced by copies which do not have that coupon.
Advertising discounts, sales on products, and bonus content downloads are fine to package in games because they usually do not directly compete with the businesses that sell the products with them. Now, once you talk about digital distribution of full games via stream, you enter the territory of directly competing sales between OnLive and Gamestop's new service. By Gamestop's sales of those OnLive coupons, they are deducting sales from their future service.
Put another way, that would be the same as me having a coupon for a free RPG rulebook from my competitor's hobby store in one of my new books, when I sell the same product in store. I would have the right to refuse and recall items with that promotion inside because it threatened my own sales, so why doesn't Gamestop?
And in any case, Square has said they respect Gamestop's right to pull the coupons because of what they have made public, and they did say they didn't inform anyone who bought the game for retail sale about this. Gamestop's just the unlucky target of this since they actually will have a similar service to OnLive soon.
Matter of fact, they could in fairness do the same with free full game Steam promotions since they own Impulse, which competes with them on that front. And you know what? As a business, they have every right to do so.
Yet another in a long line of extremely sleazy, questionably-legal business moves by Gamestop. I work at a Gamestop, and not a single employee in the store, including the manager, believed this was even legal to do, let alone thought for a second that Gamestop was in the right.
For the record, anyone who hates Gamestop and wants to hurt their business, but don't necessarily have any better options for buying games, there are a number of things you can do which negatively impact them while still buying things from them.
Never buy gameplay guarantees, GPGs, warranties, whatever the employees of that particular store choose to call them. It's usually a 2-3$ additional cost.
Never let them carry out a transaction for more than one item at a time.
Do your best to buy new games. Always at least ask what the price of the new game is. The price difference is rarely more than 5$, frequently it's only even a 2$ difference between new and used. As an example, a brand new copy of Dead Space 2 is sold for 40$, a used copy is sold for 38$, take into account that Dead Space 2 has a one time use only code to access online play, which is sold separately for 5-10$, and it quickly becomes apparent that buying used is actually more expensive. Hell, we currently sell Midnight Club: LA the Complete Edition for 20$ brand new, and we sell the regular version without any of the extra content or DLC used for 28$. Even if you want to save a few bucks on used, always at least ask the price on new, and make sure that used is actually saving you money, not costing you it.
Those are the things that you can do while shopping at Gamestop to hurt their business without hurting yourself. Other things that seriously impact their numbers (but can come at some cost to yourself) include never buying edge cards, pre-orders, or any accessory branded PDP. Not doing those hurts Gamestop hard as well, but can tend to have a larger impact on your wallet/ability to acquire games then the previously mentioned ones do.
For the record, anyone who hates Gamestop and wants to hurt their business, but don't necessarily have any better options for buying games, there are a number of things you can do which negatively impact them while still buying things from them.
Never buy gameplay guarantees, GPGs, warranties, whatever the employees of that particular store choose to call them. It's usually a 2-3$ additional cost.
Never let them carry out a transaction for more than one item at a time.
Do your best to buy new games. Always at least ask what the price of the new game is. The price difference is rarely more than 5$, frequently it's only even a 2$ difference between new and used. As an example, a brand new copy of Dead Space 2 is sold for 40$, a used copy is sold for 38$, take into account that Dead Space 2 has a one time use only code to access online play, which is sold separately for 5-10$, and it quickly becomes apparent that buying used is actually more expensive. Hell, we currently sell Midnight Club: LA the Complete Edition for 20$ brand new, and we sell the regular version without any of the extra content or DLC used for 28$. Even if you want to save a few bucks on used, always at least ask the price on new, and make sure that used is actually saving you money, not costing you it.
Those are the things that you can do while shopping at Gamestop to hurt their business without hurting yourself. Other things that seriously impact their numbers (but can come at some cost to yourself) include never buying edge cards, pre-orders, or any accessory branded PDP. Not doing those hurts Gamestop hard as well, but can tend to have a larger impact on your wallet/ability to acquire games then the previously mentioned ones do.
Except in order to get that coupon for a free rulebook from a competitor's store, I'd first have to pay full price to obtain the same rulebook from YOUR store. All those coupons that Gamestop was pulling out, for the customers to get them, they'd first have to have already bought the game from Gamestop, which means they've still gotten the money for it already. On top of that, since the coupon is to get the game for free, OnLive isn't even actually making any money from the coupon in and of itself (at least that I'm aware of, unless OnLive has a subscription or something that I'm not aware of). Furthermore, Gamestop doesn't have a competing business with OnLive YET, and I'm willing to bet that they didn't at the time that Square-Enix negotiated this deal with OnLive, since Gamestop's acquisition was a relatively recent thing. If anything, this will make Gamestop lose money, because even if they're given versions of the game without a coupon to sell now, why would anyone buy from them when you can go to the Wal-Mart next door and get two games for the price of one? Not to mention Gamestop is already having issues with people getting fed up with being sold tampered goods as brand new, and this does not help that image.AgentBJ09 said:
I wouldn't necessarily say that Square-Enix is completely 100% in the right, but Gamestop is definitely in the wrong, and by a much larger amount.
You're missing the point, on both fronts.Gizen said:
For one, the Gamestop digital dist. Deus Ex is a purchase, just like the one OnLive offers. What the coupon does is potentially draw sales away from the Gamestop service and towards their competitor, for Deus Ex as much as any other games the two share. Now, is that something you would promote in your own store? I sure wouldn't.
That RPG book example I mentioned? What if that customer buys more books from my competitor and not from me because of that promotion? I would have lost money by promoting their business in my store, and no entrepreneur would even dream of making that mistake.
Second, a promotion for a service that competes with others should be brought to the attention of all who buy the game for retail distribution. From there, the publisher should decide, "OK, who has given me the go ahead to give them these copies with the free game voucher?"
That's how things should have been done, but SE didn't bother doing it. As such, Gamestop is exercising it's right to remove promotions for a competitor since they were never informed about it before purchasing the copies.
And on that note, if the coupon copy is free anyway, what did you really lose? The promotion is for both OnLive TV/PC, so what did you really lose if your PC can play the game anyway? Unless you were you really going to buy the OnLive TV set-up for 99.99 and play Deus Ex on something besides your PC, which could run the game anyway.
https://www.onlive.com/store/order - For the sake of proof.