Square-Enix and Gamestop Blunder over Deus Ex Coupon

by Sindra, filed in Games, News on Aug.25, 2011

Looks like Square-Enix and Gamestop have a hard time communicating with each other.

Square-Enix, the developer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, had originally offered a third-party coupon in the boxed PC edition of the game for the On Live cloud-computing gam streaminge service. However, they neglected to inform major game retailer Gamestop of the coupon’s inclusion, spurring Gamestop to remove the coupon for customer redemption completely.

From Gaintbomb’s original coverage:

GameStop dominated the conversation today, based on reports the retailer was opening copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC, removing the coupon for a copy of the game through OnLive, sealing the games back up and selling them as “new.”

Gamestop reported that they removed the coupon, as they have been developing their own streaming game service and they did not want to promote the competition. As of the backlash Gamestop received for the action of removing the coupon, Gamestop has since pulled all copies of Deus Ex for the PC and stored them for recall. Square-Enix has publicly apologized to Gamestop for the lack of prior knowledge of the coupons.

No coupons for you.

Tags: Deus Ex, Gamestop, Square-Enix

Extrazero

Squeenix shouldn’t have to apologize.� From my point-of-view, this is no different than the PS3 versions of Portal 2 including Steam copies of the game.

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

Yeah, this whole thing is ridiculous.� There are SO MANY examples like that.� I’m amazed that not only is Square-Enix taking the blame for this, justifying GameStop’s behavior (they’ve been opening up games and selling them as “new” for years, under various different excuses), they actually APOLOGIZED for it.

That is incredible.

Extrazero

Also, lets not forget about digital copies in BluRays and DVDs these days.� I doubt most big box retailers are aware what specific movies come with iTunes digital copies, which are a direct competition to their business, but you don’t see Target, Walmart, Bestbuy and the likes opening and removing those digital copies from the movies they sell.
http://twitter.com/JewWario Justin Carmical

“Please excuse us for your doing such an unethical thing as you opening up boxes, re-sealing them, and selling them as new. We really dropped the ball on that one. We honestly should have made contact with us easier with you knowing about those coupons so far ahead of time.

I mean, you probably tried to contact us to let us know that YOU were making something similar… but we were probably on the other line… or out to get lunch. I’m so sorry. We’ll never eat lunch again. We just feel SO bad that you didn’t let us know.

Our bad. Can you forgive us?”Really? Really? Am I in some bizarro world?

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

I know, right?? Too strange.� I couldn’t believe it when I read that they had apologized.� Do they need GameStop THAT badly?

http://zacshipley.com/ Zac Shipley

Valve disclosed that they were including the Steam code with Portal 2. Square didn’t do the same for Deus Ex.

The issue is Square pulling a fast one on GameStop, willfully including the coupon for OnLive as GameStop is preparing their own streaming service. �Square KNEW what they were doing. �Gamestop’s response was in bad taste, but they wouldn’t have had to react that way of Square weren’t trying to trick them.
As for selling the games as “new” the games ARE STILL NEW. �THEY DIDN”T PLAY THEM OR SCRATCH THEM. �I seriously don’t know why people over react over a tape seal being broken thinking that the game might as well have been used as a coaster for 6 weeks. �The game was still new, just didn’t have the OnLive Coupon, which NO ONE knew was coming until the game came out since Square Enix didn’t announce it as part of the bundle. �A gamestop patron could walk in, buy their still new game and go home and play it without feeling like they lost out on anything.

Heather

Actually, taking home and playing the games that are opened before selling them as new is a pretty well known employee perk that Gamestop employees have been doing for years. You have no idea if the game you bought is new or not.

http://zacshipley.com/ Zac Shipley

Well then thats a reason not to shop at GameStop at all, GS is still within their rights and these games are still new.

Heather

Considering that they don’t point out to people that the “new” game they are buying is opened and possibly missing things unless asked, I don’t really think it’s within their rights. Also consider that a huge portion of their business is preying on clueless parents/grandparents buying gifts for kids, that don’t know what they are supposed to be getting vs. what they are handed.

If they would just post in store exactly what happens to games before sale, I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with it. But it’s the fact that they just try to sneak it on by and pretend it’s normal business practice when called on it that pisses me off.

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Square-Enix and Gamestop Blunder over Deus Ex Coupon

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Square-Enix and Gamestop Blunder over Deus Ex Coupon

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