The battle over digital game distribution just took a turn for the ugly.
Video game retail giant GameStop has been opening up brand new PC game boxes of the critically-acclaimed shooter Deus Ex: Human Revolution and removing packed-in coupons granting free copies of the game to users of the OnLive cloud gaming service.
OnLive and Deus Ex publisher Square Enix announced the coupon deal yesterday, which would let buyers of a boxed PC copy download and play another copy of the game, for free, via OnLive's cloud based network, a $50 value.
But apparently GameStop, which has its own digital distribution platform, wasn't on board with what it believes is helping to promote the competition. A letter sent out to GameStop employees instructing them to "immediately remove and discard the OnLive coupon from all the regular PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution" has been widely circulated, and GameStop has since officially confirmed the practice.
"Regarding the Deus Ex OnLive Codes: GameStop's policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership," GameStop says on its Facebook page. "Square Enix packed a competitor's coupon within the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons."
It's pretty upsetting news for those who like to believe that when they buy a new product, they are actually, you know, buying a new product. Knowing a retailer tampered with a game box simply to thwart a promotion geared at saving gamers money is, to say the least, a little worrying.
GameStop, however, assures you that while they're breaking the seal on your new game box, your game itself should be fine.
"While the new products may be opened, we fully guarantee the condition of the discs to be new. If you find this to not be the case, please contact the store where the game was purchased and they will further assist," the company states.
So is it illegal? That's a bit fuzzy. Wired reports that Square Enix and OnLive might be able to make a case for "tortious interference," which occurs when one party intentionally damages another party's contractual or business relationships.
GameStop has raised the ire of gamers before. Just last year, the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit over what consumers considered deceptive used game sales.
Square Enix and OnLive have yet to formally respond.
UPDATE: GameStop has now pulled all PC copies of the game from store shelves.
So what are all of your thoughts on this as gamers? I couldn't help notice one comment on there saying how Square Enix says GameStop is justified in doing this.
I read about this yesterday. I do think that GameStop should be able to chose, but opening up packages is not the best way of going about this. I wouldn't care about that myself, but most people do. I would think the best way is to ask Square Enix to ship out copies without the coupon in them.
I hear that in America people get really angry about their copies being opened before they buy it, I don't see what the problem is? Its general practive for retailers in the UK
It's not the copies being opened that's the problem, it's the fact that they pretty much stole $50 from those of who bought the game. I feel that regardless of their corporate policies they had no right to do that. The ONLY way this would have been even remotely acceptable is if GS had been giving away vouchers for their own distribution platform. Other than that, I consider this to be outright theft.
It was hard enough to trust them before this, now I just don't see how I can buy anything from them considering they're willing to undercut their customers like this.
Meh. If they don't want to sell something, but sell something else, they're permitted. It's capitalism, if they just want the game to be sold, w/o advertising a rival co, along with the developer being cool with it, then who's to say they're not allowed? It's a capitalistic society, if you don't like it, don't buy it from Gamestop. Buy it from... idk... Best Buy, or WallMart, or Your Local Independent Game Retailer. GameStop will eventually get the message.
The problem there is that technically they're offering an inferior product for the same price, without informing the customer. People bought the game assuming that they would receive a free coupon, GameStop never said that they were taking the coupon out, and when you take into account that the only way to verify the contents is to open the game up...
The problem there is that technically they're offering an inferior product for the same price, without informing the customer.
^ This.
I don't think it's right that they are able to open the game and sell it for the same price. I believe due to the inconvenience they should drop the price of the game. Surely if they had to open that many, some discs may have been damaged?
Surely if they had to open that many, some discs may have been damaged?
I highly doubt it, seeing as it isn't too difficult to open a package and pull out the papers on the side [Where the game disc is not located]. You actually wouldn't have to touch the disk at all to accomplish that task.
Even then, I agree with Kyouzou. The product is intended to come with the coupon. Agreeing to sell that product after removing the coupon makes it an entirely different product/service by Gamestop, and that means what they are doing is wrong. I would be mad if I didn't get my coupon. Gamestop should either have a fat label on their packaging saying they removed the coupon, or they should re-create a new deal with the distributor and fix different pricing.
I believe strongly that Gamestop has the right to do and sell whatever the heck they want, but they need to sell that stuff with integrity, lying to people that go there isn't fair, and it isn't exactly smart business, either.
I stopped going to Gamestop a few years back. The customer service is crappy if you ever have a problem, always. I still have a gamestop card, though, because I always turn in age-old games that I'll never touch to make a pre-order, though. That's the one contribution they've made that I like.
I think, as I get older, I'll probably never leave the house again because I'll practically buy everything from Amazon. Kinda scary. I should do something about that.
Well the reason I like to buy sealed games is that (especially at places like Gamestop) you end up getting damaged discs when you buy used. If it has been opened then you can't really prove that it's new. I know that if we as buyers remove the plastic wrap then we can't get a refund for the full price (unless it's to exchange for the same thing).... if they remove the plastic wrap then they shouldn't be able to sell it for full retail price. ...they've compromised the integrity of the product.
I've bought some great games used & i do it for the price. If my game was new but the seal removed, isn't that technically counted as damaged? That's why the price should be lowered.
Will they be able to refund then, if the packaging is removed?
GameStop doesn't do refunds only store credit, although they did claim that should the game be used or damaged they would provide a refund, what kind, I'm not sure.
I agree with Sonata though, I hadn't considered the issue of them opening the games in that sense. Overall I suppose this is just another way that GameStop rips off their customers.
