GameStop Pulls Copies Of Deus Ex: Human Revolution From Their Floors
Big in the news recently is the heated issue dealing with GameStop and their sales of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or lack there of to be exact. The company has pulled every copy of the game on PC from their shelves for one reason: it offers a free copy of the game for OnLive, which the company lists as a competitor.
You see, every copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution shipped for the PC comes with a complementary code for activation through OnLive, the cloud-based gaming platform. Once news of this spread throughout the GameStop franchise, a cease and desist order went out immediately. First employees were ordered to take the games off the shelves, open them, remove the code, and then reseal them to sell. Obviously customers weren’t happy with this, which sparked controversy over the matter.
Here is what the memo stated, that was sent out across the company:
At this time please pull all Regular PC editions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and place them in your backroom. These will be recalled at a later date. As GameStop is developing a streaming service in our Spawn Labs Cloud Computing Division, the coupon that was included is for a competing service. We are returning all copies of the PC regular edition to the vendor in agreement with Square Enix. Any unfulfilled reserves of the Regular PC Edition should be taken care of with the inventory set aside in your backroom. Please honor any returns with a receipt.
Now the company has made the decision to pull every copy and refuse to sell it at all for the PC. Customers are outraged, and GameStop is under some heavy fire for the incident. Though Square approved the recall, there is still a huge debate on the company’s decision. There hasn’t been any word on customers being refunded who have already purchased the PC version.
On GameStop’s Facebook page, consumers spoke out about the situation, even going as far as to say that they will no longer shop at the store. Customers who do decide to return the game will be able to do so, upon presenting a receipt, as mentioned in the memo above. After all of this cleared, here is what Square had to say on the matter:
“As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon. GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies. Square Enix invites gamers who want to purchase the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution without additional coupons to buy the game at any one of over 4000 GameStop stores in North America or purchase a digital download copy online from www.gamestop.com. “
Personally, I don’t think GameStop should be opening any new games in the store, especially to take things out of them. To remove a part of the contents of the game that is advertised is definitely teetering on the edge of false advertising, which can land the company in a spot they really wouldn’t want to be in. I can understand a couple gutted copies to put out for the case to be shown, but this is outlandish. I guess recalling these copies was the best idea, but it doesn’t change the fact that consumers aren’t at all happy with the decision. After seeing this, what is your take on the issue? Do you think the company was right to do this? Did Square drop the ball by not informing GameStop of the code? Tell us what you think.
