GameStopped! Retailer admits corporate policy is to swipe coupons from game boxes

A field operations manager with retailer GameStop instructed employees to open boxes of hit release Deux Ex: Human Revolution and remove the coupons bundled with every copy. A spokesperson confirmed to Ars Technica that it is their policy to do so.

Ars' Ben Kuchera echoes speculation that it's to prevent customers from playing the game using online services such as OnLive, which compete with GameStop's brick-and-mortar stores and its own internet-based efforts.

Swiping coupons from game boxes: it really is just absurdly spiteful and stupid, isn't it?

GameStop is Afraid of OnLive, Plays Dirty Tricks [Onlive Spot via Ars]

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disillusion

Couldn’t this technically be considered theft?
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  I wouldn’t think so, because it would do it before it’s sold, while the game is it’s property (or at least consigned to it by the publisher.)
  
  As the freebies are often included in marketing stuff, there could be deceptive/false advertising consequences, I guess? Whatever, it’s about the most customer-hating thing I’ve seen in a while.
  
  This isn’t a company in extremis, either. It’s not an act of desperation. Access rental services like Steam aren’t destroying them. It looks like some kind of moral hazard-type thing that comes with market power.
  - bibulb
    
    I think you’re right on the deceptive trade thing – it’s not the product as sold from the manufacturer, but rather an altered product. Just as if they’d removed the stupid thumbdrives from the fancypants edition of Force Unleashed II and then sold the product as “new”.
- Guest
  
  Clearly no. Gamestop owns the games before they sell them to individuals, they can do whatever they want with their product.
  - Keisar Betancourt
    
    they agree to certain terms with the publishers which i’m quite certain include not modifying the product for their own added benefit before resale.
    - Guest
      
      Agreed, but the stock they currently have, they can do whatever they want with. Doesn’t mean they’ll continue to sell from a specific publisher if they keep doing it.
  - bob d
    
    “Gamestop owns the games before they sell them to individuals, they can do whatever they want with their product.”
    That doesn’t give them the right to sell it on as if it hadn’t been tampered with however, which is what Gamestop did in this case. A record store can’t get away with sell a five-CD set with one or more disks removed as “new” (and at full price) without informing the customer they’ve done so.
    - Guest
      
      That’s not really the same thing as removing a promotional coupon.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Gamestop owns the games before they sell them to individuals, they can do whatever they want with their product.
    
    In that case, sir, may I advise against the lady eating clam chowder?
    - Guest
      
      Well yeah.
bob d

A correction: Onlive isn’t a download service, but an online game service that allows you to play games remotely (you control the game on your machine, but the game is run on their servers and they stream the resultant video to you as you play). It’s obviously limited to those people who have very fast internet and live within a certain radius of an Onlive server, but it presents an alternative to buying physical copies of games, and is certainly a threat to the whole retail model of buying physical (and downloaded) games. Given that the publisher announced that Deus Ex would come with these promotional coupons that would allow people to play the game on Onlive, people had the expectation that their retail purchase would include it. For GameStop to remove the option and sell the game as “new” was to reduce the functionality of the product. It was dumb and unethical if it wasn’t actually illegal.
http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

Fixed!
Blaine

There’s very little that GameStop does that is not gross.

Opening games and allowing employees to borrow them, then slapping a sticker on it and selling it as new? Yup.

Lying about having a new copy of the game so you’ll buy the used (with a much nicer mark-up for them)? Absolutely.

Promising pre-order bonuses to 30 people when they know they’ll only get 5 (which is important because they’ll get interest free loans until the game comes out from 25 extra people)? Certainly.

They remain a necessary evil since there are so few game stores left. They’re right to be afraid of digital distribution.
- Guest
  
  Ever heard of Amazon.com? They’re new, but theyre good.
Garnett Schuyler

And now they are no longer selling the PC version (The one that came with the onlive coupon).
Source: Joystiq
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/24/gamestop-pulls-deus-ex-human-revolution-pc-versions-from-shelve/
evanberkowitz

By opening the box are they consenting to the EULA? Or is it only upon installation…
- Guest
  
  (I don’t care if I’m not a lawyer.)
  
  The EULA is valid only on installation.
  - Fernando Montelbon
    
    “The EULA is valid only on installation.”
    
    Hell even after installation it’s questionable whether the EULA is worth the memory it’s stored on.
Guest

Newsflash: Gamestop sucks.
Sub-headline: You don’t have to buy games there.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EM2KQCFFG74XJMYKOPPOK6KBY4 Ben

I stopped shopping at GameStop for a very similar reason. A retailer that sells both new and used products SHOULD NOT break the factory seal on a “new product”.

Because GameStop does, I take my business elsewhere. What are they thinking?
- Fernando Montelbon
  
  “A retailer that sells both new and used products SHOULD NOT break the factory seal on a “new product”.”
  
  Especially if that selfsame retailer also has a policy of not excepting games returns that have been removed from their original packaging.
http://www.facebook.com/palmer.benjamin Benjamin Palmer

Silly GameStop. That coupon was the only thing making me consider buying a physical copy of the game. I was going to pick it up on Steam in a few weeks when I have time to play, but upon hearing about the coupon today I thought to myself “Oh, well in that case I’ll just go to GameStop tonight and grab it, always wanted to try OnLive!” But of course hours later I hear the news about them pulling the coupon.
ackpht

Decades ago I listened to camera-store clerks describe how they spent hours opening boxes of new lenses to remove the lens caps and hoods that the factory had included with them. The store would then sell them separately.

It’s called either “shrewd business practice” or “a ripoff”, depending on whether you profit from it or not.
AsteriskCGY

Granted letting employees play new games is awesome, for the employee. Had a friend work there for a year, great for those games that you want to play but don’t want to keep.
http://www.facebook.com/andycoder Andy Coder

The last time I went to Gamestop, it was to return an XBOX360 from which they’d removed the official controller and replaced it with their store brand junk version. Is there a product they don’t mess with?
- Guest
  
  My fiancée got an Xbox 360 “Elite” from them a few years ago. Sure it had the black case and HDMI port, but came with one wired controller and no hard drive. There is no way it was sold to GameStop that way.
  
  Yes, this was before I met her, because I would have raised hell about it.
chris revis

I ordered an OEM Intel P4 heatsink/fan combo from an online retailer once. It gave me the option to pay an additional $2 for thermal paste. I declined as I already had tubes of the stuff. When I received the product, someone had taken the heatsink from the box, removed the plastic shield from the bottom and scraped the already provided thermal grease off, scratching up the metal in the process. Needless to say, I never ordered from them again.Treat your customers as you’d like to be treated.
- MythicalMe
  
  Did you return the heat-sink as defective?
- Guest
  
  Those thermal pads are good for one installation, and OEM Intel chips aren’t supposed to come with stock coolers. So if it was in fact an Intel stock HSF, the fact the thermal pad was gone might mean the HSF was removed from something else, and was in fact not new (think RMA or something).
technogeekagain

Hm. “Beast Boy” is incompetent to the point of lying, but this is a whole ‘nother level of crook.
oldtaku

If you’re still buying games at Gamestop you’re like the people still banking at Bank of America. You deserve whatever you get. Though we still reserve the right to get insufferable and go “Oh My God, Martha, look at that” whenever they do something even more dickly to you and you just take it.
- http://twitter.com/absinthe Not a restaurant!
  
  What a pretentious hipster kind of response!
  - oldtaku
    
    This is a picture of me tittering at you IN NEEDLEPOINT.
http://inchoate.myopenid.com/ Inchoate

This is such a sleazy move by GameStop, I’m surprised that they thought they could get away with it without anyone noticing.
Glippiglop

I’m going against the consensus here, but I think their actions are completely understandable given that OnLive competes for the same customer base. Gamestop is in a position where it must either send all the boxes back to their supplier and request boxes without the coupon, or remove the coupons themselves. By the time they found out about it, sending the boxes back wouldn’t have been an option.

I don’t understand why people are so surprised at this – would you buy a phone from AT&T and expect to find a coupon in the box giving you a discount if you switch to Verizon?

Coupons are just another form of advertisement. It’s not in the best interests of any business to advertise competing services. Especially not for free.
- Fernando Montelbon
  
  “By the time they found out about it, sending the boxes back wouldn’t have been an option.”
  
  That is exactly what they should have done.. and is what they have just started doing now that the whole thing has blown up.
- Guest
  
  “By the time they found out about it, sending the boxes back wouldn’t have been an option.”
  
  Your equation of the less profitable option as not existing, despite it’s actual occurrence is impressive. The emperor will be pleased with your progress.
- highlyverbal
  
  “I’m going against the consensus here, but I think their actions are completely understandable given that OnLive competes for the same customer base.”
  
  I appreciate a contrarian offering as much as anyone, but are you suggesting that Gamestop was properly informing all customers about the absence of the coupon, and about Gamestop’s culpability regarding said absence?!
  
  Somehow, I doubt it.
- Guest
  
  This isn’t a discount or a coupon for a competing B&M.. This is a code that gives you access to the game on a play-anywhere service. What about the games they sell that you can register on Steam and then download anywhere? Steam also has a marketplace, so is Steam also competing with GameStop? Should they remove the CD-keys of games they sell so you can’t register it on Steam?
Modusoperandi

Antinous, you said that if anyone ever interferes with Project Mayhem, even you, we gotta get his balls.
Electro_Jones

It’s my policy not to shop there anymore. Too much trouble and headache for me to want to keep this dinosaur alive. Scummy company.
http://carrierlost.com/ Tonweight

I used to work for EB, just before GameStop bought them up. At the time, the Game Doctor was the big money item. I hated selling them, but we had to make a quota if we didn’t want to lose our jobs.

I thought up all kinds of clever uses for them and used them in my sales pitch. You’d be surprised how many folks, probably out of sheer laziness, bought the $50 motorized version (usually along with the five-pack of “cleaning wheels”). Many who didn’t purchase it out of laziness did so because the motor was easily converted for use as a fun dormroom weapon: you buy up a bunch of the wheels, remove the plastic from one side with a hacksaw, and bump the voltage supplied to the motor; instant helicoptering death wheels! Like NERF, but slightly more dangerous!

And – I made a 50% commission on each one. I remember one week when I sold through nearly twenty of the bloody things. I was wicked happy with that commission check until I realized how much Uncle Sam had taken for himself. >_<

Then there was the ESA… everyone remember those? I used to sell those like gangbusters! Usually the two year variety, too!

The ESA would cost around $25 for a year, or $50 for two years. Pure profit, by and large. But – I would keep a list of these customers, independent of our system (something EB didn't offer – you were on the hook for remembering). I would give customers a call when their warranties were about a month from expiry (yay for Excel and Outlook calendar integration) to let them know they should come in with their system soon if they wanted to (and whether or not we had/would have stock)… how's THAT for service?!

I sold a bunch of those solely with the pitch of "even if you do nothing else, bring the receipt in with a couple of your controllers and get new OEM ones for free." SO many people bought EXTRA controllers (since it covered anything system-related on that ESA slip) that we had a hard time keeping them in stock.

The only thing that would get me to shop with them again is if they brought back the ESA, along with the "no questions asked" policy of replacing anything system-related on the ESA slip. Is it any surprise, then, that I bought my 360 from BestBuy last year?

Sorry for the long-ass post. Felt like telling a (mostly relevant) story. ^_^

Moral of the story: EB/GameStop have always been f'ing crooks.
realityhater

my question is where does it stop ? coupons now – valuable in game option cards next…..I like game stop , mostly because they are conveniently everywhere and mostly pardon the pun ” the only game in town” unless I want to spend 45 minutes in line at the F*&%N Big box store that begins with “W” while the F*&%N cashier takes a personal phone call while checking people out……So if its a coupon for a service I will never use – great pilfer away , just leave my in game option cards alone !
:0)
Lobster

I don’t really understand how stealing the coupon prevents people from using OnLive. If anything it would make B&M seem less appealing.

Anyway, this kind of thing isn’t considered theft because these promotions always have a “while supplies last” clause. That basically means if, for any reason, you don’t get your promotion you have no recourse; you were informed that you might not get it and GameStop has no obligation to provide it to every customer if they (oops!) ran out.

While I don’t have a ton of love for GameStop (I think they’re greasing some palms to always get the very best exclusive pre-order bonuses), I’ve found that most of the employees there just like games and need a job. They aren’t malicious, and they care more about the customer than the store because, well, we’re human beings who share a common interest. In all of my experiences, GameStop employees will help me out if something goes wrong with a promotion like this, even if they aren’t required to. I’ve even had some let me in on spare pre-order bonuses just because I happened to be in the store, even if I didn’t actually pre-order.

It’s those operations managers you need to worry about. They’re the ones who want to turn a profit at any cost. They’re the ones who couldn’t care less about games.
Mia C

Speaking as someone who spent four years managing a video game store (not Game Stop), once the seal on the game has been broken you can no longer sell it as a new item.
- Guest
  
  Right, but if you re-shrinkwrap it and put your own seal on it you can. GameStop is almost certainly re-sealing the boxes so they know if the customer has opened it after sale. EULAs never say anything to the effect of “you can’t
  return this to the store once you open it…” that is the retailer’s
  decision.
  
  When you buy software you’re really just paying for a license and getting the media as a convenience. GameStop could theoretically replace the game disc with a burned DVD-R, just as long as the product key still registers, etc..
dculberson

The choice isn’t between GameStop and Wal-Mart. Target, K-Mart, Best Buy, basically any store that stocks electronics stocks video games, and frequently in much larger quantities than the POS GameStop. They have basically turned into a video game pawn shop. The Penny Arcade guys have spent many column inches railing against this flailing ripoff of a company. Their entire business model revolves around underpaying people for their trade-ins and overcharging other people reselling said trade-ins. With a side of “pre-orders.”

Here’s a test: Walk into any GameStop the day of a huge game release, say when COD: MW3 comes out, and ask them for a copy of it. They’ll suck their breath in over their teeth and say, “Did you pre-order it?” like this is some sort of mystical sword forged by dwarven hands deep in the Amazon. When you say no, they’ll gravely shake their head and lament that they only got enough copies in to fulfill pre-orders. Leave the GameStop and walk into the Target/K-Mart/Sears/Walmart/Best Buy next door, and ask for the game at their electronics counter. The person at the counter will reach behind themselves and hold aloft one of hundreds upon hundreds of the game they have on hand for any and all askers. GameStop’s little .. well .. game is something they play at every major release, as if something that sells 6,000,000 copies in a single day – and has the supply to support much more – is actually going to be difficult to find. The publishers ship massive numbers of these games, and GameStop can get as many as they want, but they’re just not in it for the customer.
- Spriggan_Prime
  
  This happened to me when Halo: Reach came out. Gamestop right next door to where I work. Usually on big release days there is a small line outside waiting for them to open the doors at 10am. I walk over around 11:30ish, only about 2-3 people milling about, see the new games shelf packed with cases (full, not empty dummy cases) of Halo: Reach, picked one up and walked to the register:
  
  “Hey how’s it going?”
  “Can I have your pre-order slip?”
  “I don’t have one.”
  “I can’t sell you this then, we only have enough in stock to fill pre-orders”
  “That’s crazy! Listen, why the fuck did you put live product on the shelf you don’t intend to sell?”
  “Okay, fine. But I can only sell you one unit.”
  “How many copies did you think I wanted to fucking buy? I’m not gonna go hawk them on the damned street corner.”
  
  I hope I ruined his day. Never bought from that store again. Soon after I wised up and didn’t buy from the company as a whole. Amazon has free shipping on games if you pre-order, and nowadays their exclusives are just as good, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Chappai

Seems to me that placing the coupons and stuff directly on the media as printable items would be the best solution to keep this kind of thing from happening again. In this instance the only way to keep GameStop from doing this again would be to not sell the game.
Guest

So OnLive is free to join, and once you buy a game on it, you can play it as much as you want, no monthly fees or anything.. pretty much like a cloud version of Steam (steam cloud, har har har…) And DXHR includes an OnLive coupon that gives you a free full copy of DXHR, permanently, no trial crap, the real deal… and GameStop doesn’t like this? Tough $#!^.

GameStop sells games from Valve. If you buy any Valve game at GameStop you can register it on Steam and have access to it anywhere. Much to GameStop’s disappointment you can also buy more games on Steam, and this is something GameStop just has to deal with. There is no way they can stop people from registering the game on Steam. Square Enix/OnLive did it wrong. They relied on a coupon code that can be removed. They should have just made it “Go to OnLive and enter your CD-key”.

if they wanted to remove a coupon that gave you $5 off a game at BestBuy, or a trial offer for GameFly, or something that was direct competition, that’s fine.. This is devaluing the product by removing a feature the publisher included.

I’m waiting for the reports to come in that a GameStop manager got busted trying to sell the coupons on the side to people who want a cheap OnLive copy of DXHR. You know it’s going to happen.

Edit: I stand corrected. Apparently GameStop IS developing a cloud-gaming service that competes directly with OnLive. So what happens when “SteamCloud” comes along and lets you stream your Valve games… does GameStop stop selling them too? What happens when every major publisher does it?

We can only hope digital distribution and the cloud buries GameStop.
http://twitter.com/eightbitempire eightbitempire

Here in Canada, it should be fairly easy to charge Gamestop for such actions, as opened software *technically* qualifies as used software. According to a recent[ish] law here, it’s illegal to sell used software as a new product.

So if they’re doing this in Canada, they have a whooooole slew of product that’s either useless, or is being sold illegally.
http://twitter.com/jenfoolery Jenny Reiswig

A local record store (RIP) used to open the CD cases, insert an anti-theft strip under the CD, then re-shrinkwrap the cases. One time I bought a CD there and upon opening it discovered it was the wrong CD. I went back to the store and grabbed the one copy of the wrong-CD’s case and brought it to the cashier, hoping that in the anti-theft installation, they had just accidentally switched them. The cashier opened that case, only to find a completely different CD inside. He went and got that case, and again, a different CD inside. They must have laid the whole batch out, then shifted something and re-inserted the wrong CD in every case for that entire batch. He refunded my money and was obviously in for a very very long day. Bottom line: leave the products alone!
MDwebguy

It seems like wherever I go, lately, I find myself increasingly surrounded by blatant examples of corporate douchebaggery and malfeasance. It’s getting harder and harder to maintain hope and remain positive about the future of our society.
pyster

I’ve bought few ps2, controllers, games, and other crap from game stop over the years. I’ve taken misc children there to pick shit up. Well, they can now promptly go fuck themselves. Zero reason for me to step in their stores again.
http://twitter.com/industitrust derin devlet

Whats going on here is that the guys that run Gamestop know there is no corporate accountability. They will be on the board of some other company one day, and no one there will give a damn that they were unethical.

They all know that their days are numbered due to the cloud, DL services, ios type stuff etc. So the name of the game is
grab the money
Grab The Money
GRAB THE F-ING MONEY!!!WITH BOTH HANDS!!!NOW!!!!

And dump all stock at juuuust the right moment, which, as insiders, they will be in the exact perfect position to do so.

the fact that they are mostly ripping off children and thier clueless mothers makes it all more despicable. The kids do their work for them, and explain and beg to the parent, whenever the parent notices stuff like opened “new” games and objects.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1095224255 Kristin Reed

Or this goes straight to customer service…
orders@gamestop.com
http://profiles.google.com/flameraven42 Beth Z

Hm, GameStop may be evil, but I can’t entirely hate them– I got a brand-new copy of Portal 2 for $10 two weeks after it came out there, although I admittedly had to do some finagling. ($60 retail price -$20 sale -$30 store credit from trade-ins = $10.) I only buy video games a few times a year, though, and I prefer used copies, so I’ll still probably shop there sometimes. :/