Hell hath no fury like gamers scorned, as evidenced by the Internet outrage of those that preordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution from brick-and-mortar retailer Gamestop.
Gamestop is now trying to repair its reputation among incensed gamers by offering $50 gift cards – a pricey apology for the company's decision to remove a bundled coupon from PC copies of the game.
If you haven't been paying attention to the debacle, here's the deal: Publisher Square Enix packaged coupons within the PC version of Deus Ex that gave players free access to the game on the streaming service Onlive. However, Onlive is technically a competitor against Gamestop's own to-be-launched games streaming service – an unnamed system, based on technology from recently acquired company Spawn Labs, that's currently in beta testing.
Gamestop's solution? Open the games, strip the coupons, seal them back up, and resell them.
"Regarding the Deus Ex OnLive Codes: GameStop's policy is that we do not promote competitive services without a formal partnership," wrote Gamestop in an official statement 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."
Since the mention, however, Gamestop has decided to offer a free $50 gift card and a buy-two-get-one-free used games coupon to those who preordered Deus Ex – basically, making the game free for those who pre-purchased. Gamestop sent an email to those who preordered the game through the retailer, as well as members of Gamestop's Power Up Rewards program, informing them that they can bring a copy of their preorder receipt and a printout of the email to any retail location to receive their reward.
However, Gamestop has not officially stated whether those who just snagged a copy of the game by going into a store will also be entitled to the gift card and coupon – and if just presenting their receipt to a Gamestop store employee will be enough to qualify. If that works, there's also no indication as to when a gamer would have had to purchase the title in order to qualify: Is the offer only good for gamers buying Deus Ex on launch day? A day after launch day? During launch week?
"We regret the events surrounding this title release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game," said Gamestop CEO Paul Raines in an email. "And for this, we are truly sorry."
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