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So after you've conditioned the sheep to buy gutted games as if they're new, the next level is to start altering the contents of said gutted game and still claim they're new.
Gamestop has been removing free coupons for the OnLive version of Deux Ex that Square Enix have been putting in the PC copies of their new game.
So if you want that Onlive version of the game with your PC version (I think the only reason Gamestop hates it is because they have their own digital distribution service and they see that as competition that isn't approved by them. ... but why should it matter since the coupon is just a free DIGITAL copy FOR THE RETAIL GAME PURCHASED AT GAMESTOP ANYWAY.) be sure to buy the retail copy at amazon or wal-mart or some other place that isn't gutting the packages.
Seriously tho. Shouldn't this be running foul of anti-competition laws?
Gamestop has been removing free coupons for the OnLive version of Deux Ex that Square Enix have been putting in the PC copies of their new game.
So if you want that Onlive version of the game with your PC version (I think the only reason Gamestop hates it is because they have their own digital distribution service and they see that as competition that isn't approved by them. ... but why should it matter since the coupon is just a free DIGITAL copy FOR THE RETAIL GAME PURCHASED AT GAMESTOP ANYWAY.) be sure to buy the retail copy at amazon or wal-mart or some other place that isn't gutting the packages.
Seriously tho. Shouldn't this be running foul of anti-competition laws?
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Seriously tho. Shouldn't this be running foul of anti-competition laws?
You know, I don't know much about the legality of these things in Canada, but if you can prove that enough GameStop customers were wronged in the States, you have all the makings of a class-action suit there.
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To me that basically boils down to Gamestop's lawyers suddenly coming to the conclusion that what management has done - especially with the proof of it being leaked - probably makes for a strong class action against them. Just my opinion I suppose, but I can't see a company like Gamestop really being sorry for mangling their customer's product.
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Speaking of gutting new games, I still think the fact that they're doing that at all and then still selling them as "new" is blatantly false advertising which should be actionable in and of itself, imnsho, regardless of whether they're altering the contents or not. If the game has been opened, for any reason, then in my eyes it is no longer "new" and shouldn't be able to be sold as such. But of course, as you said, gamers have been conditioned to find this an acceptable practice, even though it is not, so nothing will ever be done about it. Similarly, I doubt anything will be done about them removing the OnLive coupons either, especially since they're dangling the carrots of free gift cards and "buy 1 get 1 free" in front of people.
As for OnLive, however, it's not necessarily a bad thing that Gamestop is trying to stop the proliferation of OnLive. Note: I'm only being being mostly but not entirely facetious there. I'd say around 90% facetious. But there's still that 10% that wants to see OnLive crash and burn, no matter how it comes about, and if Gamestop being utter dickcheese about the whole thing helps that along, then it's not totally a bad outcome. Then again, the reasons that Gamestop are against OnLive are obviously going to be very different from the reasons that I am against OnLive.
That said, I'd bet Gamestop would have done the same thing with the PS3 versions of Portal 2 and the free Steam PC version included with that if they felt they could have gotten away with it, though. I guess in this case they figured "Oh it's just OnLive, therefore nobody will care about that. We'll wait and save the Steam stuff for later, when we know for sure that we can get away with this sort of thing."