Yet another reason to avoid Gamestop like the plague

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

If you’re going there to pick up Deus Ex: Human Revolution, prepared to be ripped off. Seriously.

de Yet another reason to avoid Gamestop like the plague

So here’s the deal; it was recently announced that every copy of the retail PC version would come with a code that also provides an OnLive copy. At first glance it seems like Steam, but not really; it’s the cloud based service that stores and runs your games on their servers. This way you don’t have to worry about your system being up to snuff; so long as it can stream video, you’re good to go. Sounds kinda strange, and it is, but it actually works. One can even play Windows only games on a Mac if I’m not mistaken!

Though not surprisingly, Gamestop, which is a traditional games outlet, cannot stand any of this digital downloading nonsense. But the means they’re showing their vitriol is pretty absurd and even crossing the line: a leaked memo courtesy of Ars Technica shows orders to their employees to open up fresh copies and remove the OnLive vouchers. That’s f’d up.

Actually, the official motivation is due to Gamestop themselves is entering the digital marketplace. From the memo: “Square Enix packed the competitor’s coupon with our DXHR product without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons.”

Whatever. So before you had to pay full price for a copy they opened themselves, because they needed the box as the store display. But now they’re opening every fresh copy, removing something that was intended for the customer, and STILL charging full price. Remember folks, there are better options: Best Buy, Amazon, or preferably a indie game store if one’s nearby. Please go to them and don’t give Gamestop any of your business (even if Deus Ex was never on your radar).

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