UPDATE: Square Enix has issued an official statement regarding today's events, basically apologizing to GameStop for not informing the retailer about the coupon in advance of the game's release.
“As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon," said the company in a statement. "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," continued the statement, "or purchase a digital download copy online from www.gamestop.com. “
ORIGINAL STORY: GameStop dominated the conversation today, based on reports the retailer was opening copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC, removing the coupon for a copy of the game through OnLive, sealing the games back up and selling them as "new."
Perhaps for a variety of reasons, possibly ranging from conversations between GameStop and Square Enix to backlash from basically the entire Internet, the company is now pulling all copies off store shelves.
A GameStop employee forwarded me an email (as seen above) sent to every store, announcing the move.
"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."
GameStop issued a similar public comment about its original reasoning for opening the games.
"We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores," said a company spokesperson. "Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge."
Both Square Enix and OnLive declined to comment on the matter.
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