Original story.

Customers who have paid a deposit for Diablo III at GAME Australia have been left out of pocket.
Having entered administration yesterday, the retailer has confirmed not only that it won’t be stocking Blizzard’s RPG, but also that it can’t afford to refund any deposits placed.
“Due to the appointment of an administrator to our business this morning, it is with regret that I inform you all that our stores will not be receiving any stock of Diablo 3,” a text message sent to customers reads, as reported by Kotaku Australia.
“Because of this, we regrettably will be unable to fulfill any pre-orders. Also, we will be unable to refund any deposits paid towards a pre-order of Diablo 3. If you need any more info, please email customerrelations@game.com.au.”
Customers who have pre-ordered could, if they choose, file as creditors to the company with the possibility of recouping at least some of their cash.
The news will likely infuriate publishers. Pre-orders have become hugely important amidst the current tough market conditions, and anything that could cause customers to think twice about placing a pre-order will be a huge worry.

This all sounds crazy to me, and I really hope not a lot of you preordered your copy at Game. You won't get the game and you won't get your preorder money back? Sounds like win-win!

Edit: Maybe a moderator should move this to Diablo 3 boards? Not sure where it belongs.

Wasn't aware the AUS subsidary had gone under as well. Pretty sad, they were always my brick and mortar store of choice.

Wow is it fucking insane that they can get away with stealing peoples money. Regardless of the financial situation they put themselves in.

I hate to use IGN as a source of info, but maybe all hope isn't lost? - http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/05/14/game-australia-enters-administration

That's really messed up. Can't they just give those affected another game of the same value they do have in stock so people could trade it in somewhere or whatever? That's ridiculous.

And I though I was fucked over since I pre-ordered the D3 Collector's Edition in December (already paid for) on a site that specialized in good deals and they sent out mails last week saying the don't get enough CEs for everybody. At least we had the option to switch to the standard edition including a partial refund and a €10 coupon for a future purchase.

But that shit down there? Man, seriously fucked up.

why the fuck is anyone still doing anything with game theyve been going under since before they even opened up in australia ..

Another thing is, who the hell will still want to ever do business with GAME once this shit hits the fan?

@MariachiMacabre said:

Wow is it fucking insane that they can get away with stealing peoples money. Regardless of the financial situation they put themselves in.

Almost as insane as handing over money before you get something...

@MariachiMacabre said:

Wow is it fucking insane that they can get away with stealing peoples money. Regardless of the financial situation they put themselves in.

Almost as insane as handing over money before you get something...

@Doctorchimp: normally id argue the point .. in favour of developers being able to work out hype and expected sales etc from the hardcore crowd .. and in some cases liek indie games etc and kickstarter projects , your funding the game with your preorder etc .. but blizzard lol .. they can just tell ppl something is coming and people want to throw their money at them anyways ..

Moved to the Diablo 3 boards.

From past experience with GAME I know they don't actually charge you the money until they start processing your order to send you the game, which means everyone with pre-orders at GAME have had ample time knowing that the company is going through administration to cancel their pre-orders. I'm amazed at anyone who didn't cancel.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

@Doctorchimp

@MariachiMacabre said:

Wow is it fucking insane that they can get away with stealing peoples money. Regardless of the financial situation they put themselves in.

Almost as insane as handing over money before you get something...

I know, right? There are literally no other things on earth that require deposits!

I'll let you know when a videogame has as much weight as my apartment/car.

@envane: Well I pre-order games from Amazon all the time, but I don't get money taken unless that game is in a box on its way to my house.

Hell I pre-order games online too and have the game downloaded on my computer ready to go for the unlock all the time.

But the notion that you have to go to a "hardcore gaming" specialty shop and give them money up front just to make sure you get the game has always bugged me.

for a second i thought you were going to say D3 had been banned. Seems like an australian thing to do.

So they took your money and went bust, now they spent it all on golden parachutes. Welcome to capitalism, get used to it.

Also file as creditors to the company, you might not get it all back but you may get something.

@envane said:

why the fuck is anyone still doing anything with game theyve been going under since before they even opened up in australia ..

They opened in Australia in select locations at least five plus years ago. I'm quite sure at that point in time they were not going bust elsewhere.

Also I would like to add that GAME does not have a large presence in Australia, in comparison to EB Games, therefore there should not be to many individuals affected by this.

I decided to buy (only yesterday) D3 online from UK game, thinking they would probably not be inundated with pre-orders, after recent proceedings within the company. I've recieved confirmation of dispatch, so perhaps I made an 'OK' choice. I had some points loyalty points leftover, so it seemed like a wise-buy.

But still, I guess its bad news for AUS players who left the pre-orders open.

Is this temporary? I mean they have free business for any company to buy them at a discount... or are they in too much debt or something?

How is that even legal? Surely they're just cashing in on the fact that some people probably don't know their rights...

@Seastalk: I dunno man GAME is pretty big at least in Canberra with maybe a 10-15min drive between each of their 5 stores here... but still I don't really get the point of preordering a game which you can just legally download and likely be able to play before you have the retail copy.... I mean it needs to be connected to the internet to play so chances are you probably have the internet to download it... I guess it's understandable for those with low quotas though

@caska: The issue is caska that a lot of people in Australian and in the world in general are completely ignorant when it comes to online distribution services/online distribution of games.

I would like to also point that I noticed that a couple of retail stores up here in Brisbane were selling the boxed copy pre-order for Diablo 3 a lot cheaper than what you can purchase it online (via the battle.net store for this region). However I think it is the former issue rather than the later issue that has occurred/is occurring.

Can't say I would miss GAME here in Australia, over priced games and i prefer to do my shopping in JB Hi-fi or even EB games.

@mandude said:

How is that even legal? Surely they're just cashing in on the fact that some people probably don't know their rights...

It's legal because you can't sue someone for damages if they are bankrupt. Basically, if they don't have the money, you can't ask for it.

Can never understand why game charged people for pre ordering a game, the bullshit about it guarantees you a copy of the game on day of release is a lie. I can pre order a game online and have never been charged for pre ordering and yes I do receive it on day of release or even a few days before. Game knew it was easy money and that if they went into admin they would not have to refund that money back.

@mandude said:

How is that even legal? Surely they're just cashing in on the fact that some people probably don't know their rights...

A preorder is, in essences, a loan. You are loaning the store 5 bucks (or 60 bucks if you're completely off you're nut and pay up front) with the expectation of having that loan repaid in the form of a physical product. In between you giving them the loan and you taking delivery, they get to put your money in a savings account and let it draw interest. This is why I never pre-order anything save for Collector's Editions. When a company runs out of money and goes bankrupt, it usually means they've run out of ALL their money, including the money all the suckers loaned them to preorder a game. I also assume that once you enter arbitration, you more or less lose control of whatever money you have left, so the refunds aren't theirs to give.

I'd be willing to bet that if you sent a copy of your receipt to Blizzard, they would give you an equivalent discount on a digital copy of the game from their store. It would cost them nothing and earn them big points with people that have been screwed.

Dunno why you get charged to preorder. They don't charge to preorder in the UK. Or haven't in the past when i preordered...tho to be fair i don't often do it cause theres no point theres always plenty of stock on launch day anyway.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/game-over-retailer-goes-into-administration-20120514-1ymey.html

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, GAME intend to 'honour' certain pre-orders such as Max Payne 3 and Diablo 3. What that actually means I don't know.

Also fuck GAME (not for going under but cause they fkn suck, I used to love the Gameswizards stores til they got swallowed up by GAME. Also fuck pre-ordering, but sucks for people in that boat)

@AlexW00d: @BionicRadd: I'm aware of how that works, but it seems to me that there is lacking an institute that deals with consumers in these regards. I would have assumed Australia had such an organisation, but I guess not.

Maybe I'm mis-reading, but that IGN article is older than the article posted by the OP. Administrators are "still working to clarify the status of pre-orders" and at this stage are intent on "honouring certain pre-orders placed on the Diablo III and Max Payne new releases."

That's from the IGN article. The latter article outright says that they aren't going to honour pre-orders. Regardless of GAME going under, there doesn't seem, to me, at least, that there was any indication that people wouldn't get their pre-orders. In fact, quite the opposite. So I think customers have every right to be pissed. A smart consumer would have fucked off a while ago, yeah, but again, there was no indication people wouldn't be getting their games.

What I also find really strange is that they just simply didn't get shipments in. I don't know how shipping works in Australia, but I worked in EB Games, the Canadian equivalent of Gamestop, for a while. We usually got games shipped to us the Friday before release date--in Diablo III's case stores got it on the 11th. Some would be day of, but most, especially the big games (like Diablo III) came a few days before release date. Soooo... yeah, I just find that incredibly weird, especially when they said that they intended to honour pre-orders. Don't promise that shit if you don't have the shipments in your back rooms ready to put on display on Tuesday, buttholes.

Game has been shutting down stores here for about a year or two now. I don't understand why people would keep buying from them when they are just as bad as EB for prices.

You are a creditor just like everyone else. If they find a buyer or a loan to get out of administration you will get your money back.

I can understand the frustration but if you think people are angry about this, wait until a few kickstarters go under before shipping anything.

Well bravo. Not sure how much money they got out of it, but they sure as shit figured out how to steal some cash.

Holy Christ! that sucks real bad, not sure when this news is from but imagine only finding this out today on the day of your daughters wedding, not even thinking about people in poor financial situations imagine the rush to get out there and try and get another copy of the game if not trying to track down a CE.

Wasn't aware the AUS subsidary had gone under

This kind of stuff makes me think Australia is becoming some kind of hell for video games.

The development scene is struggling, the aging internet network is slowing the spread of digital distribution, the retailers are in decline, the government still sees them as a boogey man and we're always paying through the nose for new releases.

I guess being a poor uni student doesn't help either, but still, what will we have to put up with next?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5007290816

We're aware that some Australian GAME customers have been left out in the cold on what should be the hottest night of the year -- the launch of Diablo III. To help with this situation and get these players into the game as soon as possible, we've put the following process in place.

Australian GAME customers with a valid preorder/prepurchase receipt dated before May 15, 2012 can do the following:

1. Purchase the digital version of Diablo III from http://www.diablo3.com now or anytime before May 21, 2012.

2. Download and start playing when the servers go live!

3. Submit your GAME Australia preorder/prepurchase receipt to us before June 30, 2012.

4. Receive a credit from Blizzard, for the amount you paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. This credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.

We'll post further details here on how to submit your GAME Australia receipt to our customer service team as soon as possible. Stay tuned, and we look forward to seeing you in the Burning Hells!