This needs to stop: Walmart logos printed on new game covers

I would return it and buy it online.

Sure, it's a petty first world problem and doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but that's your hard-earned 60 bucks. Take it back, tell them it doesn't work right, get your money, and Amazon that stuff.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna just return it. Do you know if Walmart accepts open games?

@billyhoush said:

This is pure shit and totally devalues the product and defaces the otherwise cool cover art.

Actually, when you consider that only a portion of the full run has been marked up with the Walmart edition info, it's probably worth more than the standard retail edition in the long run. So hang onto it for 40 years and sell it as a label variant!

I was going to pass by Wal-Mart tomorrow while coming back from college to get the game, but that's awful. I will probably go take a look, but I doubt I'll get it there.

As to Jeff's point, it seems like it would be too easy to replicate.

Wouldn't the sticker above the shrink wrap be noticeable? Retailer exclusive content gets to be an ugly mess for consumers.

@Jeff said:

@billyhoush said:

This is pure shit and totally devalues the product and defaces the otherwise cool cover art.

Actually, when you consider that only a portion of the full run has been marked up with the Walmart edition info, it's probably worth more than the standard retail edition in the long run. So hang onto it for 40 years and sell it as a label variant!

40 years? I best start making better life decisions. Just having Jeff reply to my post and completing some rare quests totally made it worth the trip to Walmart. I'm going to cherish this copy of Sleeping Dogs forever.

@Jeff said:

@billyhoush said:

This is pure shit and totally devalues the product and defaces the otherwise cool cover art.

Actually, when you consider that only a portion of the full run has been marked up with the Walmart edition info, it's probably worth more than the standard retail edition in the long run. So hang onto it for 40 years and sell it as a label variant!

Don't let them hear that, They will start charging more for it.

  @billyhoush: Dude, he's right there. You don't have to talk about him in third person like he's the help. :P

@MrKlorox said:

@billyhoush: Dude, he's right there. You don't have to talk about him in third person like he's the help. :P

Keep your head down and try not to make eye contact.

Oops! I guess I was making that comment to myself in my head or to the people reading the thread in general. Time to get more caffeinated :P

@billyhoush said:

This is pure shit and totally devalues the product and defaces the otherwise cool cover art.

Actually, when you consider that only a portion of the full run has been marked up with the Walmart edition info, it's probably worth more than the standard retail edition in the long run. So hang onto it for 40 years and sell it as a label variant!

Think about it from this perspective (and I'm not saying that it's anything other than a crappy perspective, but it's very probably a real perspective):

You're a sales agent from Square Enix. You're in charge of selling games to Wal-Mart. You want Wal-Mart to buy as many copies of your games as possible. You want Wal-Mart to buy a half-million copies of Sleeping Dogs.

Who is your customer? Your customer is not the end user of the game. Your customer is Wal-Mart -- or, to be more exact, the purchasing agents in charge of videogames at Wal-Mart. And you are going to be highly inclined to do whatever it takes to make your customer happy.

Naturally, Wal-Mart is going to want you to reduce prices. Naturally, you don't want to reduce prices. So what else can you do to appeal to Wal-Mart's interests?

You can reach into the pool of DLC for the game, pick out a piece or two of content, and offer it to them as an exclusive. All it costs you is a relatively small amount of development time, and it appeals directly to Wal-Mart's interests, because now it's making the videogame they're selling different (and, in the customer's mind, maybe a bit more valuable) than the "same" videogame on some other company's shelves.

And yes, if Wal-Mart wants you to brand the box with that DLC, you're sure as heck going to brand the box with that DLC. As someone else pointed out, this costs you nothing -- before you start printing copies for Wal-Mart, you're already going to know how many they're ordering, so you just print that many box sleeves with a slightly different graphic. And it's highly valuable to Wal-Mart, because Wal-Mart is trying to reinforce the message to its own customers -- you, potentially -- that Wal-Mart is better than their competitors.

Yes, there's a small number of customers who'll be turned off by the graphic. But the odds are that they're not going to be so turned off that they pass on the game entirely; at worst, they're going to go to a different store to buy it. So, from Square Enix's perspective, that's a net zero. If Wal-Mart asks for a graphic that's so big or so gaudy that it makes the game look cheap and turns off a significant percentage of customers, then that will be bad for Wal-Mart. But they've already bought the games, so from Square Enix's perspective, that's not too much of a problem either.

So yes, if you don't like it, vote with your wallet by going to another store that didn't ask for this sort of deal.

I kind of forgot about the cover and cooled down since I started playing this fantastic game. I guess the cover could always be worse.

@billyhoush said:

I called up Square/Enix and the customer service guy totally agreed and forwarded my words to corporate. I also filed a complaint with Walmart's corporate buyer and explained why this is some lame ass business. They shouldn't gimp your copy with their branding because you bought a first run game with a DLC bonus. I hope more people complain so retailers and publishers stop doing this but I also see this shit as another reason to go all digital next generation. /rant

You did the right thing. I thought this was just going to be a 'bitch thread', but I'm glad you also followed up. Good work.

I was at best buy earlier and I think I may have seen something similar. Mind you I wasn't sure if it was a sticker or not and it was way smaller than that huge Walmart logo. Still that is super shitty.

@billyhoush said:

I kind of forgot about the cover and cooled down since I started playing this fantastic game. I guess the cover could always be worse.

I wanna make a 'yo dogg' comment so bad...

So I did!

i heard you like boxart so ah forget it

Ugh, gross. That's terrible, I'm going to make sure I avoid buying it at Walmart if I end up picking it up. That logo is MASSIVE, too.

Sucks to be you.

Was there a disc inside that case that happened to be a copy of Sleeping Dogs?

There was?

Then what's it fucking matter?

I used to be that crazy collector guy. "Oh man, this has a small nick on it. Oh, that is a rare box for that DVD. Oh, this and that and this and that." It is not important. It honestly isn't. It's a compulsive side of you that is trying to find something wrong to actually stop yourself from buying the product at hand.

Just buy something that happens to have the game and enjoy the game itself.

Digital distribution

My GBA has a target logo below the screen. Not sure if that's awful or hilarious.

Draw your own boxart sans Walmart logo. It doesn't look too hard.

This needs to stop:GIVING A FUCK ABOUT SMOETHING ONLY INTENDED FOR PROTECTING AND ADVERTISING THE DIGITAL CONTENT STORED ON A FUCKING DISK.

If this was on a tin, fine, be pissed. But it's a fucking case. Stop whining. Also, did ya not see it there when you bought it?

Christ, big babies. Sure, it' ugly and has no use, but man, you sure need to be real petty to give a fuck about that when you can easily just go to the plethora of other locations that don't do silly things like that.

Sorry but this gets a big fat who gives a shit from me. Games go on a shelf, the front cover is pretty much never seen, and in the future physical boxes won't even be around.

edit: actually I'm not sorry because people getting upset about this are weird.

Looks awful, but the solution is to not buy your games at Wal-Mart, I guess.  
 
I had something sorta similar happen with the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus collection and I'm pretty sure it was the same deal for every single copy sold in Canada, but no one gave a shit or did anything...because it was Canada. We got what seriously looks like a shitty print-off for our cover art. The quality was absolutely fucking horrific, blurry as shit, and we ALSO didn't get the reversible cover, so we got fucked twice. It still really irks me. There was a lot of complaining going on at the time of release and a ton of bitching on the Playstation Blog, if I recall, but their stance was pretty much "We don't give a shit." which makes it all the more infuriating. I would have paid them the fucking $1 shipping it would cost to send me a piece of god damned paper, but they wouldn't even do that.

I think Wal-Mart can do pretty much whatever they want since they sell such high volumes of merchandise, including video games. I think the percentage of people who care about this is so small as to make it almost irrelevant, at least as far as Wal-Mart is concerned.

Time to call Erin Brockovich.

Yuck. That is some stupid shit right there. I usually buy my games at Best Buy. If they start that shit up, I'll have to start doing my purchases online.

I am not going to judge you for shopping at Walmart, or buying the game at a physical outlet. But what I can't do is not judge you for buying Sleeping dogs.

@billyhoush: Here's what the Best Buy "George St-Pierre Pack" label looks like on the copy I picked up this morning. Not a Best Buy logo per se, but still kind of an eyesore.

Why are you shopping at Wal-Mart?

@RoyaleWifCheese: Thanks for posting this. I would be totally fine with that as it doesn't have the store name on it and is at least an attempt at making it the same motif as the cover design.

A lot of my games have Limited Edition or a graphic listing the first run bonuses that are included. They just don't have an ugly ass Walmart price sticker looking thing.

Don't buy from Walmart. Problem solved.

weird. i bought it from wal-mart too and it was just something on the plastic wrap. that sucks, dude. i hate stuff like that.

@Dagbiker: And minorities.

I guess the OP hasn't printed out custom covers before.

Agreed, thats fucking nasty.

Jesus christ that's nasty.
 
And I'm one country away from getting the huge USK age rating prints of Germany.

I remember they did this with AC:Brotherhood as well. Coincidentally, that was the last game I bought at Walmart.

Also, to those of you asking: "Why buy at walmart?", I honestly don't really have a choice in the matter. I live in a small town and Walmart is the only place that carries a lot of shit, including video games. I've just started ordering online or going out of town now, but yeah, sometimes you're left with no other option.

In most other cases I'd say you were going overboard complaining about something like this. However, the Sleeping Dogs cover art is way too awesome to be ruined by bullshit like this. What are they really gaining by doing this anyways?

I agree with you.

@FinalDasa said:

Don't buy from Walmart. Problem solved.

But duder, "DEEP UNDERCOVER PACK".

Stupid that it's not just a sticker on the outer wrapper or sleeve. Of course since most retail store game prices at launch are about the same, I'd just say to screw going to Walmart for games (unless you have a gift card for them) & get the game somewhere else where those specific retail stamps on the game aren't there.

@Will_M said:

@FinalDasa said:

Don't buy from Walmart. Problem solved.

But duder, "DEEP UNDERCOVER PACK".

All MY packs are deep undercover, if you get what I'm sayin'.

@billyhoush:

Never buy anything from Walmart unless you have to. You didn't have to buy Sleeping Dogs from there. By doing so you've supported this idiotic marketing scheme.

its kind of a brilliant marketing move on their part because they can advertise walmart when its sitting on a shelf after its been traded into gamestop.

First world or not, that is butt ugly. I don't shop at wally world, easy for me to say because weirdly enough there isn't one close, and if you knew where I lived you'd think there be. Maybe the city kept them out, idk.

But Wallmart means nothing to me except the ppl. of site. If anything I'm almost too used to shopping at Amazon.

@The_Nubster said:

@PrivateIronTFU said:

Don't you have the sense of touch? Couldn't you feel that it was a sticker?

Wal-Mart doesn't let you grab your own game, they do it for you.

Besides, why would he rub his game case? That's ridiculous.

Why is that ridiculous? If he's gonna come on here and complain about a sticker, he should have at least felt to see if it was attached to the sleeve or the game case before he opened it. I mean, considering he thinks it's such a big deal, and the fact that generally these stickers are thick enough that yes, you CAN tell where it's placed on the box just by feeling it, it doesn't seem so ridiculous.

@PrivateIronTFU said:

@The_Nubster said:

@PrivateIronTFU said:

Don't you have the sense of touch? Couldn't you feel that it was a sticker?

Wal-Mart doesn't let you grab your own game, they do it for you.

Besides, why would he rub his game case? That's ridiculous.

Why is that ridiculous? If he's gonna come on here and complain about a sticker, he should have at least felt to see if it was attached to the sleeve or the game case before he opened it. I mean, considering he thinks it's such a big deal, and the fact that generally these stickers are thick enough that yes, you CAN tell where it's placed on the box just by feeling it, it doesn't seem so ridiculous.

The fact that he thought it was a sticker made him disregard it. He doesn't think stickers are a big deal, so he didn't think to check for thickness. It looked like a sticker, so he reasoned he could peel it off. However, that was not the case.

And you're totally ignoring the fact that Wal-Mart employees get your game for you. You don't handle it until after the transaction is done, at which point it's in a bag. You have a) no reason to and b) no chance to feel the game until it's too late.