GameStop has not had a particularly brilliant week. Immediately following its forcible removal of OnLive bonus codes in copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the PC, the company suddenly found itself inundated with enraged (and rightful) hurlings of vitriol in the direction of the retailer's management and its policies regarding selling opened games as new--not to mention physically removing content, even if it is for a competing brand, from copies of games. After Square Enix, Deus Ex's publisher, inexplicably apologized for a problem that was only tangentially its fault, GameStop has finally come out and said something beyond a simple reaffirmation that it wasn't cool with a competitor's promotion being sold at its stores.
Sent in an email to GameStop customers today, CEO Paul Raines offered up the following half-apology and goodwill offering:
Dear GameStop customer,
Earlier this week, GameStop removed a competitor's coupon from standard edition PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a recent release by Square Enix. We were not aware that the product box would contain this competitor's offer. We regret the events surrounding this title release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game. And for this, we are truly sorry.
For your inconvenience, we would like to offer you a free $50 GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. We want to earn back your trust and confidence in the GameStop experience. Please bring in this email and your store receipt or order confirmation from GameStop.com and present it to a Game Advisor.
Sincerely,
Paul Raines
CEO, GameStop
While it's unarguably great news that anyone who purchased a copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the PC (and still has their receipt) will apparently get these free offers, Raines and GameStop PR's unwillingness to straight-up say "We should not have removed these coupons from the product in question" effectively implies that GameStop isn't really sorry that they did it in the first place. Some might chalk it up to legal language wrangling, in an effort to avoid admitting a more specific "our bad!" that could potentially turn into some kind of lawsuit down the road. Still, all Raines really admits to is that it was pretty jacked up that customers were brought into this mess between a retailer and a publisher, which is but a fraction of the issue at hand.
If you're one of the customers who picked up your PC copy of Human Revolution at GameStop, go forth informed, and get your free games on. Then I suggest doing as I will do, and never, ever purchase anything from this company again.