Welcome to the ZTGD Reviewer Rodeo. Each week, we’ll grab on to the hottest issue, hold on for dear life, and wrassle it to the ground.
While the news about Gamestop’s covert removal of free OnLive copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution from PC copies might be last week’s news, it still has an impact on the community. This week, the ZTGD crew reacts to this business practice.
John “Dubya” Whitehouse
To me it seems like a fruitless exercise as they would have already made the sale anyway. It makes you wonder what was the thinking behind it; not only will this news damage their already poor reputation, but also ruin any relationship they have with OnLive. Acts like these just reinforce the fact that Gamestop have no respect for their customers and partners.
Drew “Frustrated Fury” Leachman
It’s very, very simple. Don’t shop at GameStop. I stopped over a year ago, but that is beside the point. Yes, What they did was very wrong, but they have done things like this in the past. Which is why I stopped shopping there. GameStop is out to make money. That is all. If you get angry at what they do, buy your games at another store. Amazon PAYS you to buy games from them. If you wanted to know my reaction, it was “Sounds about right.”
It’s one of those situations where I say, “I wouldn’t put it past them.” Vote with your dollars. If you don’t like how a company handle’s their business, then stop supporting that company.
Michael “PaladinXII” Futter
When I used to shop at Gamestop, it was because the people working at the store near my house were real gamers. They were knowledgeable, friendly and often guided people away from making bad purchase decisions.
It’s important to note that there are good Gamestop employees out there. Unfortunately, when they get a command from up top like this one, it’s hard for them to ignore it, even if it makes no sense. As John mentioned, this was a fruitless effort. In fact, OnLive got so much press from this that their sales jumped significantly. This single action in the name of protecting their new business venture has put Gamestop’s yet to be launched streaming service further behind an even more powerful competitor.
I imagine that Gamestop has started to step out of their niche with the purchase of Impulse and the company behind this streaming service to future-proof their operations. With retail likely to play a smaller role in game sales moving forward, Gamestop needs to diversify. Unfortunately, it appears that they just aren’t ready to compete properly outside their comfort zone. They either need to get smart or contact Blockbuster for the name of a good liquidation company.
Ken “ZeroTolerance” McKown
Being a former employee of said company, I can say that this in no way shocks me, which is scary, to say the least. With that said, I am absolutely appalled that a company would take this action. If you don’t want to support a competitor that is fine, remove the game from your shelves and refuse to sell it. That makes more of a statement then removing content that users are paying for. This is no different than Best Buy removing the digital copies from Blu-Rays before your purchase them. Personally, I find this to be a shady practice, and even though Gamestop is trying to win back customer faith with an apology, I don’t think this will be the last we’ll hear about this debacle.
That’s all for this edition of the ZTGD Reviewer Rodeo. Join us next week as we grab onto another bucking bronco of controversy and beat it into submission.
Got questions or comments? Drop ’em in the comment section below or hit us up via email. Suggestions for Reviewer Rodeo topics that you want our opinions on? Hit Mike up at michaelfutter@ztgamedomain.com.
