Futureshop.ca game pre-orders are a scam [Update 1]
[Update 1] Given the difficulty I had securing a PLAYSTATION 3 on launch weekend back in 2006, I got in the habit of pre-ordering popular PS3 games from Futureshop.ca months in advance as a security precaution in case they were in short supply come launch day.
So far this hasn’t really been worth it, because there hasn’t been a single game released that I wasn’t able to simply walk into a local store on launch day and pick up off the shelf. The PS3 just doesn’t have enough of an install base yet to make it an issue, I figured. But for must have games, I sitll pre-ordered them just in case.
Now me being the impatient impulse buyer I am, I usually don’t wait for my pre-order to arrive via Canada Post, since that would mean waiting an extra 2-3 days before getting it. What I do is go pick up the game on launch day and then cancel my order online or by calling Futureshop.ca’s top secret toll-free customer service phone number. If it’s already shipped, it only costs me $1.99 for the shipping since I just return the unopened package for a refund (they don’t refund shipping charges, obviously).
I figured if any game was going to deviate from the status quo, it would be Grand Theft Auto IV. Since it was supposed to come late last year, I had pre-ordered it back on August 19, 2007. Today is the official launch day, but many stores opened at midnight to accommodate the crowds of GTA fans that were anxious for their ‘fix’. So being the game junkie I am, I headed over to a local Future Shop at around 11pm to stand in line. When I got there, there must have been 50-60 people in line. By the time midnight rolled around, there may have been 200-300 or more people in line. It was chilly (and I didn’t listen to my wife and wear a warmer jacket), but I had no problems picking up a copy of GTA IV. I don’t think anyone had a problem, it looked like the store had plenty of copies of both the XBox 360 and PS3 version to go around. One fellow line-goer said that Best Buy across the street had received 1200 copies of the game. I suspect this Future Shop probably got a similarly crazy amount, given that Best Buy owns Future Shop.
So yes I played the game for about 3 hours before getting to bed, and yes it’s as amazing as everyone says it is. Since this isn’t a review of the game (there are plenty of those at that link I just posted 19 words ago), I won’t bother going into any more detail about the game. Just go out and buy it, it’s as near perfect a game as has ever been made, blah, blah, blah. Back to my story.
This morning I check my Futureshop.ca GTA IV order status and expect to see that my order has already shipped, since I had forgotten to call them last night to cancel. To my surprise, instead of it saying “shipped” or “in process”, it lists the status as “out of stock”. So I check the product page at the online store, as seen in the image to the right (click to enlarge), to see what the store stock status is like. The four stores closest to me are all showing the game in-stock, but the online store is again showing out of stock. Now it doesn’t really matter since I have the game already, but this really struck a chord with me.
So to cut a long story short (is that even possible at this point?, I’m not sure…) So, to sum up, I pre-ordered my copy of GTA IV from Futureshop.ca more than 8 months ago, and I’m still not guaranteed a copy of the game from the initial shipment of inventory gets at least ships on launch day, yet anyone can just stroll into any Future Shop retail store on today and pick a copy up off the shelf. I pose the question to you, my readers (and more importantly to Future Shop): What is the point of pre-ordering your game in advance? Don’t answer that, it rhetorical. There obviously is no point. Future Shop’s online video game pre-orders are a scam. Or in other words, total B.S.
I have since cancelled my Metal Gear Solid IV pre-order from Futureshop.ca, and won’t be pre-ordering any future games from them. Since Best Buy owns Future Shop, and their online stores are likely one and the same, I’m extending this boycott to bestbuy.ca as well. From now on, if I want to pre-order a game, I’ll stick with EBGames, since they seem to take pre-orders pretty seriously. But I’ll likely just take my chances on launch day going forward, since the video game software industry really does seem to have mastered the art of maximizing launch day sales by ensuring they stuff the channel with sufficient inventory. Now if only the game hardware companies could do the same, people wouldn’t still be having a hard time finding a Wii.
Update 1 - 4/30/2008, 11:25 am: Well looks like my assumption about EBGames taking their pre-orders seriously was incorrect. According to Kotaku, EBGames U.S. upper management gave instructions to their stores to provide copies of GTA IV to walk-in customers at the expense of customers who had pre-ordered the game. Not sure if this policy applied in Canada or not, but it’s a pretty safe bet it did.
Absolutely shameful.
Add comment April 29th, 2008