[Update: GameStop has pulled the game from the shelves. Yes, a retailer recall because of this entire screw-up.]

Wow. I mean, seriously wow. GameStop has pulled some shady things over the years, but this might top them all in terms of messing with both gamers and publishers. Square-Enix is packing coupons with copies of the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that lets users get (purchase? access? There’s no downloading involved) the game on the OnLive streaming game service. If you buy the game at GameStop, however, you might not get it in the box. Because GameStop ordered its employees to take the coupons out of the box.

That’s right. GameStop is taking material a publisher put in a retail product out of that product before selling it to gamers for the same price. GameStop is literally stealing these coupons as policy. That’s kind of a big deal. GameStop’s excuse is that OnLive is a competing service for a streaming gaming service they’re working on but don’t have running yet. That’s kind of total bullshit, especially when Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Duke Nukem Forever, and other games require Steam, another competing service, just to install. GameStop didn’t do anything when Valve offered free copies of Portal 2 on Steam with the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2, and that’s a competing service offered in a game for a completely different system. With OnLive, unless you get the OnLive Microconsole, it’s basically just another way to play it on your PC.

This is a bullshit move. There are a lot of grey areas in video game distribution, but removing content a publisher put in because it might compete with something you’re working on is simply wrong. If you pick up Deus Ex on PC at GameStop, don’t let them charge you full price. Tell them it’s an opened game, but you would be happy to accept it as a trade-in for $22.