People who pre-order the 5th Cell-developed game at GameStop in the U.S. or EB Games in Canada will receive this spiffy Maxwell rooster hat when they pick up their copy on Sept. 15. Quantities are limited.

GameStop's "check-out" policy, confirmed to Kotaku by a number of the chain's managers and employees, could fall under scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission.

Reached for comment this afternoon, GameStop officials declined to comment.

"We do not comment on corporate policies that are competitive in nature," said Chris Olivera, vice president of corporate communications. "As your questions relate to company training, operations and discounting practices, I would not be able to provide feedback."

Kotaku contacted the FTC earlier today to determine if the practice, which sells games already played by employees at the new price, not the used price—used titles are typically priced about $5 cheaper than brand new versions—would be considered deceptive advertising or marketing. The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection is mandated to protect consumers against unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. Violations of FTC restrictions are a violation of federal law, according to the commission.

"The Federal Trade Commission protects consumers from unfair or deceptive advertising and marketing practices, and we encourage any consumer with a complaint about a company's business practices to contact us," said FTC public affairs specialist Betsy Lordan.

Lordan said she was unable to confirm or deny the existence of any investigation that the commission is conducting. As a rule the FTC does not comment on the conduct of a particular business.

The company's check-out policy, provided to us and verified by a number of GameStop employees states:

Associates are allowed to check out one item of store merchandise for personal use for up to four days. Merchandise checkout is a privilege, not a right, and may be revoked at any time.

Hardware, accessories, sealed CDs or software programs that must be altered to install may not be checked out. If the on-hand quantity of a product equals one, the item cannot be checked out. Hot titles may also be prohibited from being checked out, regardless of the on-hand quantity in the store.

Associates may only check out items from the store in which they work. Associates are personally responsible for any merchandise they are allowed to check out.

Merchandise must be properly checked out in the Employee Merchandise Check Out Log in the Game Planner.

If the product is returned in unsellable condition, or if anything is missing from the package, or if the product is not returned, the Associate must purchase the product at the current price less Associate discount.

Copying of the software and/or manuals/instructions is illegal and is strictly prohibited. Merchandise that leaves the store without being properly checked out or purchase is considered to be unauthorized removal of Company property and may result in performance coaching up to and including termination of your employment.

According to a number of GameStop employees and managers across the country, all of which spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, new copies of games rented out to employees are often mixed in with the unplayed display copies. And both are sold at "new" prices.

When a shipment of video games initially arrives at a store, managers are told to "gut" several copies of the game, removing the disc or cartridge from the packaging so it can be displayed on the shelf without concern of theft, according to our sources.

The games are then placed in protective sleeves or cases under the counter. If a customer asks why the game is not sealed they are typically told the the game is a display copy. The game is still sold as new.

When check-out games are returned, we were told, they are placed with the gutted display copies. If a customer asks about these, they are typically told they are display copies, not that they have been played before.

Since the copies are often placed with display copies, even managers and employees typically don't know which of these games have been played and which haven't.

While some GameStop managers will on occasion offer a "Shop Worn Discount" for a gutted or checked out title, we are told by our sources that this is actually against GameStop policy which states:

"Do not apply Shop Worn Discounts to any new, used or checked out games, it may only be applied for damaged packaging and new accessories which have been opened."

Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, GameStop is the world's largest video game retailer, operating nearly 6,000 stores worldwide. The company's revenue was $8.8 billion in 2008.

Michael McWhertor contributed to this story.

Update: Legal experts way in on the story.

Both the police and the attorney general's office in New South Wales say that the New South Wales Classification Enforcement Act prohibits publishers and retailers from selling unclassified computer games with penalties for individuals breaking the law ranging from $1,100 to $11,000 and up to a year in jail. For corporations, the fines roughly double.

And games like World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea are all sold without classification.

Something that the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia doesn't believe is true. They claim that games without single player components don't need to be classified.

But they're not the ones making and enforcing the laws are they?

To make things more interesting, a spokesman for the New South Wales police minister told The Sydney Morning Herald that if people see a store selling these games they should file a complaint with the police so they can take action.

The one sticking point seems to be the definition of computer game, which as of this writing doesn't include a "bulletin board." Obviously the definition is a bit outdated, making it, perhaps, tricky to settle on an interpretation.

Of course if you have both the police and prosecutors agreeing, than it's going to be an uphill battle for anyone cited.

Sounds like they need to rewrite that definition.

Calls and emails to Blizzard and Activision for comment went unanswered today.

No classification: online games legal minefield [SMH]

New video games sales were up 10%, with GameStop reporting that its five best sellers were Madden NFL 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fable II, Wii Fit and Guitar Hero World Tour.

"Despite the dramatic decline of the global economy and its severe impact on the entire retail industry, GameStop had a strong quarter," Daniel DeMatteo, Chief Executive Officer, said. "Sales have been very robust over the last several weeks, driven by strong new title releases such as Activision's Call of Duty: World at War and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and Microsoft's Gears of War 2."

Ubisoft reprinting Beyond Good & Evil to sell for $9.99? [Firestorm @ NeoGAF]

I'm not seeing anything about this program outside of Canada, which is probably due to the fact that GameStop knows those friendly Canadians are just too gosh-darn polite to take advantage, while in the states they'd have 50% of their inventory back by Friday.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [EBGames Canada via NextGenPLayer - Thanks Dave!]

23-year-old Geovany Rivera, recently named to the marshal's 15 most-wanted list, was arrested late last night by the U.S. Marshalls Service at a cousin's house in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Rivera. a former EB Games employee, had long been a suspect in the case, with one witness having told the police that the suspect approached him on the morning before the crime suggesting they rob the store. Homicide detectives applied for a warrant to do DNA test on Rivera this past January after a short black hair had been found near the body.

Rivera was in a federal holding facility in Laredo as of late last night, from which he will be transferred to Bexar County to face charges of capital murder, along with two unrelated counts of sexual assualt stemming from unrelated incidents. On the arrest, deputy marshal and lead investigator Bobby Hogeland described the suspect's reaction as "very surprised".

“He thought he was going to evade the law, but that wasn't the case,” Hogeland said...But, he noted, though the arrest brings some satisfaction, Belken's parents “are still going to have to live with this for a long, long time.”

It should be noted that this particular case resulted in one of the largest rewards in San Antonio's history - $100,000, $95,000 of which was put up from EB Games.

Suspect in EB Games killing arrested [My San Antonio News - Thanks Jason]
[Image]

That Spore poster had better have a large image of Will Wright sporting his best denim on at least one side and have a scratch 'n' sniff patch that reeks of Wright's brand of cigarettes. We appreciate the finer things in life, too, you know.

Spore Galactic Edition [GameStop]

It's a blow to Kiwis who take pride in local ownership and believe that retailing games and consoles isn't a job so complex only American multinational corps get to do it. As far as actual economic impact, Geekpulp says Gamesman staff have been told no job losses are planned. However, there are eight stores in five cities, all of whom also have EB stores. So it's inevitable that some will close down the line. Not happy news for our gamer friends in New Zealand.

The Gamesman Set to be Acquired by EB Games [Geekpulp, thanks Ahmad]

After 7 productive years with GameStop, Steve Morgan has made the decision to reapply his energy and drive outside out GameStop Steve will officially be leaving the company on May 2nd 2008. Steve has stated from the very first day we discussed his position with our merged company that his goal was to head up a company as a CEO. After two and half very successful years as our President he now feels that the time is right to pursue his objective.

The kicker? Due to EB Games policy, the customer couldn't return the product (even in light of certain evidence). Shame on EB Games? Yeah, but bigger shame on the customer for giving in. Unless, of course, the guy was lying and the missing games were just an incredible coincidence. Buyers beware. Open GH3 in the store or suffer from a potentially lethal mix of bad luck and assholedom.

Open Guitar Hero III Inside The Store, Some Boxes May Be Empty [via gaygamer]

London, 2038. According to to legend...

Who knew the DS was part of "ancient knowledge and rituals [that] were lost to the antiquity of time"? We certainly didn't. But now that we do, we're ordering ourselves another DS.

God bless typos that aren't our own.

Thanks Addy! [damn, they fixed it already]

With a back up PlayStation 2 tucked inside, a still running deal that will net five free Blu-ray movie discs of varying quality—Omen 666, anyone?—the 20 GB PlayStation 3 may have gone from second choice to only choice for PlayStation sticklers.

Plus, it's in classic black! No chrome strip to wipe down. Yes, I'm reaching.

UPDATE: Yep, as many of our readers have noted, looks like it's now "back ordered" at Gamestop. It might have been a good deal, if it were actually in stock.

PlayStation 3 20 GB [EBGames - thanks, Jeffrey!]

This is an ONLINE ONLY Limited Edition. This item WILL NOT be available in stores.

This seems like an odd move, but who am I to question the logic of the great EB Games? So as not to cause any confusion, EB Games isn't the only place you can get the Mass Effect Limited Edition, you just won't be able to get in their stores. Whether or not it will be available at other brick and mortar locales remains to be seen.

Mass Effect Limited Edition- ONLINE ONLY [EB Games]
[Thanks, Doomstink]

[via The Asian Power Hour]

Gamers in New York, Utah, California, Texas and Washington state can recreate their own standing-next-to-Big Daddy scene, just like in the pic above. Or you can go with the always classic shot of yourself faux fellating the character. Sorry, attractive Swedish girlfriend not included in this offer.

GameStop
Broadway & 33rd
1282 Broadway
New York, NY

GameStop
Park Center
6949 S. Park Center Drive
Salt Lake City, UT

EB Games
San Franscisco/Powell Street
151 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA

GameStop
C/o Barnes & Noble
2201 Preston Road, Suite E
Plano, TX

EB Games
Universal Citywalk
1000 Universal Studios Blvd, Ste 101
Universal City, CA

GameStop
Bellevue Square
248 Bellevue Square
Bellevue, WA

Alvin and the Chipmunks Invading Consoles [Siliconera]