An angry NeoGAF poster bought what he thought was a new copy of Steambot Chronicles from Gamestop, only to find out later that the US retailer actually sold him a demo disc for the game, with the "Demo: Not for Resale" watermark scribbled out with a sharpie marker.
Thanks to Gamestop's policy of holding discs from new games behind the counter, this sort of thing is inevitable. The customer brings the empty case up front when purchasing, and the underpaid Gamestop employee finds the corresponding disc and puts it in the box. The problem with this system becomes plainly clear with incidents like this -- consumers have no real way of knowing if the disc they're being handed is the one that Gamestop originally removed from the packaging.
Our advice? Always double-check Gamestop purchases for scratches, scuffs, or sharpie scribblings before leaving the store. The onus falls on you, the consumer, since I seriously doubt Gamestop's policies are going to be changing anytime soon. Why the customer chose to buy the decidedly bland Steambot Chronicles in the first place is unclear.
