In what can only be described as an unfortunately timed PR disaster of biblical proportions, UK-based game store GAME surrounds itself in controversy after mistakenly cancelling pre-orders for the Pip-Boy edition of Fallout 4.
The whole situation started after the official GAME Facebook page posted an update saying that the payments for the pre-orders of Fallout 4's Pip-Boy Edition have not been processed correctly, putting the blame on PayPal and local banks. Customers are reporting that GAME cancelled their pre-orders due to their PayPal accounts not having sufficient funds, even though multiple customers on Twitter say that they did have enough money in their accounts to pay for the purchase. What this comes down to is that customers are losing the deposit they made upon pre-ordering the game, but will not be receiving the actual edition they ordered. In a statement to GameSpot, the company states that they are "committed to replacing cancelled pre-orders for the Pip-Boy Edition of Fallout 4", assuring players that their Pip-Boy Edition is safe.
GAME has stated that they "can confirm that these payment issues were not caused by our systems, and instead arose due to customers’ banks or PayPal accounts not allowing payment to go through. This is mainly caused by expired bank account details."
GAME says that only a small part of their customers are experiencing problems, but if their Twitter and Facebook are any indication it seems like a significant portion of their customers are not getting the product they paid for increasingly vague reasons. Some players report that, even though their payment got processed, they are still waiting for their copy to be shipped. GAME insists that none of this is their fault. They also admitted that some pre-orders are not ready for launch. GAME has as of yet not specified when players will be receiving their copy.
This is not the first time this has happened to players pre-ordering from GAME. Earlier this year, over 300 people lost their deposit on the collector's edition of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, with GAME once again citing PayPal and bank-related problems. Players suspect that GAME took on more pre-orders than they should, resulting in them cancelling random pre-orders at launch while blaming external parties. The store also cancelled pre-orders for the GAME exclusive Batman: Arkham Knight Batmobile Edition earlier this year, saying that publisher Warner Bros. Interactive chose to withhold the edition from sale.
In addition to this (as if the above wasn't already enough), GAME also overcharged players multiple times to amount they owed for Super Mario Maker pre-orders earlier this year.
Fallout 4 released yesterday and has been getting positive reviews all across the board.
