It’s common knowledge that GameStop will sometimes go to ridiculous and extreme lengths to get their customers to reserve upcoming games. Oftentimes they’ll have free stuff to give away, or even sell the game at a slightly discounted price to pre-order customers. However, the EB Games and GameStops in Canada are trying something entirely new with the upcoming PS3 exclusive Haze.



Canadian gamers who reserve Haze will be able to return it for the full value within seven days. For those who are unaware, GameStop has a strict no-return policy for games that have been opened (even if they’re only a day old); gamers in that position usually would only be able to trade it in for store credit, which is generally less than half of the retail value. As Haze’s story mode is only supposed to be about eight hours long, one week should be enough time to complete the game and maybe get a little multiplayer in on the side.

I’m a little puzzled as to why the company is doing this, though, and why only in Canada. Is it really going to be that hard to convince people to get Haze, one of only a handful of PS3 exclusives? More likely, GameStop is assuming that a percentage of customers who take advantage of this deal will either lose their receipts or forget to return it within the seven days. I’d be interested in seeing what would happen if they tried this out in the U.S. as well, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the Canada deal goes.

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