Gamestop Knowingly Selling Counterfeit Games?

[wraggster]

Via Kotaku

Our good Gawker buddies over at the Consumerist, while remaining total assholes, did manage to spot a fascinating gamer-related story in between all their kvetching about exploding laptop batteries and fruit-flavored Cheerios: at least one Gamestop out there is knowingly selling counterfeit Nintendogames.

The complaint comes via Curmudgeon Gamer, who tried to buy a copy of Aria of Sorrow second-hand from a local Gamespot. He quickly spotted it was a counterfeit and schooled the loquacious pimple behind the counter about how you spot a fake cartridge.

Me: First key was the label. That one doesn't look like the one I own. Then when I looked at the contacts, I didn't see the word "Nintendo" on the circuit board. Look here at Game A. [I hand him Game A, pointing at circuit board]
Dude: Whoa. [he takes Aria of Sorrow from me] You're right, it doesn't say "Nintendo". That's cool.

Me: Yeah. If you peel the price sticker off, you can probably tell the back of the cartridge is slightly different. And if you take the case apart you'll see a nasty cheap battery and a blop of black epoxy or something over the main chip.

Dude: Whoa. Learned something tonight! [he hands back Game A, puts Aria of Sorrow back in case] As long as it's just between you and me, no problem, right? [he closes case]

Well, now it's between you, Curmudgeon Gamer and 200,000 Kotaku readers. But we'll be quiet, won't we, guys?

[ExcruciationX]

I didn't think Gamestop would do that!

[Nafogel]

wow, thats just crazy

[Napalm-Death]

I'll be VERY quiet. Me thinks it's time for me to stop going to Gamestop.

[ACID]

Makes sence since the one i go to the 3 employs know nothing about games.

[brainpan]

When I was in Gamestop last week, the clerk would not shut up about...get this...the XBOX360 version of Final Fantasy 13. He was saying things like "it even looks better than the PS3 one" and the like. Who knows though. Maybe Square will release FF13 for 360.

[SSaxdude]

One of the employees at Gamestop thought I was stealing because I was wearing a hoodie and the poutch was sagging down.

Another occasion I asked the guy if he was into PSP homebrew and he said "we're not allowed to talk about that." So I highly doubt they sell counterfeit games, but they still suck.