Hey, at least Amazon pulled out the 'buy' button when they're out of keys, unlike Steam...

Or Gamersgate. Selling Batman for days and getting the keys WEEKS later ....

Pulling the buy button is fine as long as they're sure the deal comes back before the sale ends. With Steam that's rarely the case. In those cases I'd rather they keep the buy button up, let me buy it on sale price and get the product when they can give it, rather than take it off, and missing the sale. What they *should* do is make a note during purchase the second they run out of keys though.

Shops have chosen several different ways to deal with "out of keys" situations, but I don't think anyone can argue that the best solution is this one:

- Inform customers (before the purchase) that the keys have run out, so that they can make an informed decision
- Allow customers to still buy the offer if they don't mind the wait

Unfortunately, shops rarely implement it. What I'm usually seeing are shops that stop the offer, and shops that don't inform about missing keys beforehand. Both practices aren't very customer friendly, since - in effect - they are then luring customers into the shop, or into buying something, without delivering the goods (or at least not as quickly as the customer expects).

New updates from Amazon regarding the "Square Enix pack" They decided not to bring it back anymore and just fix the SupCom keys issue. Bummer for those who missed it..

Perfect example why taking off the Buy button can be a bummer :/

Funniest RPG I ever played. I would save the game before every conversation so I could try all the options.

Actually, I would have preferred that...
Anyway, they probably won some new customers, disgruntled some others, and are doing fine altogether. I'm not even in the US.

Wait, you want to pay for a game and then don't be able to play it for weeks? Rather than not pay for it and only buy it when you can play it?

...

It's like pre-ordering of sorts :P

Doom III BFG Edition was just launched.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/208200/

Apparently Doom III owners get a discount - but it's not working for me. This better not replace the base games everyone already owns.

Most people already do this. Buy games on sale, and play them in a few weeks (best case scenario). Many games are purchased and not played at all. So what's so surprising about etna87's statement? You want to say you always play the games you buy when you buy them? Unless you severely limit your purchases, I would call bullshit on that.

But I want to choose when to play those games. Not Gamersgate. And I wanted to play Batman when I bought it. It was especially bad as Steam version got keys added and not GG for weeks.

Important part added :)

And etna87 was willing to wait. Both of you are right as far as I'm concerned. Psyringe's solution would have been the best one. Let the customer make and informed decision, whatever that may be.

Thing is, in this case, I think it's more to do with Amazon's willingness to sell even at a loss to increase market share and to strengthen the current userbase. But even that "loss" must have a limit. And even if it did not have a limit, Steam would surely try to impede them in getting enough keys.

Anyway, people should consider these type of deals are rarely a one time thing, no matter what they say. Expect to see that package again for Christmas or something like that.