gamestop posts

Portal 2, the highly anticipated puzzle shooter from Valve, is now available for pre-order via Steam. The game has two special deals for pre-order buyers. First gamers get 10 percent off the game's regular $49.99 price. The other pre-order bonus is a free downloadable copy of the original 2007 Portal game. Since the game is coming out for both PC and Mac it qualifies for SteamPlay, meaning people who purchase the PC version get the Mac version for free and vise versa.

There are also pre-order specials for getting Portal 2 at GameStop (special skins for the game's robots in the co-op campaign) and at Amazon.com (a $5 credit toward most Amazon.com purchases)

The Steam pre-order page for Portal 2 also contains the system requirements for both the PC and Mac versions of the game. You can check them out for yourself after the jump:

You may remember that several days ago we posted up word that BioWare was going to give GameStop employees a chance to download and play the PC demo of Dragon Age 2 before the demo for the upcoming fantasy RPG was released to the general public. Now it looks like those plans have been cancelled.

The web page that was set up for GameStop employees to download the demo has been replaced with a brief note saying that the demo won't be made available until the publicly released demo for the game is released on February 22. The note cites "security reasons" for this about face. It's possible that publisher Electronic Arts was afraid that the demo would find its way out in the open before its planned release to everyone else.

[Via Joystiq]

Square Enix has now confirmed that the US release date for Dungeon Siege III will be on May 31, a few days after the next game in the fantasy action-RPG series shows up on European shores on May 27. More importantly, a number of retailers have announced their own pre-order incentives for putting your money down early to get the game from developer Obsidian Entertainment.

Perhaps the coolest pre-order incentive is if you get the game via the Steam download service. Those folks will get free single player versions of both previous Dungeon Siege games (developed by Gas Powered Games) for free. Pre-orders at GameStop get two exclusive in-game items (Burning Band of Scorch and Talisman of the Grand Mage) while Amazon.com pre-orders get the Bite of the Arakun in game item and Best Buy pre-orders get the Sacred Heart of the Legion in-game item. Wal-Mart pre-orders will get a mini-strategy guide for the game along with a Dungeon Siege mini-comic produced by Dark Horse Comics.

Developer BioWare's plans to promote its upcoming fantasy RPG sequel Dragon Age 2 may include the welcome release of a PC demo. But it looks like the demo is being offered as an exclusive to GameStop employees first. According to a post on the game's official message board there's a web site link where GameStop employees will be able to download the demo via a special code.

The demo is supposed to be made available to GameStop employees as a way for them to be "a key source of knowledge for Gamestop customers and BioWare fans." The page also states that the demo will be released to the general public on February 23 before the full game is released on March 8. So far there's no word on what content the demo will contain or indeed

The second annual Indie Game Challenge has announced its finalist for the 2011 edition of the independent game competition sponsored by The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, GameStop and The Guildhall. Like last year, six finalists each were picked for the non-professional and professional categories. You can check out the finalist after the jump.

All of the nominated teams will be flown to the DICE Summit in Las Vegas where the winning game and team in each category will be announced on February 11. The winning team in both categories will get $100,000. All of the team will also be able to have meeting with top publishers. In addition the Indie Game Challenge will also name the winner of the Kongregate Award for best browser-based game.

The end of 2010 was a good one for gaming retailer GameStop. The company announced today that for the nine-week holiday sales period that ended on January 1, 2011 the company had $3.02 billion in total sales. That's a 5.4 percent increase in sales compared to the 2009 holiday sales period. Same store sales went up 3.4 percent for the time period.

Part of the reason for the higher sales came from Blizzard's launch of its third MMO expansion pack World of Warcraft Cataclysm. Overall sales of PC games (which is combined with GameStop's sales of video game accessories) went up 15.9 percent for the time period.

While there hasn't been any official word from either parties, the All Things Digital web site is reporting that the game retailer GameStop is partnering with the IGN web site network in several different ways. One of them is having IGN's content show up on GameStop.com while GameStop will run ads on IGN. The traffic of IGN's web sites will also be combined with GameStop.com.

The report does not, however, go into detail on how this new partnership might affect IGN's Direct2Drive PC game download service which competes with GameStop.com's own PC game download options. Also GameStop owns the Game Informer magazine and web site which also competes with IGN's content.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm is supposed to be sold at midnight tonight in various time zones but some lucky folks got their copy of Blizzard's MMO expansion on Saturday. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) reports that a retailer in Sweden started selling the expansion pack on Saturday.

That caused a couple of GameStop stores to do the same thing in order to complete. However those stores have since stopped selling the expansion and will now wait until the embargo expires at midnight. In any case, Blizzard won't actually turn on the online servers for the expansion pack until midnight tonight, making the early sales of the game somewhat moot. As we have mentioned before check out our sister site WoW Insider for all of your World of Warcraft Cataclysm launch needs.

If you feel like staying up late tonight you might want to check out our site around 1:30 am Eastern time or so. There might be something of interest. No promises.

• GameStop has posted up info about midnight openings on Monday at its stores for the launch of World of Warcraft Cataclysm.
• Steam has automatic updates for Super Meat Boy (including Tofu Boy) and Team Fortress 2.
• Steam has also added the new games Swords and Soldiers and Arcadia to its library.
• A new Elemental beta patch is getting closer to release.
• Natural Selection 2 beta owners have a new patch to download.
• You can now pre-order eight inch vinyl figures of Super Meat Boy (alas they won't be released until April).
• Irrational Games has a new podcast where Ken Levine chats with movie director Zack Snyder.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is ramping up the marketing for its first quarter 2011 release by announcing plans to release an "Augmented Edition" (code for Collector's Edition) for the upcoming cyberpunk-themed RPG. The game from developer Eidos Montreal and publisher Square Enix will be priced at $49.99 for the PC port of the Standard Edition with a $59.99 price for the PC Augmented Edition. That price will get you the game and a number of extras including a behind-the-scenes DVD, a motion graphic novel and a 40 page art book.

In addition there will be two special pre-order incentives. GameStop customers who put their money down early will be able to access an additional mission in the game that features a special cameo appearance from an unnamed character from the original Deus Ex game. You will also get some extra in-game items ( The Linebacker G-87 multiple shot grenade launcher, the M-28 Utility Remote-Detonated Explosive Device (UR-DED), and the Automatic Unlocking Device). Other retailers will get a separate pre-order bonus which will include extra in-game credits and two in-game items (The Huntsman Silverback Double-Barrel Shotgun and the Longsword Whisperhead Extreme Range Sniper Rifle) .

[Via email press release]