Amazing. I'll guess also a gazillion console games and the pc games you mentioned right? But a visionary game like this gets bashed because of some bugs and other big Named games with a equal number of bugs gets 9/10 in most major publications. The sheeple have spoken, gotta love it!

This is why i love Paypal, and the fact stardock lets me use paypal.

Tried walmart? they should carry it.

The sims3 is a pretty awesome and well polished game.  Don't diss it unless you've put a few hours in.  That being said, I just use paypal and impulse to get the game.

There's no used PC game business anymore which Gamestop relies heavily on in order to rake gamers over the coals. I, for one, avoid that company like a plague.

Your only sensible option is to go in and ask for the game and when they don't have it, smash the place up.

All GameStops within 100 miles of my house in LA do not carry Elemental. Nor do any BestBuys.

Didn't FrogBoy make a post a month or so ago explaining how the publishing process and reserving shelf space at stores worked? Stating that he was happy to report that, among others, Stardock reserved shelf space at BestBuy and GameStop?

What the heck happened? LA is not the middle of nowhere, I'm very surprised and disappointed. It was simple to grab a copy of Sins off the shelf but not Elemental, a pricier game?

Shocked and upset. I want my damn box.

This is just how Gamestop functions.

They buy sizable quantities of mainstream games that are sure to sell. I.E. Mario, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Pokemon etc because they know these will sell. All the lesser titles like Runefactory and E:WoM they typically count preorders thand then add 1-3 on to that number. In this case I doubt many people preordered Elemental from Gamestop so they were all like "Herp Derp, no preorders. game is bad investment."

Gamestop relies on guaranteed sales from popular franchises and also preorders. Their other half is buying mostly new 50-60$ games for 15$ and selling them for 45-55$ used for months before lowering the price. Doesn't that make you want to hit someone?

TL:DR version - Don't do business with Gamestop if you can avoid it. You're better than that.

eff gamestop shop anywhere else. Buy it directly from stardock to give them most of the $'s

I put a few hours into the Sims 3... and here is my expression of the game, written in 5 minutes in QBasic.  This is exactly what playing the Sims is like:  http://expensiveplanetarium.blogspot.com/2009/09/sims-boiled-down.html

Glad you all seem to be happy to watch Gamestop go.  Worst thing about it was how it bought up all the smaller stores that actually gave a shit about video games... like Funcoland, which stocked games going all the way back to NES up until like 2003 or 4 when GS bought them out.

Yes, GS may be a non-PC store, but you seem to miss the point:

FrogBoy specifically said that GS would stock Elemental -- yet it's not. Same thing with BB.

Just be careful with using paypal, I did and the money has been taken but haven't been activated in 5 days...sales system is probably buggier than Elemental is atm...

I have basically given up on GS in general, they have become little more than a used game pawn shop. The few GS that even carry PC games leave that section feeling like a tiny ghetto stocked with dented frayed boxes of 5 year old expansions for EQ and even Auto Assault (lol). A friend remarked it was like going into the adults only corner of a shady video store - the only thing missing is a bead curtain.

Gamestop staff have commented how online sales are the cause of the decline in PC games. I call serious BS. They don't get the kind of margins on new PC games that they do used games (pay some schmo $5 and sell it for $35). They stopped carrying stock and folks basically gave up and went elsewhere (or online). PC gaming isnt dying, but console games are giving GS far bigger profit margins - and they simply dont care. 

RAT

Gamestop's website has it listed, and if I had to bet at least one of my local Gamestops probably carries it too.

I get the feeling it's a regional thing, where some region's Gamestops have a more fleshed-out PC selection and others' PC selections are more bare bones.