Not even Fire Emblem Engage’s lead VA can get GameStop to fulfill their preorder

Alear’s one weakness — corporate shenanigans.

Screenshot by Gamepur

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Since its release last week, Fire Emblem Engage has been met with impressive reviews and much love from the fandom, many of whom appreciated the game’s return to its tactical roots and eye-catching art style. Still, the positive reception only extends as far as those who have actually managed to get their hands on the game — plenty of fans were left out in the cold thanks to stores like GameStop being unable to fill preorders. In fact, not even members of the game’s voice cast could escape such a fate, according to one of the actors.

Lol @GameStop just called to let me know that my preorder of the Divine Edition of Fire Emblem Engage sadly won’t be fulfilled because corporate had them selling preorders without guaranteed stock. I voice the lead in the game.
— Brandon McInnis (Black Butler: Public School Arc) (@BranMci) January 26, 2023

Voice actor Brandon McInnis, who plays the role of male Alear in Fire Emblem Engage, tried to preorder the Divine Edition of the game — a special edition which comes with a poster, art book, and more — but was told by GameStop that the store would be unable to fulfill it. The reason given was that the head honchos at corporate had instructed stores to sell preorders even when it exceeded the planned stock of the game. McInnis took the news in stride, opting to buy a digital version of the game and pick up the Divine Edition on eBay, but he expressed regret that other fans were being “duped” by GameStop’s sales tactics. That said, in the replies he was quick to assure followers that the fault didn’t lie with the employees themselves: “They’re dealing with enough already if that’s the way corporate runs things.”

Unfortunately :/

I was lucky to have a manager who refused to sell preorders. I’ll never forget having stores call us for the Wii Fit because they’d sold THEIR preorders and were scrambling to fill orders. It was a mess.
— Bri @ Twin Cities Pride Queer Writes Tent 660B (@BrichibiTweets) January 27, 2023

Many fans flocked to the replies to share their own tales of woe at the hands of GameStop, including some who had worked there previously. User @BrichibiTweets related that similar things had happened with other games when she worked at the chain a decade ago, and had vivid memories of other stores begging for extra copies of Wii Fit from them due to their own issues with preorders. Meanwhile, user @Myrnisth3word confirmed from his own experience as a GameStop manager that this was “standard practice upon game releases.” This is certainly not a tactic that should be engaged with.