It seems the rumors regarding GameStop pulling the free OnLive coupons from new copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are true.

Earlier today, we reported that retail PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution came with a code for the OnLive version of the game. We also noted that unverified rumors had been circulating suggesting GameStop had been removing these coupons from new copies of the game.

It seems those rumors have basis in fact, as this leaked email, allegedly from a GameStop manager, is anything to go by. GameSpy also reports that GameStop public relations representative Beth Sharum confirmed the retailer had been removing the coupons from boxed copies of the game.

Image from GameSpy

The justification for this behavior was that Square Enix had packed the coupons in with the game without GameStop’s knowledge and consent, and that OnLive is a competitor to GameStop’s upcoming relaunch of Spawn Labs’ Impulse service — which happens to offer game streaming on demand.

We’ve reached out to OnLive to confirm the arrangements of the pack-in deal and also to find out their take on the situation, but have not yet heard anything as yet.

It seems the rumors regarding GameStop pulling the free OnLive coupons from new copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are true.

Earlier today, we reported that retail PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution came with a code for the OnLive version of the game. We also noted that unverified rumors had been circulating suggesting GameStop had been removing these coupons from new copies of the game.

It seems those rumors have basis in fact, as this leaked email, allegedly from a GameStop manager, is anything to go by. GameSpy also reports that GameStop public relations representative Beth Sharum confirmed the retailer had been removing the coupons from boxed copies of the game.

Image from GameSpy

The justification for this behavior was that Square Enix had packed the coupons in with the game without GameStop’s knowledge and consent, and that OnLive is a competitor to GameStop’s upcoming relaunch of Spawn Labs’ Impulse service — which happens to offer game streaming on demand.

We’ve reached out to OnLive to confirm the arrangements of the pack-in deal and also to find out their take on the situation, but have not yet heard anything as yet.

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Editor's Note 11:40am: OnLive and Square Enix have both refused to comment on the allegations of GameSpot tampering with the PC copies of Deux Ex. However, Steve Perlman, OnLive's Founder, President, and CEO has said that since Deux Ex: Human Revolution launched yesterday, "an unbelievable number of people have started playing it [Deux Ex] on OnLive.”

]

Those who would rather their personal information stayed out of the hands of EA may wish to give their digital distribution platform Origin a miss.

VG247 reports that EA’s Origin service does not allow users to opt out of data and system information collection, at least according to the end-user license agreement (EULA):

2. Consent to Collection and Use of Data.

You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION.

This and all other data provided to EA and/or collected by EA in connection with your installation and use of this Application is collected, used, stored and transmitted in accordance with EA’s Privacy Policy located at www.ea.com. To the extent that anything in this section conflicts with the terms of EA’s Privacy Policy, the terms of the Privacy Policy shall control.

This clause is in itself nothing unusual in agreements for digital clients of the Origin ilk, and moreover it doesn’t guarantee that EA will “collect, use, store, transmit or display” your data, but it does give them the right to if they want to for whatever reason. Some services allow you to opt out from data collection — Origin is not one of them.

Those concerned about privacy and wondering whether this will affect their purchase of Star Wars: The Old Republic, a community manager on the official forums has noted that it is not necessary to use the Origin client to “download, patch or play” Star Wars: The Old Republic. This applies to both Origin.com and retail purchases — for now, at least.

Microsoft has taken the brave decision to delay its Star Wars Kinect Xbox bundle until after the holiday season.

“Microsoft and LucasArts have elected to move the launch of Kinect Star Wars beyond holiday 2011 to ensure the full potential of this title is realized,” a spokesperson from Microsoft told OXM earlier today. “This move applies to both the Kinect Star Wars standalone game and the Kinect Star Wars Limited Edition Console. We will communicate additional timing information at a later date.”

Roughly translated, this statement can be read to mean “Hi everyone, we realized that Star Wars Kinect isn’t very good so we’re going to try and make it better rather than releasing it into the wild to take a critical panning.” Judging by the rather poor demo on show at Gamescom last week, this is a wise decision by Microsoft and LucasArts, though short of a fundamental redesign of the whole game, it’s tricky to know exactly what they could do to make it better.

Star Wars fans will likely be most disappointed that they won’t be able to get that (arguably) cool looking R2D2-themed console for the holiday season. The game hasn’t been garnering a lot of positive reaction since it was first unveiled, so the draw of the bundle for most has been the hardware package, which features a 320GB custom-designed slim 360 console, a gold control pad and a white Kinect.

No new release date has been given for the bundle or game as yet.

Trendy Entertainment’s multiplayer tower defense action RPG Dungeon Defenders finally has a release date.

Dungeon Defenders, like Sanctum, is a game that puts a fresh spin on the tired tower defense genre. Rather than taking Sanctum’s first person shooter approach, however, Dungeon Defenders adds comprehensive multiplayer action RPG mechanics atop the traditional gameplay.

The game has been available for some time for iOS and Android mobile devices where it has been well received, though the cluttered interface and fiddly touchscreen controls made many players all the more hungry for console and computer based editions. Yesterday, developer Trendy Entertainment announced that the game would be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PC on October 19, with a PSN version to follow shortly afterwards on an as yet undisclosed date.

“It’s been a long time coming, but the day is finally here to announce when we’ll be unleashing the full console version of Dungeon Defenders upon the masses, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Jeremy Stieglitz, COO and founder of Trendy Entertainment. “The console version of Dungeon Defenders has more content, more depth and more challenge than many full retail boxed games, so we can’t wait to get it into players’ hands so they can experience this epic role playing game as it was intended to be played.”

For those attending PAX Prime this weekend, swing by Reverb Publishing’s booth (#3652) to try the game out for yourself.

Two successful books, focusing on the game development and journalism industries, are now available via Apple’s iBooks marketplace.

If you have aspirations of joining either the game development or journalism industries, then you’ll have undoubtedly discover that there’s a wealth of information about how to get started out there — so much so, in fact, that it’s difficult to know where to begin poring over it.

Two well established books, newly released on Apple’s iBooks marketplace, aim to demystify the various routes into the games biz through practical advice from high profile industry figures.

Get Rich Playing Games by Scott Steinberg provides a DIY career guide for aspiring artists, game designers, programmers and executives to break into the business. Industry legends such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright offer insights into how readers can boost their job prospects. The guide covers jobs across the whole industry, ranging from sales to management, PR to animation, and everything in between.

The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual by David Thomas, Kyle Orland and Scott Steinberg, conversely, is a companion work for the AP Stylebook, bible of many a copy editor. It provides advice on good writing about games, including spelling, grammar, usage, capitalization and abbreviation rules as well as a series of tips for producing polished prose. Those with designs on a future career in the journalism biz would do well to give it a read to ensure their pitches to publications are as finely tuned as possible.

Both books are now available via iBooks on iOS devices for $2.99 each, but they’re also available as free PDFs on their respective websites — the Videogame Style Guide can be found here while Get Rich Playing Games may be found here.

A new agreement between Telltale and Nintendo of America will see the episodic publisher bringing its titles to retail on Wii.

Telltale Games has signed an agreement with Nintendo of America to publish games for the Wii. This means that it will be able to release its own titles at retail on disc, rather than via download into the Wii’s limited storage space or working with other publishers.

The first game to be released under the new agreement will be the recent Back to the Future: The Game series of episodic adventures. The package will release at retail this October for $19.99.

This agreement likely means we can look forward to Telltale’s future titles, which include an adaptation of Jurassic Park, getting a retail Wii release.

“Securing a publishing agreement with Nintendo of America ensures that we can make our popular content available on every major console platform,” said Telltale cofounder and CEO Dan Connors. “Back to the Future: The Game is a great fit for the Wii platform and we’re excited to bring it to retail this holiday.”

The third entry in the fast-paced arcade-style shooter franchise is set to blast its way on to your PC monitor this October.

Serious Sam 3: BFE is aimed at a very specific class of shooter fan — those who are tired of “the recent cookie cutter ‘first person shooters from behind cover (FPS-FBC)” as outspoken developer Croteam calls them. Come October 18, shooter fans will be able to relive the glory days of protagonists who happily charged into swarms of enemies screaming rather than hiding all the time.

“We believe Serious Sam 3: BFE is the best Serious Sam game we’ve ever made,” said Davor Hunski, Chief Creative Guy of Croteam. “We’ve designed a true arcade-style FPS game with the non-stop brutal action the series is known for and our fans have loved for the past decade.”

The game is now open for preorder on Steam, presenting early adopters with a 10% discount off the full price, an additional 10% off for those who already own a Serious Sam title on Steam and a multiplayer avatar based on publisher Devolver Digital’s CFO Fork Parker, bizarrely.

Alongside the preorder deal, all Serious Sam HD titles on Steam are available at 66% off, and 85% off if you preorder Serious Sam 3: BFE as well. Alternatively, there’s a “Digital Serious Edition” of the new game available which offers free bonus copies of Serious Sam: First and Second Encounter Classic, a behind the series video, a series of multiplayer characters and weapons, the official soundtrack, a digital artbook and more.

So if you want less hiding, more shooting, then what are you waiting for? Here’s the game’s Steam page. Watch out for the game on October 18.

Next month’s Eurogamer Expo will play host to two impressive world record attempts by “accessible gaming” charity SpecialEffect.

SpecialEffect is a UK-based charity that aims to help all young people with disabilities to enjoy computer games. Their work aims to advise young disabled people and their carers which games will be accessible and appropriate for them, and also aims to research ways to adapt games to be more accessible.

A key part of the charity’s work revolves around the use of eye tracking technology to control games and technology. This allows those with limited motor functions to enjoy interactive entertainment — but the technology, known as Eyegaze, can also be used to help people to communicate.

At the Eurogamer Expo next month in London, UK, the charity will be demonstrating the power of the technology through two Guinness World Record attempts — firstly, the fastest lap time in a racing game using only eye movement sensing controllers, and secondly, the greatest number of people competing in a video games tournament using only eye control technology.

“The [Guinness World Records] Gamer’s Edition is all about recognizing the amazing things that happen in video games and we’re pleased to support the great work that SpecialEffect do for gamers of all abilities,” said Gaz Deaves, editor of the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition. “This is a real chance to be featured in the 2012 Gamer’s Edition: all you have to do is learn how to control a car using your eyeballs. It couldn’t be easier!”

The Eurogamer Expo runs from September 22-25 at Earls Court in London, UK. While the young event isn’t quite yet on the scale of something like PAX, it proved itself last year to be a great place to get hands on with many new titles for the first time. Find out more here.

Purchase a boxed copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for PC and you’ll also get a code to redeem a copy to play anywhere via OnLive.

Image via Joystiq.

It seems that OnLive is stepping up its attempts to be seen as a major player in the gaming space — but wisely, rather than marketing itself as a replacement for PC or console gaming, it appears to be taking the approach that it offers a more easily portable alternative. As such, the service has taken to offering redemption codes for the OnLive version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution with retail (boxed) PC copies of the game.

“Gamers get the best of both worlds — a physical copy for their home PC and an OnLive cloud gaming copy for instant-play anywhere on an HDTV, PC, Mac, and soon iPad and Android tablets,” said Steve Perlman, president and CEO of OnLive.

This is effectively the gaming equivalent of DVD and Blu-Rays offering iTunes digital copies alongside the physical media, and is an interesting counterpoint to Valve giving a free copy of Portal 2 on PC to those who purchased the PS3 version.

More info on the promotion and how to redeem it here.

Be aware — some as yet unverified rumors are surfacing that GameStop has been removing the OnLive codes from retail PC copies — be sure to check your copy before you leave the store if you purchase one from the retail giant.