This holiday weekend, Future Shop and Best Buy stores across Canada ran a promotion that seemed too good to be true. The promotion allowed shoppers to trade in any current generation (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U) game and receive either Assassin’s Creed: IV, Battlefield 4, or Call of Duty: Ghosts in return. They were essentially giving away the hottest new releases on current generation systems for free. News of this amazing promotion spread like wildfire, and on Saturday morning, many Future Shops and Best Buys had lines stretching well into the parking lots. I myself walked into my local Future Shop at noon on Sunday with a copy of NHL 07 (which I would be lucky to get $5 for under normal circumstances) hoping to leave with a new copy of Assassin’s Creed: IV (retails for $59.99). Sadly, the store had run out of games shortly after opening for the second day of the promotion.

Shoppers line up at a Future Shop in Toronto to take advantage of this amazing trade-in offer.

Future Shop communications manager Elliot Chun said that the promotion was designed to promote Future Shop’s trade-in game program, and generate buzz during one of the largest months in video gaming in several years. With the Xbox One and PS4 launching later this month, Future Shop and Best Buy wanted to ensure that they were at the forefront of gamer’s minds.

In terms of generating a buzz, I would say that this promotion was a huge success. Not only was it covered by many major media outlets, but is was also spread through social media and word of mouth. Despite this, I think that the cost of this promotion was extremely high. Not only did the companies have to part with millions of dollars of inventory for essentially nothing, but they also likely reduced their sales. Consumers who were willing to get up early and wait hours in lines for this promotion would have likely been willing to purchase these games otherwise, and many of these purchases would have been made at Future Shop and Best Buy.