In what seems like a bit of a dick move, GameStop in the US sent through a company-wide memo instructing employees to open brand-new, sealed copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution to remove OnLive Coupons that were bundled with the game.

OnLive is a digital game streaming outfit who are essentially seen as a competitor to GameStop.

"Square Enix packed the competitor’s coupon with our [Deus Ex: Human Revolution] product without our prior knowledge and we did pull these coupons," said Beth Sharum, a spokesperson for GameStop to Wired.com.

Wired then contacted an industry lawyer who told them Square Enix may have a legal right to respond to GameStop's actions "in terms of tortious interference", which essentially means Square Enix could argue that GameStop intentionally damaged their business relationship with OnLive. However, if GameStop had a pre-existing arrangement with Square Enix for GameStop-specific copies of the game (ie, copies without an OnLive code), GameStop could pursue a legal response as well.

It's a pretty interesting read, and this apparently isn't the first time GameStop have done this sort of thing, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out, especially given the hype surrounding the game.