With more and more videogames competing for the diminishing time and money players have, preorder special offers are seen as a way of increasing the appeal of a title. This fall, the same codes have become a weapon in the increasingly bitter fight between videogame publishers and stores that are willing to deal with used games or the so called “secondary market”.

Microsoft and Rare offered, for the release of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, a great possibility: preordering the new game would get the player a code which could be used, since the moment of purchase, to download and then play the original full game. Only after about three weeks would other players be able to get on to the Xbox Live Arcade and play the same game. It seemed too good to be true.

Sources, amongst which 1UP ranks highest, report that retailers do not have enough preorder codes to go around, which means that gamers will not be able to play the original Banjo Kazooie until Microsoft manages to talk to retailers and make some more codes available.

The company stated that “We are aware that some consumers who preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts have not received their redeem code for Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live Arcade. We are currently investigating the scope of this situation, but we believe it represents a small fraction of the total number of preorder customers. We encourage anyone who preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and did not receive a redeem code to follow up directly with your retailer's customer service team for resolution”. The Redmond giant also said that the Xbox Live Arcade release of the original game would be delayed until December 3 to make sure that those who preordered could enjoy their exclusive time with the title.