Yesterday, we and many others spotted that Games Republic had what appeared to be a rather insane deal on the new Sid Meier's Civilization VI Deluxe Edition for only $15.99, only a few weeks after launch. We've seen some pretty hefty and surprising discounts already this Black Friday, with many recent releases hitting 50% off like Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and others, but nothing like the Deluxe Edition of a new release hitting 80% off.

Many wondered if it was an error, but when it was shared, the Games Republic site was breaking under the pressure of what ultimately turned out to be a human error.

https://twitter.com/DealRaptor/status/801965442906685440

That was our posting of it on our DealRaptor account, although it no longer applies obviously. Today, Games Republic sent a letter out to all those who did manage to buy it apologizing for the situation. One of our readers got in touch with us on Twitter about it, sharing his copy of the letter he received:

https://twitter.com/Fehnnis/status/802172908944683014

Talking with Games Republic, we were able to find out that it was a human error, and that most likely what occurred was that someone meant to enter 15% off and instead put it in the price area, which attached the default ending to the price. Speaking with us, Łukasz Kukawski of Games Republic said the following:

Yes, unfortunately we made a mistake. It was a human error. Doing an 80% discount on a game that's been on the market for 3 weeks would be a crazy promotion, even for Black Friday . Unfortunately having such huge sale, with so many titles being discounted, there's always a chance that something can go wrong - and in this case it went wrong. We sincerly apologize all customers who are affected by this situation. I know they are mad that they can't keep the game, and the whole team behing Games Republic is sorry about that situation. Of course all transactions will be refunded - those made with PayPal should be done almost instantly, those made with credit cards will probably take couple days. As a small compensation we're giving all customers who bought the game, a 25% discount for their next purchase on Games Republic, and we're keeping the free game they received with the purchase (Anomaly 2) on their accounts. I know it's not the same as getting Civilization VI for bargain, but we hope people will understand. Once again I'd like to apologize via TechRaptor everyone who's been affected by this situation. We'll make sure such thing won't happen again.

Clarifying with him, the 25% coupon will stack with any other discounts on the store, which means that for those impacted there are likely to get some great deals if you want to use it. Additionally, all copies that were sold of Civilization VI during the price bug, including those activated on Steam, are being impacted by this.

Looking at what else you get, Anomoly, isn't a huge giveaway, as it is what Games Republic (a sister company of 11-Bit Studios) have been using for giveaways and a little toss in for a little while now. Still, it is a free game, even if you decide you don't want to buy anything else at the store due to the issues or that you want to save the code for the future. If you are wanting to get Sid Meier's Civilization VI Deluxe Edition with the discount code, that would stack with the 15% off running, taking it down to around $50.

As for what this means to Games Republic? Likely some internal shifts in policy and extra checks added in. It means a significant charge to them, as there will be processing fees to pay for the refunding and the processed payments. Additionally, their site was effectively down for several hours due to the traffic spike from the deal slogging it down with reports of people spending about 30 minutes to try and get the deal. This was happening during one of the biggest sales they have, along with many of their competitors, meaning that many sales were potentially lost.