It's common practice for retailers like GameStop to offer exclusive deals to gamers who pre-order titles. It makes sense from a business perspective: by providing in-game content that no one else does, players are more likely to go to certain chains for pre-orders, which generate a large amount of cash for the stores up-front.

However, taking a look at the GameStop-exclusive content for many of the big games that are due out this fall, the list is long and contains some in-game features that are often more than a bit surprising based on what they make available to players. To say the least, the list shows that gamers aren't going to get to play the full game unless they shop at this specific retail chain.

It certainly isn't a new thing for retail chains to offer exclusive content as a reward for gamers who decide to shop at their stores; it seems as if every large franchise has a bit of content or a bonus that you can only get if you shop at this specific specialty retailer. The above list is only a small proportion of the total number of bonuses, which may also include posters and T-shirts that are exclusive to the retailer.

While the list doesn't give players access to a ridiculous amount of content (like an entire mountain in Shaun White Snowboarding if you bought the game at Target), it also shows that developers and publishers are more than willing to play ball with a retailer many claim to despise for its used-game sales.