It seems that Red Dead Redemption has sold a lot more than any of the major retailers could have imagined; and if you pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption apparently you were entitled to the Limited Edition version of the game (if your retailer was participating in this promotion that was being offered in conjunction with Take-Two/Rockstar). The problem is that if you didn’t act quickly, you might not have received the Limited Edition version of the game.

According to the whispers from our sources, the issues with those that pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption have been simmering all last week. Apparently, the deal is that if you did pre-order early enough and your retailer purchased enough copies for their pre-orders, then they had enough copies of the Limited Edition version of the title.

The problem began when those that pre-ordered didn’t come in right away to pick up their copy of the Limited Edition version of the title quickly enough. If you were not quick on the draw, so to speak, your copy of the Limited Edition might have been sold to someone that didn’t pre-order it. A bigger problem is that the SKU is the same for both the Limited Edition and regular version and, according to our sources, there are no more copies of the Limited Edition version; and there are not going to be any more. The only version of the game going forward is the regular edition of the game, which doesn’t include the pre-order bonuses.

From what we have been able to find out, normally the majority of retailers hold a pre-order for 48 hours for pickup; but apparently Red Dead Redemption was so unexpectedly popular that many are finding that their pre-order was sold before they could pick it up, and the retailer may or may not have the non-Limited Edition version to replace it with. Some are reporting to us that not only did they not get the Limited Edition; they can’t even get the regular edition because the retailer is completely out of stock.

It seems that retailers simply didn’t have enough faith in the sales of Red Dead Redemption and didn’t order enough copies of the game, and now there is a scramble to get more copies on the shelf again. This still will not help those that thought they were getting the Limited Edition and then either didn’t get it or it was sold out from under them. This is an unhappy reminder that you need to pick up your pre-orders quickly, since you never know how popular a title might be.