Kain tells Consumerist that he was searching the clearance section at his local Walmart for deals when he discovered something that was an unbelievably bad deal. Ten “collector’s edition” copies of the multiplayer game Tabula Rasa marked down to only $25! Too bad that the servers required to play the game shut down on Feburary 28, 2009.

The game Tabula Rasa was an MMORPG that connected to a server to play and required a monthly subscription, it came out in Nov 2007 and NCsoft pulled the plug on its servers in Feb of 09 citing too few players.

I was in Walmart in [redacted], Il looking through their clearance isle and found this little gem. Tabula Rasa Limited Collectors Edition. On the box it says “First month of play included” and it has all the stuff selling it as a game first and foremost. Nowhere did anything warn people that the game can no longer be played. If there was some sort of sign saying they are just selling the included artwork and misc items that might be acceptable but nope nothing.

So this is what will happen, person buys cheap game thinking oh sweet cheap collectors edition. Open it put it in the computer install it and go to make an account for the game as it instructs and OOPS sorry we closed down over a year ago. Ok lets return it then. SORRY, open videogames are not accepted sorry. Now you are out 25 bucks but you have a nice coaster and a book….

I personally believe this is straight up ripping people off and somewhere someone should know that this game is useless, what do you guys think?

Oh and just so you don’t think it is one random stray item they had something like 10 of them there.

Saying that Walmart is ripping people off is harsh. The $250 they would take in by selling these games is miniscule in comparison to even the daily gross from that store alone. We’re going to be generous and assume that this is a mistake on the part of Kain’s local store. He should have alerted a manager–even if the store didn’t listen to him, at least he would have done his part to protect other shoppers who might pick up the game.

By the way, you can still vote in the Walmart vs. Sears/Kmart round of our Worst Company in America tournament.

Does a game have to fail to have an ending? Tabula Rasa [Ars Technica]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.