What they did is illegal.
Any business has no right to open any sealed packaging for software no matter the content.
It is not up to Gamestop etc to decide what Square should include in the packaging, its a retail box and it comes as is.
If Gamestop wasn't happy they had 2 choices, sell as is or don't. Because its an anticipated title they had to try to sell, nobody would expect to wait a couple of days waiting for a new batch to arrive.
Gamespot should have done what Onlive did, to ensure that a cd-key for the online service was included for Impulse. They didn't want to pay the money for that and Onlive did. Tough.
But opening and removing it and then selling a now incomplete product as new is very much illegal no matter what country you come from. That has easily broken numerous laws. And I hope they get hit heavily by the official bodies responsible in the US for trading and consumer rights.
Because Gamespot sells a whole lot of games.
SNARF SNARF
Damn lol just noticed that. All fingers and thumbs again :P