Rumors of retaliatory blacklisting began when a supposed inside source told Kotaku that GameStop would not be selling the PC real-time strategy game due to its close ties to competitor Steam. Dawn of War II publisher THQ recently confirmed that the game would require Steam to run due to its implementation of Steamworks copy protection. Meanwhile, a Steam-exclusive Dawn of War II multiplayer beta has been underway for several weeks.

GameStop employees had previously insisted that the company simply exhausted its preorder stock.