I preordered Shoot Many Robots but did not get all.

[Affy]

I met up a few friends some days back which led me into experiencing something weird. No No! My friends did nothing to make me feel weird. What exactly happened is I mentioned to them about me pre ordering Shoot Many Robots. My friends are equal gamers like me and hold the same craze like I do. My show off actually made them spill out their wish of having the game too. I obviously got a chance to gift something to my friends and I did not want to miss it at all. So, I decided to gift each of them a copy of the game and on account of which I bought 4 copies of the game from Steam.
But shocking enough, I got only 3 copies to gift away. Have spoken to steam abut I’m too impatient to wait for their response. You all must have had similar experiences. Anyone can please explain me the reason behind this?

[TA Guy]

I have had the exact same experience. The other day, our group of five, happened to order a pack of four, since I already owned one. But, I don’t know what went wrong where, is it their policy or my mistake in ordering. I have no idea what it is, but even I got only 3 to gift away.
The 4th one was left for me. I have no clue what’s leading such a bizarre situation to happen. I don’t know what does this mean either. I am simply confused like a hyena and I have no idea where to go from here. Even the Steam website has no information pertaining to this.
They owe us an explanation, an answer and undoubtedly, a refund. Where and how to claim it is the only doubt that I possess at the moment.

[VazV]

I am still not able to get you. Let me explain what I understood and correct me if I am wrong anywhere. Both of you all bought 4 copies of Shoot Many Robots. And the fact remains that both of you all already had copies of the same for yourselves and were ordering for friends or whoever. But incidentally, the four pack came with only 3 of them which can be given away to others! And the 1 that remains has to remain with you. Am I right?

Now, this cannot be co-incidence or an error at ordering. This has to be some company policy. I would ask both of you to keep patience for now and hold on till the company gets back to you!

They’ll definitely help you through this! Let us know if there are updates from the company. Desperately awaiting their response on such a peculiar issue

[Affy]

Refund is something we definitely deserve. But isn’t this a very baseless and senseless thing to do? I don’t get the purpose behind such a policy. I am sure, on questioning the executives will go ‘It’s our policy sir, we can’t help it’. But every decision has some logic behind it. I am concerned about my refund, undoubtedly! But I am equally curious to know what made the decision making unit take such a decision?

What drove them to do this? Steam, being a reliable organization should have thought of something. Something that benefits the company and their customers equally.

What is it? Any wild guesses or rough idea?

[VazV]

Why do you want a wild guess or a rough idea when I can surely give you what exactly drove the team to take up a decision of this cadre. The organization is for sure reliable and equally sensible to take this decision. I’ll explain why!

It is simply to prevent traders from buying huge amounts of four packs and sell it individually in the retail market. To term it in a simpler way, I would say, they simply wanted to prevent piracy.

Now, ‘how will this lead to piracy?’ would probably be your next question. An entirely justified question with a more justified answer. Imagine me buying 100 4 packs, which comes at a 25% discount and selling individual copies at 12.5% discount which will kill Steam’s business