Pokémon Thread XIII: Our Ponies are ON FIRE!

[Mistral]

I got my Keldeo at Gamestation, and nothing was said about pre-ordering games- though they seemed to need somebody operating it at their end...

Indeed. In fact, if someone at Gamestop (at least; I'll bet it's the same for other companies as well) does say that you need to preorder, get their name and complain to corporate; that's not only factually incorrect, it's also very questionable marketing tactics. They're technically supposed to keep the machine on at all times while the store is open, but they certainly are not supposed to demand additional preorders to fluff their numbers before they let you download the Nintendo promotion. You do not need a preorder to get Keldeo, as per their deal with Nintendo. The reason some stories try to pull this kind of stunt is because stores get bonuses for extra preorders, so doing stuff like this, if no one reports them, lets them look good for corporate without anyone being the wiser.