[Suggestion] Full Refund on any game with in 24 hours of launching it.

[Websteroni]

This idea could help dissatisfied customers...honestly I got this from Origin's new feature you just want to keep them in their place by adding this idea.

Link to an article on the feature - http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/20/ea-is-offering-refunds-on-games-bought-on-origin?abthid=5212f71a30fdfa647a000007

[Shin Ramyun]

EA/Origin is fine as it's their own line of games while refunds will cause headaches for Valve.

What Valve can do is setup a store credit due to steam wallet being available and with the idea of store credit is, you don't get a refund but you get the same value back to purchase something else.

Not ideal but it works better.

They can also withhold funds for 7 days and thus users have 7 days to try a product before claiming it as theirs. Furthermore to prevent games from being finished in an allotted time, they will all be set to 1 hour playtime maximum, go over and the game is non-refundable and also protects the card drop system as no game will drop in the first hour.

To also prevent people from abusing refunds, if a game is purchased twice by the same account (so a purchase/refund history is stored), then a second purchase void refunds (why would you buy a game again if you refunded it? right)

So it covers most things from

- Abusing Cards,
- Abusing play time
- Headaches with invoicing developers/publishers (money withheld for amount of days)
- Protecting Valve from losing profits, store credits means you'll eventually buy a game on steam or cards or items.

The existing issue of implementing this is getting people on board as EA owns the games it sells on Origin, there's no issues. While this can upset developers and publisher's and potentially contracts drawn up have to be redrawn, even then with EA + Ubisoft, it could potentially mean publisher's pull out of Valve if they don't like it and head to the alternative (that is a very low possibility)

[Heq]

More like 20min

[ KARR™]

Finished Portal2 within 6 hours of starting it if i recall correctly. Would of been nice to get the money back on the 'rental' :P

[Spawn of Totoro]

Remember to read the small print people.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/great-game-guarantee-terms

Refunding Full Game Digital Downloads Purchased from the Origin Store

"Full game digital downloads (PC/Mac) published by “Electronic Arts” (collectively Electronic Arts Inc."

"(i) seven (7) days from the date of purchase" but "(iii) twenty-four (24) hours after the first time the game is launched or run."

Return and Refund Policy for Third-party Games, Packaged Goods and Game Expansions/DLC/Add-Ons

"Purchases from the Origin Store for third-party games, packaged goods, game expansions, downloadable content, time cards, virtual currency and add-ons are not subject to the Great Game Guarantee."

-----

So, only games bublished by EA (that they get all the money for and have full controll over) are allowed a refund per the terms.

99% of all games on Steam are third party so Steam would never be able to offer refunds for them as it is.

[Marble]

I think publishers should be given the option to do so, but shouldn't be mandatory. It would be a good PR move for newcomers who want to build up a good reputation.

EA got it right here and their policy seems fair and well planned. They can pull it off because they have the support staff and infrastructure to handle the refund requests, Valve support on the other hand...

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por Canti:

I think publishers should be given the option to do so, but shouldn't be mandatory. It would be a good PR move for newcomers who want to build up a good reputation.

EA got it right here and their policy seems fair and well planned. They can pull it off because they have the support staff and infrastructure to handle the refund requests, Valve support on the other hand...

The issue is that this cannot be translated to Steam fro several reasons

1) Gifts. Any such policy would have to exclude gifted games. This will likely lead to significant confusion

2) Many publishers wouldn't want to be on board since many games can be completed within 24 hours if you really wanted to blaze trhough them

3) The strategy is fairly obvious. EA has for a long time, been about multi-player (aside from Dragon Age) or games that require you to play for a long time (Sims/SimCity). Since almost none of their games fall into the category of 'possible to burn through in 24 hours'. Plus they are dabbling into in-game monetization strategies like in Deep Space 3.

There's little altruism in the policy. It's specifically designed for how EA is going to be in the future. Where the policy is effectively not useful because of the gaming infrastructure they intend to go with in the future, always online, all multiplayer, in-game micro-transaction based.

Whether you LIKE that future is up to you.

[Tito Shivan]

@Satoru, add to it the fact that DLC is NOT refundable according to the new policy... It makes even more sense.

[Marble]

I think I read that it only applies to EA games you buy directly through Origin for yourself.

Allowing publishers to do it on a game by game basis doesn't seem like such a crazy idea providing they cover any costs incurred.

I don't think those are very good reasons for why it wouldn't work. It seems to me like an easy way to keep the consumer rights advocates at bay.

[chuckyyes10]

i wish valve add demos cause i bought ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gta 4 and i can barley play it cause of lag

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por Canti:

Allowing publishers to do it on a game by game basis doesn't seem like such a crazy idea providing they cover any costs incurred.

But again what publisher would want to do this? Look at many games. They can be completed in less than 12 hours. Why as a dev/publisher would I incur the risk ofrrefunds for people who buy the game, play it, then 'return' it once they're done.

Or just buy/return the game multple times! Just copy your save game off. Buy with a different card and a new origin account, play game, return game. Rinse, lather repeat. If you think people wont do that, look at the fraud that is perpetrated on Steam. People will go to GREAT lengths if they can get something for free. To them, time isn't money.

I don't think those are very good reasons for why it wouldn't work. It seems to me like an easy way to keep the consumer rights advocates at bay.

Software has enjoyed, even in the UK/EU, laws that already protect them significantly from opened software not being returnable. Consumer advocates dont have much to stand on if they want game refunds because the law makes that impossible.

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por chuckyyes10:

i wish valve add demos cause i bought ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gta 4 and i can barley play it cause of lag

Demos are the responsibilty of the developer, not Steam.

[Marble]

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

But again what publisher would want to do this?

Certain "good guy" indie devs who go out of their way to please fans. The same ones that already offer their games DRM free. EA did it to improve their image and the types of games they have would likely see very few early returns, but they aren't the only publisher that pushes games like that.

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

Software has enjoyed, even in the UK/EU, laws that already protect them significantly from opened software not being returnable. Consumer advocates dont have much to stand on if they want game refunds because the law makes that impossible.

That doesn't mean it will always be the case. It wouldn't do any harm to have the mechanism in place for it as a precaution. Since it would be entirely voluntary, I can't see the harm.

[SQLX , pou7a]

i like the idea sort of :)

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por Canti:

Certain "good guy" indie devs who go out of their way to please fans. The same ones that already offer their games DRM free. EA did it to improve their image and the types of games they have would likely see very few early returns, but they aren't the only publisher that pushes games like that.

There's a gigantic difference between offering a DRM free version, and being forced to refund money.

That doesn't mean it will always be the case. It wouldn't do any harm to have the mechanism in place for it as a precaution. Since it would be entirely voluntary, I can't see the harm.

Mostly because exploitation of the system is likely to cause more problems than it 'solves'. Especially considering it doesn't actually solve. Think of it this way. Especially for indie devs, they may not be able to test their game on a wide range of hardware. What if some catastrophic unforseen error happens. You're now making changes within a 24 hour window just to try to ensure that massive refunds don't happen. EA can probably suck up a small % of refunds. Most indie devs cant afford that.

[Tito Shivan]

Publicado originalmente por Canti:

I think I read that it only applies to EA games you buy directly through Origin for yourself.

Indeed. DLC is also excluded from it
https://help.ea.com/article/what-s-the-great-games-guarantee

Are there any restrictions on which games are eligible?
DLC and non-EA games purchased on Origin are excluded from the Great Game Guarantee.

It's pretty much like Steam offering refunds only on Valve titles.