Origin to offer full game refunds

[Red Storm]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/20/your-move-steam-origin-offers-full-refunds/

“The new Origin Great Game Guarantee works like this: You may return EA full game downloads (PC or Mac) purchased on Origin for a full refund – within 24 hours after you first launch the game, within seven days from when you purchased it, or within the first seven days after the game’s release date if you pre-ordered it (whichever of these conditions happens first).”

“If something doesn’t work out – you aren’t riveted by the storyline, or sucked in by the action, or even just if the game doesn’t play well with your video card – we’ve got your back.”

It's about time we started seeing this with digital distribution. Steam better follow suit.

 

[Stringjam]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/20/your-move-steam-origin-offers-full-refunds/



It's about time we started seeing this with digital distribution. Steam better follow suit.

This strikes me as odd....and pretty risky, considering most of the games they sell could easily be played all the way through in that time period (in other words, I can see a bunch of gamers thinking of this as a chance for free game rentals).

I like the idea, but from a distributor's standpoint, I'm not sure 24 hours is the best idea. I would probably do something more like 6 hours from first launch.

 

[frozentundra123456]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/20/your-move-steam-origin-offers-full-refunds/



It's about time we started seeing this with digital distribution. Steam better follow suit.

Wow, that sounds like a great policy. It also sounds too good to be true for EA-- hope it is correct. Seems like for almost any single player game, you could beat it in a week and then just get your money back. I am interested if this will apply to all games without any kind of restrictions.

 

[Red Storm]

Wow, that sounds like a great policy. It also sounds too good to be true for EA-- hope it is correct. Seems like for almost any single player game, you could beat it in a week and then just get your money back. I am interested if this will apply to all games without any kind of restrictions.

No that wouldn't work, it's whichever of those conditions happens first, kinda like car warranties (X years OR X miles). So once you launch the game you have 24 hours. If you haven't launched the game at all, only then do you have a whole week from the day you purchase.

Still though, it's better than the nothing we've had thus far.

 

[lilrayray69]

So from the second you launch the .exe you have 24 hours? If you don't launch it then you have 7 days?


Sooo hypothetically, with this policy would it have been possible to buy all those EA games off the Humble Bundle for like $5 and then refund them all?? Surely they have something in place against that.


But man if Steam would take returns I'd have so many games to return....I mean Steam tracks your game progress and how much time you put in, so they could see I've spent literally 2 minutes on Little Inferno. I'd guess that's how they'd determine if it's eligible for refund or not

 

[Anteaus]

I think the 24-limit is fair for the most part. It's easy to see how some people will abuse the return policy by steamrolling through games in one long playthrough, the vast majority of gamers with jobs and families won't be able to do that. Also, if other people have schedules like mine, I might have 1-2 hours tops in a 24-hour period to actually make the decision.

That said, I bet game sales on Saturday and Sunday mornings will spike as high school and college students begin their marathon playthroughs as a new class players - Freeloader Gamers.

I think EA is hoping that the increase in traffic will eclipse any potential losses due to freeloaders. If the numbers didn't work on paper they wouldn't be doing it.

 

[Anteaus]

But man if Steam would take returns I'd have so many games to return....I mean Steam tracks your game progress and how much time you put in, so they could see I've spent literally 2 minutes on Little Inferno. I'd guess that's how they'd determine if it's eligible for refund or not

That's a pretty good point, except that if you play in offload mode it doesn't track your time. I put in over 200 hours in CK2 and officially Steam only has me for about 3 hours because most of that time was done in offline mode.

 

[Pia]

Unless there's some kind of catch in the policy, a new SimCity -caliber fuckup might really cost EA.

Then again, a ton of people have nonexistent standards of quality and/or laziness, and won't return something even if it's utterly broken.

 

[assimilation]

ofcourse it was about time to start with this,but 24 hours seems a bit too long for me too

 

[brandonb]

Desperate times call for desperate measures. But that's good news. I haven't used Origin since BF3 came out, and I haven't bothered with it in 2 years because I hated Origin.

I may start using it. Have they grown their portfolio recently? Or is it still just mainly EA games?

 

[gorcorps]

That's a pretty good point, except that if you play in offload mode it doesn't track your time. I put in over 200 hours in CK2 and officially Steam only has me for about 3 hours because most of that time was done in offline mode.

Hmmm... that makes me wonder how the Origin thing is going to work, since I believe you can play those games offline as well. Maybe the article explains it (I can't see it now), but what if you buy the game and that machine goes offline? Something that normally wouldn't be played online, like the Sims. Are all games going to require a 2nd online check-in? I'm assuming they don't require a constant connection right now, but maybe they do and I don't notice.

 

[PowerYoga]

this is a pretty good policy, but it'll be hard for steam to follow since a lot of small developers sell through steam, unlike origin which only sells EA games.

 

[Anteaus]

Hmmm... that makes me wonder how the Origin thing is going to work, since I believe you can play those games offline as well. Maybe the article explains it (I can't see it now), but what if you buy the game and that machine goes offline? Something that normally wouldn't be played online, like the Sims. Are all games going to require a 2nd online check-in? I'm assuming they don't require a constant connection right now, but maybe they do and I don't notice.

Well in either case you have to be online the first time you play a game for authentication which would trigger the 24 hour count down. I don't think it's much of an issue since it's 24 hours of real time, not game time.

 

[darkewaffle]

Hmmm... that makes me wonder how the Origin thing is going to work, since I believe you can play those games offline as well. Maybe the article explains it (I can't see it now), but what if you buy the game and that machine goes offline? Something that normally wouldn't be played online, like the Sims. Are all games going to require a 2nd online check-in? I'm assuming they don't require a constant connection right now, but maybe they do and I don't notice.

It doesn't need to be online to 'report' that you've played the game in real time, it only needs to be able to internally register it and then report it when the return is attempted as that will obviously require that you be online at the time.

However that does potentially open the door for people to snoop through the files and find the flag or timestamp or registry or whatever is used to mark a game as 'played'/launched.

 

[Red Hawk]

Wow. It's about time someone tried implementing a workable digital return policy. And EA are the ones to do it? Color me surprised. EA may finally have found an edge to draw people to use their service over Steam for non-EA games. I'll have to keep this in mind for future non-EA purchases.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. But that's good news. I haven't used Origin since BF3 came out, and I haven't bothered with it in 2 years because I hated Origin.

I may start using it. Have they grown their portfolio recently? Or is it still just mainly EA games?

Eh, it's still mainly EA games. Recent titles published by Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Capcom seem to be there, while stuff published by 2k, Bethesda, or Valve aren't.

 

[Red Storm]

FYI this is only for EA's own games according to the article.

 

[dfuze]

I'd rather have 48 hrs to return, this way in case I get a game that doesn't work out right away I had some time to try to troubleshoot the issue before trying to decide to return or not. But 24 is definitely better than nothing.

 

[KeithTalent]

24 hours seems way too long; if I was them it would be half that at most.

I'll happily take it though.

KT

 

[Red Hawk]

FYI this is only for EA's own games according to the article.

It is? It should be for all games sold on Origin if they really want to push this, but I can see where they might have problems. Publishers would probably still want money from EA for games returned on Origin, while with EA's own games they can just return the money to the customer and have no tangible loss.

 

[sweenish]

I can't believe that there are people complaining that the return window is too generous.

 

[KeithTalent]

I can't believe that there are people complaining that the return window is too generous.

I'm not complaining, just pointing out that as a business decision it seems far too generous and if I was working there I would have advised them against going with a full 24 hours.

KT

 

[KaOTiK]

Sounds interesting. I imagine it will be only for EA games purchased directly from Origin though. Considering you can usually get a preorder for 20%-30% off the MSRP at other places that will give you an Origin key people will now have to decide if they want to take the risk of getting a cheaper preorder or paying more upfront with the option to get a refund.

It is nice to see some kind solution being worked on/being put in place at least and hopefully more follow suit and/or EA doesn't just can this whole idea after their next major PC game release or two.

 

[clok1966]

Desperate times call for desperate measures. But that's good news. I haven't used Origin since BF3 came out, and I haven't bothered with it in 2 years because I hated Origin.

I may start using it. Have they grown their portfolio recently? Or is it still just mainly EA games?

play the nice guy till you hook um.. then go all EA on um.

All i see is a funky van on a dark street saying "free candy" we all know the outcome of that.

 

[gothamhunter]

Good for them for trying something to better their image; I honestly applaud their efforts between this and the Humble Bundle.

Too bad there will be too many that take advantage of it, probably myself included, and that window might get narrower and narrower.

 

[blackened23]

This is a very generous offer. Software returns are unheard of these days, the last time I remember seeing that was at the now-defunct Electronics Botique many many years ago. That was around 2k. No other retailer during that time or since has ever allowed open software or game returns, ever.

So with that being the case, I think it will win some mindshare for Origin/EA. Offering returns for any type of software is definitely -not- the norm so it is very generous.