Discussion Outriders and Steam

ibex333

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2005
4,090
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So this is mostly a RANT. If you are not in the mood, or feeling pissed by what I say, simply move on.

Anyways, just want to share my horrible experience with Outriders game made by People Can Fly and Steam platform.

Never before have I purchased a game, where the devs would charge a full price for a product that is clearly unfinished and has not been tested. I have sunk around 23 hours of gameplay into Outriders and developing my character, when my inventory was wiped without any warning, and the character was blocked from joining the server altogether. Usually in such cases the devs at least leave some sort of an option for a player to still enjoy the game they paid for in some capacity, but not Outriders. When I contacted customer support they suggested I start a new character, while they work on fixing an "issue" with inventory wipes and character unable to join server.

After sinking ANOTHER 20 hours into a new character, she was promptly wiped and blocked from entering server and playing the game.

At this point I got extremely angry. I complained, I wrote to support, I posted on twitter, but it was all useless. The outriders team just kept coming up with new excuses and issuing promises, promises and more promises. If my money could be refunded, I wouldn't have an issue. Id patiently wait till game is fixed. But at $65.31 including tax, I'm no Guinea pig or a test platform for their screwups. Another slap in the face is that they apparently made the game available on Game Pass, which trivializes all those people who paid $60 for the game. But I digress.

I took to Steam to ask for a refund, but was told off, with them citing their maximum 2 hour window. I tried getting through to them explaining the game is literally UNPLAYABLE in its current state, but some support guy who handled my case rudely said that the answer is NO, and unless he can help me with something else the ticket will be closed...

At this point I took to BBB to file a complaint against Valve, describing the issue in detail. Mind you this whole thing has been going on for TWO weeks with no resolution or any help from the devs of the game in sight aside from more empty promises and apologies.

Now you can go ahead and tell me that developing games is hard, and I'm being impatient, but the users who call me at my job, never want to hear about any slightest delays. They often complain directly to my supervisor before even giving me a chance to explain the situation. Essentially, I am always under a threat of being fired over any mishaps on my side. My office has zero tolerance for any ineptitude or delays on my part. Now I ask you, why then should I have any patience for those not willing to help me over TWO WEEKS?!

Luckily I live in the best country in the world, United States of America where there are organization fighting for consumer rights. Steam refunded my money two days after a complaint to BBB. But I strongly suggest everyone here to stay away from any products made by People Can Fly and be extremely careful when buying games at full price on Steam. Even if you have been buying games on Steam for 15+ years like me. I'm never again buying anything on Steam unless its discounted to at least $20.

Thank you for reading.

PS: I'm aware of the patches that just came out. Guess what. They did NOTHING. My characters were still inaccessible as of today. 4/16/21
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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Huh, well that certainly stinks. At least you got your money back at the end.
 

Ranulf

Platinum Member
Jul 18, 2001
2,348
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You'd think the devs would figure it all out considering it hit some big streamers last week.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
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Gotta say $63 for 45(ish) worth of entertainment isn’t all that bad.

- $63 for 20 hours of fun, 20 hours of tenuous nervous fun hoping the problem doesn't repeat, then a lifetime of blue balls never having seen the remaining game is not what I'd call a good deal.

It sounds a lot more like a waste of time and money...
 
Feb 4, 2009
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- $63 for 20 hours of fun, 20 hours of tenuous nervous fun hoping the problem doesn't repeat, then a lifetime of blue balls never having seen the remaining game is not what I'd call a good deal.

It sounds a lot more like a waste of time and money...

I’m going with 23+20 hours however I could be wrong.
Otherwise I agree, I have been snookered by countless games. I rarely pay more than $20 for a game and I am super picky when I first play. I’ll refund the second something doesn’t seem right.
 
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dmoney1980

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2008
2,471
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We are in the era of early access gaming. It was cool at first but now publishers and devs are accustomed to charging customers to be their beta testers. Half of the games sold on steam now are early access.
I don’t mean to be harsh but sometimes I think the industry can benefit from a crash to reset the status quo.