I am so glad shit like this is covered by refund policies and consumer protection laws. Gotta check my library for any Capcom games because fuck them for pulling shady shit like this.
It seems the only big developer (well not really anymore) who got the message about Piracy is Steam itself. Everyone else just kinda missed the point entirely.
Right. Steam figured out piracy ages ago. There's only 3 main contingent of software pirates:
People who can't afford a game.
People who won't pay for a game they can afford.
People who can't easily access a game to purchase.
Steam mitigates #1 by having and promoting publishers to list regional pricing and encouraging/enabling sales. Steam can't really do anything concrete about #2, but they try by offering services like the Workshop and Remote Play/Together. And they solved #3 by having a store that actually works and doesn't add in invasive DRM (steam DRM is publisher-enabled).
My refund requests got denied by steam because I have more than 2 hours in the game.
Then message support that the situation of the game changed and you are now unable to play it after an update. Unless you are in a lawless country that eill essentially force their hand in giving you a refund
Yeah I’m not sure where you’re getting this from. Digital “ownership” has always been a hot mess, because you purchase the right to play the game on the publishers terms.
Ethically Steam should provide a refund, legally I can’t find any evidence that they are compelled to.
They are not compelled to but Valve have generally been really good about providing refunds, even outside of the "contractual" window, if you point out there is a good reason.
I got a refund for mordhau with like 30 hours in by just linking to the pc gamer (?) article about the rampant anti-semitism and racism and "I would rather not give money to literal nazis".
They are compelled to by Australian and french laws. (There are probably more but iirc those are the 2 that were actually fought in court and cost Steam money before they added their official refund policy)
I am so glad shit like this is covered by refund policies and consumer protection laws. Gotta check my library for any Capcom games because fuck them for pulling shady shit like this.
It seems the only big developer (well not really anymore) who got the message about Piracy is Steam itself. Everyone else just kinda missed the point entirely.
Right. Steam figured out piracy ages ago. There's only 3 main contingent of software pirates:
Steam mitigates #1 by having and promoting publishers to list regional pricing and encouraging/enabling sales. Steam can't really do anything concrete about #2, but they try by offering services like the Workshop and Remote Play/Together. And they solved #3 by having a store that actually works and doesn't add in invasive DRM (steam DRM is publisher-enabled).
My refund requests got denied by steam because I have more than 2 hours in the game.
Then message support that the situation of the game changed and you are now unable to play it after an update. Unless you are in a lawless country that eill essentially force their hand in giving you a refund
Yeah I’m not sure where you’re getting this from. Digital “ownership” has always been a hot mess, because you purchase the right to play the game on the publishers terms.
Ethically Steam should provide a refund, legally I can’t find any evidence that they are compelled to.
They are not compelled to but Valve have generally been really good about providing refunds, even outside of the "contractual" window, if you point out there is a good reason.
I got a refund for mordhau with like 30 hours in by just linking to the pc gamer (?) article about the rampant anti-semitism and racism and "I would rather not give money to literal nazis".
They are compelled to by Australian and french laws. (There are probably more but iirc those are the 2 that were actually fought in court and cost Steam money before they added their official refund policy)