The various refund policies of online game retailers have always been a contentious subject. Earlier this week, however, GOG.com (Good Old Games) revised its system to what could potentially be the most liberal (for consumers) out there.
In a report via Eurogamer, however, it seems that the new refund policy has many developers worried that, in this instance, it’s way too open to exploitation.
GOG Launches New Refund Policy
So, what is the new policy? Well, prior to this GOG only refunded games if the user had either not downloaded them or had logged zero hours. The new refund system, however, is pretty much on the opposite end of the scale.
Not only can you download and play the game/s, but you can do so as much as you want and still claim a refund as long as its within 30-days. Yeah, you’re beginning to see why developers are worried about this being abused, right?…
“Everyone at GOG believes in a ‘gamers-first’ approach. The latest update to our voluntary Refund Policy adds another piece to this customer-friendly experience. And it all sums up in one sentence: starting now, you can get a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if you downloaded, launched, and played it. That’s it.”
Well, I don’t know about this one.
— Rami Ismail (@tha_rami) February 27, 2020
30 days is a lot more than I feel is necessary to evaluate a game, and a lot more than almost all games take to complete if you play them for an hour daily.
Young me would definitely abuse the hell out of this. https://t.co/kKVnZpwboj
What Do We Think?
Honestly? While it is, without a doubt, one of the best policies for consumers, it has probably gone too far. I mean, let’s be real here, I can see a lot of people essentially using this as a means of getting 30 days gaming for free. Perhaps even longer considering GOG.com operates on a DRM-Free system.
The rabbit hole does apparently, get deeper though. If the reports are correct, then GOG didn’t actually tell developers about this new policy until it had already been implemented. Something that has got many of them perhaps in something of a semi-panic mode. For me though, the bottom line is that while this is clearly a very well-intentioned policy, it has nothing but disaster written all over it!
What do you think? Do you approve of this policy? Do you think users will abuse it? – Let us know in the comments!
