Gamer Jas: So I bought this game off a digital distribution platform last week. I won't say which, except it's a bestseller at the moment and it's a FPS. It boasted amazing online co-op and multiplayer functionality. It didn't work. Or, rather, it worked really, really badly. I'd log on and get disconnected randomly, or other players would desync. Any kind of online play was a joke. AND it contains DRM that I didn't want. I demand a refund.
Lawyer Jas: You can't have one.
Gamer Jas: Wha--?
Lawyer Jas: Sorry, you can't. The T&Cs which govern your 'purchase' of the game (or, to be precise, which govern the licence granted to you by the publisher that lets you play the game) make it clear you have no right to refund or exchange online. Even if you bought a boxed copy, any rights terminate as soon as you open the box. That's why they put that little sticker on the box lid, so that you know that you can't return it once you open it.
Gamer Jas: OK, so what if the game literally will not start, or it misses key features, or it is a completely different game to the one I was expecting?
Lawyer Jas: Tough luck. If a boxed version literally didn't work because the DVD is damaged, then you're probably OK to get a retailer refund. Otherwise, you're probably stuck, I'm afraid.
Gamer Jas: [pulls angry face] But that just can't be right. You can't completely exclude consumer protection law! I'm a UK resident: what about the rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, which requires goods to actually work, be of satisfactory quality and be reasonably fit for purpose? Most countries have laws like that too, especially in Europe.
Lawyer Jas: Erm, pass.
Gamer Jas: And what about EU-wide laws on distance selling? If consumers don't buy goods or services in person, they have a legal right to return those goods or services if they change their mind within seven days.
Lawyer Jas: Ah yes, but that doesn't help you, because the law says that when you actually start using the goods or services - as in to download or install the digitally distributed game - your distance selling rights are lost.
Gamer Jas: But that can't be right - the whole point of digitally distributed games is that you download and install them. Even with games I buy in person, I don't know what they're like until I install and play them. You can't avoid your responsibilities like that!
Lawyer Jas: Well actually that's the law, so we're just following it. I'm sorry, but that's the position. And while I'm on that topic, it's not as straightforward as consumer X saying, 'Hey, game Y isn't exactly as I wanted/hoped for/dreamed therefore I want a refund'. As long as games have existed, there have been problems with bugs, changes in functionality and so on. Just because games can be digitally downloaded now, that doesn't really create a new problem - it just makes some old problems occur more frequently and in a new medium.
Besides which, it would impose far too many practical problems on publishers and retailers if there was a right to refund in those kinds of circumstances. It would be a free-for-all with customers misusing their rights all the time. In other words, if a publisher or retailer allows refunds over game quality or content, how does it make sure that's only used appropriately?
Gamer Jas: But that doesn't make it right. I WANT TO PLAY THE GAME YOU SOLD ME IN THE WAY YOU DESCRIBED IT TO ME!
Lawyer Jas: Look, the simple fact is that current laws just aren't designed for the kinds of issues that are being thrown up at the moment. There isn't yet a clear answer to the legal treatment of release bugs, unilaterally imposed IP protection technology (like DRM) or refund rights for digitally downloaded games.
In the meantime, publishers and retailers do the best they can in the circumstances - many of them are quite flexible in practice (many digital distribution platforms do quietly offer refunds in appropriate circumstances, for example). Unfortunately, life is far from perfect, but there has to be a balance between protecting consumers and not overburdening businesses in the games industry. OK, sometimes that balance needs to be corrected, but it will always be needed.
Gamer Jas: You still suck, dude. [/ragequits]
Comments
5And this is where demos are useful. Oh, wait, demos have mostly been stopped for AAA titles (at least on PC. Due to piracy concerns.)
This is true. But publishers/developers repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot with rushed software, or (dare I say it) outright lies. 2 examples: Arkham City on the PC, delayed for a month "for extra DirectX 11 support", and entirely unplayable in DirectX 11 mode. Even WB say to play in DX9 until the patch is released... Sometime this week. Also, BF3, where comma-rose support is still non-functioning.
Something does need to be done about this. I don't think they should be able to just sell broken products and we get no protection purely because it's online.
The seller can't sell you a broken product, it's just that those who make and publish the game don't sell it to you. Disappointed with the pass on sale of goods / supply of services as it's the only "nice" issue. No mention of the exclusive jurisdiction in EULAs or luxembourgeois law being the chosen law of the contract (on xbl it is...).
Fact is, people will sell you games that work, or work with a patch. If they don't you won't buy their games any more. If you're dimwitted enough to buy DNF, you're to blame. If you rush to bethesda games on day 1, you're an idiot. If you're playing on a PC, you know you're more likely to encounter issues. You don't get more or less protection than obtains in other software purchases, other than the demands of PC games on graphics cards and the lack of uniform graphical innards in PCs.
Non-blog/ non-opinion. It has teh word laws in it, innit.
Most of the time when i buy games and there problems i have no problems exchanging in store for something esle. tbh. Any major problems with the games most retailers get notified. With MW2 last year when i was working at game and the service was down for 48 hours for the new maps we were told rather fast from HQ and told customers nefore they made the choice to buy M$ points.
that just a really bad example of what could happen.
So you're telling me that the Thief collection that they sell boxed in retail outlets here in Ireland are absolutely okay?
Case in point. The game, precisely the first two, do not work on modern machines. This is a widely known issue and something that the publisher refuses to address in a patch or update. The community itself has had to come up with patches and work arounds (such as disabling all cores but one in your CPU) to correctly run the game.
So, what I'm getting at here, is that a product that is widely known to be faulty can still be sold in retail because they can, without reprocussion?