Origin Offers Refunds
It feels like I am in an abusive relationship with EA sometimes. They’ll do something wonderful, like sell their games for charity, after first having given us the silent treatment. But then it turns out that The Sims 3 doesn’t run, even after years of complaints, and hundreds of forums posts.
But then they go and do something no other digital download service has done before, and I find it hard to stay mad at them. As in, they’re now offering refunds as part of their “great game guarantee“:
We hope every game you play on Origin will meet this high bar, and we’re happy to say that starting today, we can guarantee that we’ll make things right if you decide the game you just bought didn’t live up to your expectations.
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).
It’s not perfect, realistically giving you a 24 hour window to claim the refund, but it’s a start. Apple themselves let you claim refunds for software bought on the Mac App Store, but it’s by no means encouraged, and they make you jump through numerous hoops to do it. The full legal mumbo jumbo for all this is here, for those of you that have finished reading the latest 70+ page iTunes agreement and are looking for something else to sink your teeth into. The policy, meanwhile, comes into effect today for 20 countries (other countries should follow suit later).
I shall now be waiting for them to follow this with something utterly despicable, and then I can relax, the balance having been restored.
(via RPS)