GOG.com pulls a massive pro-consumer move with updated refund policy

[JZStudios]

I went into my email and was surprised with this, almost deleted it thinking it was just another GOG security update or something. Turns out it's a massive pro move from the little team that could.

 

"Everyone at GOG believes in a 'gamers-first’ approach. It means that every part of our store is designed with gamers in mind and your purchase safety and satisfaction come first for us. 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.

 

It’s important for us to say that this update is possible thanks to your respect for all the time and hard work put into creating the games you buy on GOG.com and playing by the rules. We're grateful for that and encourage you to continue to do so.

For more details on how the change works, please check this FAQ article."

 

FAQ link HERE

This is major news and something I was hoping Steam would do for years, taking less risk out of buying PC games and being potentially screwed out of $60 for sub standard games, or hell just games that you just don't like. This really flies in the face of people claiming that this is impossible, or would be unfair, or that you don't own your digital purchases.

 

 

As if this wasn't big enough news (That doesn't even seem to be advertised on their main site, they just went "Oh yeah, we did this super rad thing.") GOG Galaxy 2.0 is apparently now in Open Beta.

Link HERE

I've been using it for a few months now, and I'm pretty damn happy with it, being able to consolidate all my games, including emulators into one place and being able to launch them all from one place, as well as allowing it to close the other launchers on game exit. It'll even pull in achievement information, friends lists, play time, and more from other platforms, all while having a clean and fairly customizeable layout.

 

Edit* A lot of people seem to think that GOG hasn't thought about the fact that people are scumbags, despite the fact that their entire store is DRM free and if people didn't want to buy games they could just pirate them. Anyways, here's what's written in their FAQ;

1. How does your updated voluntary Refund Policy work?

• The updated policy lets you refund a product up to 30 days after purchase, even if it was downloaded, launched, and played. Yes, you read that correctly.
  To apply for a refund, you should contact our Customer Support Team within 30 days of your purchase, and our team will sort it out as soon as possible.
  We're monitoring the effects of the current update to make sure no one is using this policy to hurt the developers that put their time and heart into making great games. We may refuse refunds in such individual cases. We'd also let you know about any future adjustments in the voluntary Refund Policy in advance.

7. How often can I refund my games? Is there some sort of limit?

• We trust that you're making informed purchasing decisions and will use this updated voluntary Refund Policy only if something doesn't work as you expected.
  This is why there are no limits but instead, we reserve the right to refuse refunds in individual cases.
  Please respect all the time and hard work put into making the games you play and remember that refunds are not reviews. If you finished the game and didn't like it, please consider sharing your opinion instead. Also, please don't take advantage of our trust by asking for an unreasonable amount of games to be refunded. Don't be that person. No one likes that person.

I also highly doubt this will damage GOGs standing with publishers. Steam still has big games come out on it's platform despite their refund also being the end of the world. Big games are already not on GOG because they're DRM free and big publishers think that DRM is good for sales, despite being cracked mere hours after launch every time.

[AlTech]

Cool .

 

GOG was awesome before this and now they’re even more awesome.

[JZStudios]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Cool .

 

GOG was awesome before this and now they’re even more awesome.

Yep. Freaking awesome. They basically just say they reserve the right to refuse refunds, so don't start using it like a "free" rental service, but otherwise being a normal person and just getting my money back for Bayonetta that got rave reviews but I just didn't like is totally reasonable. They'll even give you straight cash back, I would've honestly been fine if it was just GOG store credit.

[.Apex.]

This whole time while reading this I was thinking of G2A and I was like how is this even remotely possible, I'm a retard 

[Reytime]

Very refreshing and appreciated.

[suicidalfranco]

now give me a launcher for Linux please and thank you

Also galaxy page times out for me

[Mihle]

Yey!

[xAcid9]

 

I need to buy more games at GOG. 

[matrix07012]

Let's just hope people don't abuse this.

[schwellmo92]

This won’t last and is stupid. I think something like 30 days or 8 hours playtime would be enough.

[minibois]

Thank you GOG, very good!

 

When I get the time, I'll try to move as much over to their platform. Valve has just not been trying to keep Steam competitive.

(Now let's hope people don't take advantage of GOG)

[WereCatf]

24 minutes ago, matrix07012 said:

Let's just hope people don't abuse this.

There will always be people who do abuse anything they can. There is zero chance of abuse not happening. That said, whether it will happen in large enough amounts to really matter for GOG or not will remain to be seen, especially if this move entices enough customers to them to offset that abuse.

[JZStudios]

2 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

This won’t last and is stupid. I think something like 30 days or 8 hours playtime would be enough.

If you buy a game and literally never play it I don't know why they would limit the refund period. GOG also has offline installers and you can play games without any launcher, as such they can't track your play time.

 

But yeah, we'll call it stupid. Most of the people that use GOG are pretty respectable. Ironically for being completely DRM free, most of the games you can find at... certain sites... are still from Steam despite being available on GOG. And being DRM free GOG still finds this viable. Not everyone is a pirate and if they are, they frankly aren't buying it anyways.

2 hours ago, WereCatf said:

There will always be people who do abuse anything they can. There is zero chance of abuse not happening. That said, whether it will happen in large enough amounts to really matter for GOG or not will remain to be seen, especially if this move entices enough customers to them to offset that abuse.

This is why GOG reserves the right to refuse refunds. If people keep being asshats they'll just say no.

It's kind of like the Home Depot has a pretty good refund policy, and will give you 100% money back. My dad knew a contractor that would save time by buying 3 of everything he needed, and after the project return whatever wasn't used. After a while every Home Depot in the city literally had the guy on a "No refund" blacklist. Though technically he did still pay for everything he did use...

 

Either way GOG can and will do the same thing, which is totally fine. People talk about alternate accounts but they could still look up IP addresses or probably credit card info.

[TigerHawk]

This is pretty awesome. I wish I could have done this with Wolcen but it was on steam. I might rebuy it later but right now and for the foreseeable future it is a huge buggy mess where half the stuff doesn't work. Reminds me of Anthem, which I also bought into cause I'm bad at this.

 

I have to wonder if it is going to make developers/publishers reconsider having their games on GOG though. Too risky and open for abuse?

[JZStudios]

8 hours ago, TigerHawk said:

This is pretty awesome. I wish I could have done this with Wolcen but it was on steam. I might rebuy it later but right now and for the foreseeable future it is a huge buggy mess where half the stuff doesn't work. Reminds me of Anthem, which I also bought into cause I'm bad at this.

 

I have to wonder if it is going to make developers/publishers reconsider having their games on GOG though. Too risky and open for abuse?

Too bad you missed that 24 hour window of mass Steam refunds before Valve thought they'd lose too much money on something terrible and prevented people from doing so.

 

The fact that GOG is already DRM free had that exact same argument. Yet like I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of pirated games (being available on Steam on GOG) are Steam DRM cracks.

[Doobeedoo]

Neat. But that just seems way too generous to the point of being abused. I see this being change because of it. 

[GreatnessRD]

Always a good day when you get some pro-consumer goodies. I hope their GOG business continues to thrive even though its just above water. I'll definitely be making a few purchases from them.

[RonnieOP]

3 hours ago, matrix07012 said:

Let's just hope people don't abuse this.

If they refund in 30 days no matter the playtime then people are 100% going to abuse it.

 

I get people are happy about this....but tbh its a dumb move.

 

It really shouldnt take you one month of playing a game to see if you like it or not.

 

This is going to be abused to all hell. Wouldnt surprise me if this policy doesnt make it a year due to abuse.

 

With this policy you can now buy a new game, beat it, refund it, and do it all over again.

[Mihle]

22 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

If they refund in 30 days no matter the playtime then people are 100% going to abuse it.

 

I get people are happy about this....but tbh its a dumb move.

 

It really shouldnt take you one month of playing a game to see if you like it or not.

 

This is going to be abused to all hell. Wouldnt surprise me if this policy doesnt make it a year due to abuse.

 

With this policy you can now buy a new game, beat it, refund it, and do it all over again.

If you do it too much you are going to be flagged.

And if it makes more honest people get things on GOG, that might compensate for the bad people.

 

They have no way to know the playtime people have if the person decide to not want to share it anyway... They did not have a playtime limit before when it was 14 days(or 30 for in development games I think) either.

[RonnieOP]

2 minutes ago, Mihle said:

If you do it too much you are going to be flagged.

And if it makes more honest people get things on GOG, that might compensate for the bad people.

And if you get flagged you make a new account.

 

Amazon has been flagging abusers for years and years now....doesnt stop them. And GoG isnt going to do as much work as amazon does to try and stop them.

 

Its going to attract a shit load of dishonest people. More then honest people i believe.

 

"Just buy it on gog and refund it" will be said on forums all over the place.

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, matrix07012 said:

Let's just hope people don't abuse this.

You have too much faith in people. It will be abused, and it will be abused by the same people who have no regard for anything. 

 

Theoretical abuse pattern:

a) Create throw away account

b) Buy thing on gog

c) download it

d) immedately refund it

e) go back to B until account banned, then goto a

 

All it costs the abuser is one disposable credit card. Since the games are supposed to be DRM free, one could theoretically "buy everything" off gog in less than a day if they have the bandwidth for it.

 

Now I'm not suggesting this is going to be a big thing, but if you've ever kept your ear to places that like to "get things for free", you'd know that loop holes are exploited quickly, and often get bigger until it becomes public knowledge and the company closes the hole.

 

So I'm going to assume there are some strict rules governing how many times you can do this. Like maybe once a month, and not for games with DLC content. Cause I could easily see someone doing this with one of those games that have $100,000 USD in DLC nonsense.

[aisle9]

31 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

And if you get flagged you make a new account.

 

Amazon has been flagging abusers for years and years now....doesnt stop them. And GoG isnt going to do as much work as amazon does to try and stop them.

 

Its going to attract a shit load of dishonest people. More then honest people i believe.

 

"Just buy it on gog and refund it" will be said on forums all over the place.

Amazon only targets those who really abuse the system. Their broader goal is to catch the people who buy products to "review", leave a glowing five-star recommendation on a toilet brush, then return it after their Chinese benefactor PayPals them the cost of the item. They're more interested in review manipulation than anything else.

 

Coming from someone who works at an Amazon DC, they theoretically check every item that comes back in, but in reality, they don't start checking your returns unless it's over a certain dollar value and/or you have a history of shenanigans. Even then, they're not highly trained on specific items and they don't have a lot of time, so if you order an RTX 2070 Super from Amazon Warehouse and a GTX 650 Ti shows up at your door, that's why.

 

But I digress. Point being, Amazon doesn't really flag you unless you're caught multiple times sending back fake/switched items on high-dollar returns, or you have a history of buying items, giving them glowing reviews, then returning them days later.

[RonnieOP]

Just now, aisle9 said:

Amazon only targets those who really abuse the system. Their broader goal is to catch the people who buy products to "review", leave a glowing five-star recommendation on a toilet brush, then return it after their Chinese benefactor PayPals them the cost of the item. They're more interested in review manipulation than anything else.

 

Coming from someone who works at an Amazon DC, they theoretically check every item that comes back in, but in reality, they don't start checking your returns unless it's over a certain dollar value and/or you have a history of shenanigans. Even then, they're not highly trained on specific items and they don't have a lot of time, so if you order an RTX 2070 Super from Amazon Warehouse and a GTX 650 Ti shows up at your door, that's why.

 

But I digress. Point being, Amazon doesn't really flag you unless you're caught multiple times sending back fake/switched items on high-dollar returns, or you have a history of buying items, giving them glowing reviews, then returning them days later.

Point is amazon blacklists people left and right (Ive seen people making tens of thousands off amazon a month) and they still get around the flagging.

 

GoG isnt going to put a fraction of the amount of work that amazon does to flag abusers. They dont have the resources.

[vanished]

I remember when Steam was first working out what would become the now standard 2 weeks or 2 hours playtime return system how there was controversy over the 2 hours part, and for good reason.  The simple fact is that games vary greatly.  A large open-world story-driven AAA like GTA or Skyrim could take dozens or even hundreds of hours to complete, assuming you play how you want and don't just rush for the finish.  Meanwhile, there are also some small indie games that could be completely beaten at a leisurely pace in just a few hours.  As such, the concern was that this 2 hour figure applied indiscriminately across the board would inevitably create a situation where some games could be played in their entirety and then returned illegitimately, and while still others (particularly the ones that, due to their price, need this policy most if we're being honest) would not really get the full benefit because you could not adequately try them in the allotted time.  I've experienced this myself personally.  When getting a substantial new game that I'm unsure if I'll like or not, that 2 hour limit is always in the back of my mind and puts quite a bit of pressure on me to try to rush through and experience as much as possible so I can make my decision quickly.  This unsurprisingly has a negative impact on the experience and can even lead to ultimately returning things that maybe would have been fine given more of a chance.

 

At the time (years ago), my proposal was to scale the return window to the game.  Developers would be responsible for labelling games with an estimated total playtime in hours, and the return window would be some percentage of this.  This would extend the window for big games that needed (and could afford) it, while shrinking it on games where it was excessive, solving the problem entirely.  One obvious potential issue is devs picking absurdly short times to effectively block people from refunding, but I believe that they would be held accountable by the market and people would not buy $20+ games that could be completed in 5 minutes.

 

Of course, another way to (sort of) solve this problem is just to effectively remove the limit all together.  30 days is a very long time and if you haven't tried the game adequately by then you probably never will.  This is fantastic for gamers but obviously does open them up to the potential for abuse.  With that said though, people said the same when Steam implemented their policy, and I don't think it's really become an issue.  They said at the time they would monitor use of the system and catch obvious abusers, and while I can't tell if that has happened or not, I don't really see signs anywhere that abuse is rampant.  No one talks about it.  Perhaps this will be the same.  The fact is there is already enormous potential for GOG to be abused by people buying 1 copy and sharing it to everyone they know due to the lack of DRM, but despite this they have been and continue to be successful.  Yes, there are a lot of bad people out there, but perhaps not quite as many as it takes to ruin it for the rest of us.

 

With all that said however, there is another method that's better than all of this.  It gives you unlimited time to test, while always being appropriately proportional to the game at hand so you see enough to know if you want it but not enough to spoil the full experience, is effectively impossible to abuse, and can work without money even changing hands!  Who else here remembers game demos and wonders what on earth happened to make them so rare when they are such an obviously smart concept that worked well for years and still does...

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

With all that said however, there is another method that's better than all of this.  It gives you unlimited time to test, while always being appropriately proportional to the game at hand so you see enough to know if you want it but not enough to spoil the full experience, is effectively impossible to abuse, and can work without money even changing hands!  Who else here remembers game demos and wonders what on earth happened to make them so rare when they are such an obviously smart concept that worked well for years and still does...

Go back to the shareware days, imo. Pay $10 for a demo pack of 10-15 games (more or less depending on publisher and game) with the first two levels, first two missions, first X hours of content, however the dev wants to do it. If you end up buying one or more of those games, you'll receive a $10 total credit for any of the games you buy. So let's say you buy two of the games through that pack at $20 each, you'd only pay $30 more.

 

If you don't want to buy any of the games after paying for the demo pack, hey, welcome to my life in the mid-90's when every Walmart had a hundred "100 GAMES FOR $10" demo CDs on the shelves. I'd work up the $10 to buy the space pack, then find out that 90 of those 100 games were bug-ridden reskins of Asteroids. The other ten might have been amazing, but I'd never know because they were too badly broken to even install.