Epic Games Store gives away Kerbal Space Program for free, then tooks it away from Russian and Belarus players

[loonks]

Summary

 

Players from Russia and Belarus, who got Kerbal Space Program in Epic Games Store during recent giveaway, now receiving letters notifying them about refund.

 

 

Translation for the image:

Quote

Thanks!

 

Hello, Andrey!

 

We're glad we could help you get your money back for your purchase. The amount below will be refunded to your account.

 

Total refund amount: 0.00 RUB

 

Quotes

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Last week, the Epic Games Store gave away the Shadow Tactics add-on - Aiko's Choice and Kerbal Space Program. And if the first title is still in the libraries of Russian users, the second one began to disappear from there. The reason is that Private Division has made the Kerbal Space Program unavailable for purchase in the Russian EGS region. It seems that for this reason, Epic Games began to take away the game and send a notification about the refund to the user's mail - the return of 0 rubles.

 

(translated from Russian)

 

My thoughts

As I was also affected by this decision, I'd like to add only one thing: remember that you do not own anything on a digital distribution platforms. Especially if you're from a "socially unacceptable" region.

 

Sources

In Russian:

https://www.igromania.ru/news/122357/U_rossiyskih_igrokov_zabirayut_Kerbal_Space_Program_posle_nedavney_razdachi_v_EGS.html

https://www.cybersport.ru/tags/games/epic-games-prinuditelno-zabrala-besplatnye-kopii-kerbal-space-program-u-igrokov-iz-rossii

 

In English:

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/10b6f4b/epic_store_autorefunded_my_copy_of_ksp_that_they/

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/10arutl/refund_on_epic_games_store/

[loonks]

Also, some additional receipts of my own:

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by loonks
Added support reply

[Kisai]

9 minutes ago, loonks said:

 

 

My thoughts

As I was also affected by this decision, I'd like to add only one thing: remember that you do not own anything on a digital distribution platforms. Especially if you're from a "socially unacceptable" region.

 

 

Well, technically Epic is subsidizing a game that costs money to zero, so it would still run afoul of present export rules. That said, I'm surprised Russian players can still even connect to EGS.

 

And this is not a problem that is specific to Russian players. The Epic Game Store, no matter how painfully slow, and ineptly setup, can't allow purchases for countries where the FOREX rate is in too much flux, because the stores need to retain reserves of that currency in order to process refunds. So if EGS does not, or can't have Russian Rubles to trade, then as a consequence it can't do purchases in that currency, they have to be converted directly to USD by the payment card merchant itself, and that's where it's going to again be hit with the sanctions.

 

EGS would rather not get hit with extortionate amount of fines for providing free games to a country they're not supposed to even be doing business in right now.

[loonks]

3 minutes ago, Kisai said:

 

Well, technically Epic is subsidizing a game that costs money to zero, so it would still run afoul of present export rules. That said, I'm surprised Russian players can still even connect to EGS.

 

And this is not a problem that is specific to Russian players. The Epic Game Store, no matter how painfully slow, and ineptly setup, can't allow purchases for countries where the FOREX rate is in too much flux, because the stores need to retain reserves of that currency in order to process refunds. So if EGS does not, or can't have Russian Rubles to trade, then as a consequence it can't do purchases in that currency, they have to be converted directly to USD by the payment card merchant itself, and that's where it's going to again be hit with the sanctions.

 

EGS would rather not get hit with extortionate amount of fines for providing free games to a country they're not supposed to even be doing business in right now.

Probably it was not an EGS decision, but a publisher's. Because other games from give-aways was not "refunded"

[Budget DIY]

Scummy move to take stuffs back like this. They shouldn't have given the product (the game) to those people in the first place.

 

No-hate and not trying to break any rules here, but as a russian person, I'd expect you are able to download the game from different sources for free very easily. In the past (and again in the present), it was accepted as normal to download stuffs for free, in that area. (watched a docu series about that, can't quickly find it)

 

*EDIT: I remember where I've seen it being mentioned. However, this tuber is making loads of statements which the Russian government doesn't like, and this tuber has removed loads of vids.

[Kisai]

4 minutes ago, loonks said:

Probably it was not an EGS decision, but a publisher's. Because other games from give-aways was not "refunded"

What about the other games that were free, surely someone who tries to get every free game, regardless if they have time to play it would notice if EGS was doing it to everything.

 

Sure, it could be at the behest of the publisher, but I'm not see a logical reason why it would just be one publisher and not all US publishers.

[loonks]

7 minutes ago, Budget DIY said:

No-hate and not trying to break any rules here, but as a russian person, I'd expect you are able to download the game from different sources for free very easily. In the past (and again in the present), it was accepted as normal to download stuffs for free, in that area. (watched a docu series about that, can't quickly find it)

People in Russia still do buy games on Steam, pay for Spotify, etc. Is it harder to do now? Yes. Is it still more convenient than pirating? Also yes.

[Budget DIY]

2 minutes ago, loonks said:

People in Russia still do buy games on Steam, pay for Spotify, etc. Is it harder to do now? Yes. Is it still more convinient than pirating? Also yes.

When even companies need to download their software because of sanctions... But the source vid has been removed, and I can't be bothered to find a new source.

[loonks]

6 minutes ago, Kisai said:

What about the other games that were free, surely someone who tries to get every free game, regardless if they have time to play it would notice if EGS was doing it to everything.

 

Sure, it could be at the behest of the publisher, but I'm not see a logical reason why it would just be one publisher and not all US publishers.

There is only two refunds in my purchase history on EGS:

1. Detriot Become Human, that was errorneusly free on EGS

2. Kerbal Space Program

In total I've got six free games in the recent year on EGS, all of which was picked based on my interest to play them, not because they were free.

[PDifolco]

Kinda lame sanctions imo, targeting individuals for their leaders folly in the name of ... free market !

Also make western companies lose money, and sustain piracy and hacking...

OTOH Vlad P has some other real Space Program to manage than Kerbal's

[Helpful Tech Witch]

That’s kinda odd… they gave away the wrong version of Death Stranding on Christmas for a bit and let the players they accidentally gave it to keep the game.

 

somethings probably an issue with the publisher 

[CarlBar]

3 hours ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

somethings probably an issue with the publisher 

 

Check the OP, the email he got explicitly says the publishers has removed it from sale in russia. That probably puts EGS in an awkward legal position as allowing you to download it would result in contract violations. More likely than not though it's related to issues getting payments processed than anything else.

[Quackers101]

the bad thing about this is that, what we will accept and deal with in the future.

its not a good look.

 

Just like how it is to change software to "fight or for" a country, can hurt so many users and the trust, to opening security concerns and spyware.

then to owning, destroying much of the media, just as how epic games holds unreal engine, if they were to ruin your decade of projects.

Then to cloud storage and other types of storage.

[Skiiwee29]

<-- Moved to General Discussion -->

[Neroon]

11 hours ago, Budget DIY said:

Scummy move to take stuffs back like this. They shouldn't have given the product (the game) to those people in the first place.

 

No-hate and not trying to break any rules here, but as a russian person, I'd expect you are able to download the game from different sources for free very easily. In the past (and again in the present), it was accepted as normal to download stuffs for free, in that area. (watched a docu series about that, can't quickly find it)

 

*EDIT: I remember where I've seen it being mentioned. However, this tuber is making loads of statements which the Russian government doesn't like, and this tuber has removed loads of vids.

Yeah it's scummy, but at least it was taken back in a week, instead of trying to take it back after 30+ years.

 

Seriously though, dumb mistake, shouldn't have given it in the first place.