NerdBite: "Without beating around the bush, we seriously need consumer protection rights going forward into the new year; some countries already have their ducks in a row, in that regard, and it’s high time we collectively take a step back and address this issue before it magnifies. Let’s put loot crates and Logan Paul on the back burner for a moment and recognize a commonplace concern with digital media."
Discover how Sony Interactive Entertainment, Nintendo, and Microsoft continue to collaborate to improve player safety across our platforms.
Pricing your game between $20 and $40 could be a key part of attracting player interest.
The acting legend on making his own game, AI, working with indies, and replacing fear with trust
Until this gets sorted out, I’ll never understand people who advocate for a digital only future rather than having the continued option of physical or digital.
My protection is called not buying digital.
I agree. What we also need is the right to refund if a game is not patched to a playable level within the first 3-6 months of purchase.
My example (excuse the game) is WWE 2K18. It was released in October 2017, with a day one patch to fix existing bugs. It still had bugs that broke entire mode progression, and a lot of minor ones.
Three months on, there have been multiple patches that have stated they have fixed certain things, while also breaking other mechanics or not even fixing the things stated on the patch notes. This is the fourth year that the game has been produced as so, and 2K gets away with it because basically, you can't claim a refund 30 days after purchase and they have not even begun to fix the game in that time period, instead, focusing on releasing DLC.
They leave the games in an unfinished broken state and start work on the next, inevitably broken game. People still pre-order and the cycle repeats.
It's shameful, but there you have it. You can partially blame the customers, but the real fault lies with a dev team and publisher who don't really care once they have the money. This should be punished.
I like digital purchases for games for various reasons, but I would never want to see the physical option be taken away. We certainly need legal rules surrounding maintaining access to a digital library of individually purchased games without a subscription, proper return/refund policies enshrined in law, and something that legally guarantees that the digital games that you have purchased, will be unlocked if the service that you are using decides to get out of the video game business or if they simply go out of business.
I don't buy digital games because I like having a physical version, but I agree with this. I remember Marvel Heroes had a 5 year contract to keep the game on consoles and they shut it down. PlayStation didn't refund those who bought the founder packs. There needs to be some sort of constitution for it to protect us in those type of situations.