Blizzard Finally Offers Korean Diablo III Players a Refund

[WMDogma]

Blizzard Finally Offers Korean Diablo III Players a Refund

Blizzard reacts to South Korean government's investigation.

It looks like saying "I'm sorry" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117297-Blizzard-Apologizes-for-Diablo-III-Launch-Troubles] wasn't enough to keep Blizzard out of trouble in South Korea, as the company is now offering Korean players of Diablo III a full refund to compensate for any issues they may have had trying to play the game at launch.

The decision to offer up refunds came several weeks after South Korea's Fair Trade Commission launched an investigation into Blizzard's business practices after receiving multiple complaints regarding customers who weren't given refunds after experiencing server connectivity issues. As it turns out, South Korea's consumer protection laws guarantee refunds if there's an issue with a product or service that's not the fault of the consumer. FTC even went to far as to raid Blizzard's Seoul office [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117575-Korean-Officials-Raid-Blizzard] to secure documents and other evidence related to their investigation.

I n a posting on the Korean version of Battle.net, Blizzard revealed a program allowing players who are less than level 40 to apply for a refund from June 25th to July 3rd. Blizzard will also institute a new policy of accepting returns within 14 days of purchase for players under level 20.

Source: Wall Street Journal [http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2012/06/19/diablo-gamers-1-blizzard-0/?KEYWORDS=blizzard]

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[Elate]

I wonder if this will start to set a precedent across other countries. Also wondering if it applies if the problem is that of the ISP, considering I've had multiple problems which weren't MY fault, or the companies but the ISP interfering with packages and such.

 

[triorph]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

 

[Evil Smurf]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

 

[LordFish]

I wonder if this will start to set a precedent across other countries. Also wondering if it applies if the problem is that of the ISP, considering I've had multiple problems which weren't MY fault, or the companies but the ISP interfering with packages and such.

To be honest I think you totally should be able to get your money back if you play some of the game and think it's god awful. This could be difficult for console games as the player could have simply completed the game in quick time and taken it back. However for a game purchased on steam (or another distribution service like origin, but lets face it, steam is the best) then you could fire off an email, you're save game is on steam cloud, they see you've played it for 2 hours and gotten 15% of the way through, then they could accept the refund.

It would persuade people to try games... But then again that's what demo levels are for.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

I wonder if this will start to set a precedent across other countries. Also wondering if it applies if the problem is that of the ISP, considering I've had multiple problems which weren't MY fault, or the companies but the ISP interfering with packages and such.

To be honest I think you totally should be able to get your money back if you play some of the game and think it's god awful. This could be difficult for console games as the player could have simply completed the game in quick time and taken it back. However for a game purchased on steam (or another distribution service like origin, but lets face it, steam is the best) then you could fire off an email, you're save game is on steam cloud, they see you've played it for 2 hours and gotten 15% of the way through, then they could accept the refund.

It would persuade people to try games... But then again that's what demo levels are for.

Too many ways they could be cheated if they let you return games. Besides, that's what piracy is for.

 

[LordFish]

Too many ways they could be cheated if they let you return games. Besides, that's what piracy is for.

>,< I see no way how anyone could take advantage of that on steam.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

Or if they've managed to make it past level 40, they really aren't having any refund worthy difficulties.

Kinda what I was getting at, but I guess I'm too tired to make sense or something... Meow.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

Too many ways they could be cheated if they let you return games. Besides, that's what piracy is for.

>,< I see no way how anyone could take advantage of that on steam.

You don't have to use the cloud for saves. You don't have to play games with Steam connected, thus it couldn't track hours that way either. Also saves don't generally count the time actually played. That is to say, if you save a game, play 2 more hours without saving, die, and restart at that save, then it starts tracking time at the 2 hour mark again.

All that being said, it's not Valve's fault if a developer makes a shitty game and you buy it. Allowing people to return games would either force Valve to absorb the losses on something they had no control over or pass their losses onto us in the form of higher prices.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

Or if they've managed to make it past level 40, they really aren't having any refund worthy difficulties.

Kinda what I was getting at, but I guess I'm too tired to make sense or something... Meow.

^*scratches behind the ears*^
That'll do Scruffy, That'll do.

Purrrr and then *Le sleep.

 

[LordFish]

snip.

steam counts hours played, and obviously there would be a short time period on it, 3 to 5 days, and no more than 3 hours played something like that.

Infact steam keeps offering me 3 day free play on various games, so they're obviously moving towards something like this, and it would persuade people to buy games more games, making steam and the developers more money.

Not saying it's perfect, but there's the makings of a "money back guarantee" for video games, if the model didn't work supermarkets wouldn't push so much.

 

[doctorjackal777]

snip.

steam counts hours played, and obviously there would be a short time period on it, 3 to 5 days, and no more than 3 hours played something like that.

Infact steam keeps offering me 3 day free play on various games, so they're obviously moving towards something like this, and it would persuade people to buy games more games, making steam and the developers more money.

Not saying it's perfect, but there's the makings of a "money back guarantee" for video games, if the model didn't work supermarkets wouldn't push so much.

Yeah but there's a big difference between letting a customer buy a $1 bag of chips, and then giving them a new bag or refund if they were stale, and refunding a $60 game just cause they didn't like the game. I mean really, a company has to be accountable for my personal taste in games?

Also I just want to clarify I'm not talking about if the game isn't working, which was the case with Diablo, just if the player doesn't like the game, which is something that other posters have been bringing up.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

snip.

steam counts hours played, and obviously there would be a short time period on it, 3 to 5 days, and no more than 3 hours played something like that.

Infact steam keeps offering me 3 day free play on various games, so they're obviously moving towards something like this, and it would persuade people to buy games more games, making steam and the developers more money.

Not saying it's perfect, but there's the makings of a "money back guarantee" for video games, if the model didn't work supermarkets wouldn't push so much.

Like I said in my previous post, you don't have to play games with Steam connected, thus it doesn't count hours.

And yes Steam has free weekends so you can play games and decide if you want them. They also make game demos readily available. All these options are try before you buy, once you buy you're pretty much committed to that purchase. Maybe in the future Steam will have timed trials on all their games, but offering refunds if you don't like a game I can't imagine happening. Again that'd force them to absorb all the merchant fees, which aren't insignificant.

Supermarkets push a money back guarantee? I think you might mean department stores. I'm not sure I can get a refund on a half eaten pack of bacon. Though some brands will offer a Satisfaction Guarantee, but that is through the company making the product, not the supermarket.

 

[Iron Criterion]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

Good luck finding a Korean under level 40, amiright?

OT: Good. Maybe that'll teach Blizzard that next time they think always online is a good idea, they should slap themselves in the balls with a fly swatter.

 

[triorph]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

Or if they've managed to make it past level 40, they really aren't having any refund worthy difficulties.

My point was that the original complaint was about the original down-time, and people may have got to level40+ since that down-time but still have been affected by it (and thus by south korea's standards, due to a refund). So I'm curious how they can add this little caveat on there, even if in the end it doesn't matter because as you say, people who made it to 40+ probably want to keep playing the game.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

What does this have to do with the level of the characters?

if they have a lvl 40+ character they clearly love the game and don't want a refund. probably what they are thinking.

That's frighteningly plausible. I'll go with a matter of guessing that someone with characters less than level 40 haven't played it much. I'm still going with Evil Smurf's suggestion though, it somehow smells less of bullshit.

Or if they've managed to make it past level 40, they really aren't having any refund worthy difficulties.

Kinda what I was getting at, but I guess I'm too tired to make sense or something... Meow.

^*scratches behind the ears*^
That'll do Scruffy, That'll do.

Purrrr and then *Le sleep.

D'awww. So cute! <3

OT: A lot of negative publicity for Blizzard around. I wonder how they're actually doing financially after you account for production costs (including advertising, etc) and refunds/returns.