Yeah! Fuck consumers getting any type of free games! Microsoft fucked up, and they fixed the fuck up, nothing more to discuss, if I pick up a movie at a movie store and the employee told me it was free, and then I was told that I would no longer be allowed to ever purchase anything from the store and was forced to return the thing because I "stole" it, well frankly that is a pile of bullshit, microsoft fucked up, fuck off with this attitude of "players should be banned for taking advantage of poor poor microsoft!"GarouxBloodline said:
Microsoft Revoking Free Fallout 4 Copies Grabbed Due to Xbox Store Error
- Thread starter ffronw
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very true and honestly if their PR department had some brains its what they would have done. same with sony and Bethesda discount the game to say $60 for 24 hours for those who mistakenly DL the game for free, make about 120 sells you would miss otherwise.Quellist said:
Why are you comparing physical goods with digital goods? I am perfectly content with cross-debating/arguing, but fallacious points rarely keep it all productive.thewatergamer said:
If a person directly, to your face, tells you that a physical product in the store that they are working at is for free, then that is an entirely different scenario than a pricing error that results in hundreds/thousands of people basically siphoning off thousands of USD in revenue/profits.
If those are the mental gymnastics that you need to use in order to justify sleazy behaviour, then more power to you. It is certainly not like I am going to rock your world with my opinion(s) on the matter. Just try and not to get too offended, when people call out that sort of unethical behaviour.
It's a good thing you aren't in charge of Microsoft then, since you'd clearly lead them to ruin in no time with such petty attempts to throw your weight around. What makes you think all of the people are "opportunistic assholes" and "parasites"? Is it not possible that some of the people who aren't overly familiar with the market place could have mistaken it for a legitimate free deal? Or at very least been somewhat unsure about it?GarouxBloodline said:
Even so, what exactly do you think you would accomplish with such actions from a business stand point?
Critical thinking skills - a game and all of its dlcs currently released, worth over 100 USD, does not suddenly go "Free." If we were talking about a game that was close to a decade old, and is worth 5 USD or less, then I would perfectly understand why people would initially assume that the developer/publisher decided to run a promotional period of time where the game is free.FirstNameLastName said:
And what I would accomplish, is not being taken advantage of by hundreds/thousands of people, all over some clerical error. I run my own personal business. While Microsoft would not hurt nearly as much, if something like this happened to my business, and I was not able to rectify the mistake, it would be crippling for what I have worked towards for years.
Maybe the harsh reality does not suit your sensibilities. Too damn bad - any one can demonize a business, and justify their unethical behaviour through said demonization. Does not change the fact that unethical behavior is unethical behaviour, which only serves selfish needs.
Hell - my opinion on the matter would not even be the same if we were talking about something that constitutes a God-given right to it, such as food or water. But games are not a God-given right. Games are not some commodity that people cannot live without.
I just love how Microsoft was gift-wrapped a situation that could've given them tons of great PR, only to snatch it from the jaws of victory.
Not able to rectify the mistake? Who said anything about not being able to rectify the mistake? I fully agree with them revoking the free copies, since it was a mistake, but handing out additional penalties just to give the middle finger to "parasites" isn't going to accomplish anything other than negative PR. Like it or not, these types of mistakes are touchy enough as is. I don't necessarily agree that there's any cause for outrage, but the reality is that there will be some number of people who won't even agree with revoking the copies since the mistake was Microsoft's fault. From a PR perspective it's generally not a good idea to make a big deal out of such situations, especially since drawing attention to errors in pricing doesn't exactly breed consumer confidence in your store front; it makes the whole thing seem unreliable, especially since this isn't the first time this has happened. Using their own mistake as an opportunity for moral grandstanding about consumer ethics would not be a good idea.GarouxBloodline said:
Maybe you think going for the hard-line approach would make people fall into line and not attempt to exploit such errors in the future, but I really don't see how this would in any way be a wise business move. They have the power to revoke the copies in this situation, and future situations, so it's not like they've lost anything here other than minor amounts of respect. How exactly would increasing the bad publicity be worth diminishing the effects of future errors if there aren't any negative consequences to these errors in the first place?
Obviously MS are living on the breadline. They had no choice, can't you see?? People must be made an example of! That is control!!
Ultimately, it is their call. Personally, I am glad that they revoked the licenses, as doing nothing breeds the idea that it is okay to exploit pricing errors. There will be, of course, grey areas, as there are always exceptions to the rule. Those are fine.FirstNameLastName said:
But just as scalpers are a reality, so are those that take advantage of these sorts of incidents at every turn. And they get away with it, because there is so much leniency. Especially from game publishers. I will still never forget the price bug with Dark Souls III and its season pass, in which people were literally buying dozens upon dozens of copies, which they were gifting to friends at a discounted price.
And that is the reality of the matter. The issue is not people that do not properly perceive when a pricing error is made. The issue, is that people 'Do' recognize these pricing errors, and take advantage of them to the fullest extent possible. Maybe I should have elaborated more on that point, instead of wording myself in a way that generalized the entire matter. Just keep in mind that this is a touchy point for me, as I have had (smaller) errors such as this before, where I have had to crack down on people exploiting my website's prize vouchers, when the algorithm pushes out a discount percentage that is different than the percentage shown on the voucher.
Thats nice. Doesn't make it automatically mandatory for every company that has an error to give things away.KenAri said:
Edit: I should note that, I posted before I finished and I meant to add that this is more a response to people who'd use one company's generosity as a mandate for all companies to follow suit.
As a general rule Brick and Mortar Companies are by and large required to honor advertised prices. But their are exceptions to this. Legitimate printing errors and such can be quickly dealt with via public notice.Bob_McMillan said:
But this is really a fascinating case study in the modern age of such. The consumer never gains complete control of the product. In this case it's clear that the consumers are in the wrong as no money was exchanged for the product, which was clearly not advertised as free. So MS's actions would pass any muster. After all they are obviously offering refunds
But it still takes us down paths we have not gone before. I'm going to speculate that the thing that allowed MS to take such decisive action was the simple fact that it was a $0.0 purchase. No transaction. If the decimal place had slipped it might have been uglier. If it was listed as $10.98 then MS would have been screwed. A full legit transactions MS would have been locked in
Well, yeah, I saw that coming. Kinda mixed feelings about the whole thing. For one, I mean, duh? I think everyone would've known that things got screwed up. I feel sorry for anyone that legitimately felt they were getting a free game, but really, it should have been obvious.
What I don't see coming is if anything will come after this. Not that it impacts me directly as I already have the game, and DLC on ps4.
I'm interested to see how this plays out.
Here's an interesting thought, I think. Did they get to play it? Was it some weird demo that should never have been? Ya think?
What I don't see coming is if anything will come after this. Not that it impacts me directly as I already have the game, and DLC on ps4.
I'm interested to see how this plays out.
Here's an interesting thought, I think. Did they get to play it? Was it some weird demo that should never have been? Ya think?
I see. They saw what happened over at GOG [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.856445-GOG-Accidentally-Gives-Out-Thousands-of-Free-Games-Lets-Users-Keep-Them] and thought "Those guys are morons!".
The person who pointed that out to GoG also asked for the free games to be removed from his account adding "I like free but I like GOG more."Redlin5 said:
I somehow doubt the people who first spotted the Fallout 4 error were so honest.
Technically due to false advertisement laws Microsoft is required by law to provide legal, working copies to every one of those people. In practice though that of course wont happen and i agree that it shouldnt in cases of honest errors like this one.lacktheknack said:
What is Steam Free Weekend? Oh, right, they did exactly what was suggested to microsoft here [http://store.steampowered.com/news/21337/]. and do it constantly.GarouxBloodline said:
Not only did you just fallaciously compare someone getting a game mistakenly for free, many times permanently, to playing a game (many times, only partial games) purposefully for free for just a few days, but you also took what I was saying completely out of context by using selective quoting. I have no problem with being called out, if I am wrong. But I do expect to be properly represented in rebuttals.Strazdas said:
IT was suggested that Microsoft does "you can play it for free for a few days as a promotion, you can buy it with a discount if you like it" PR stunt as a way to get out of the situation.GarouxBloodline said:
You said noone does that.
I proved you wrong.
So no, i did no fallacious comparison. I compared exactly what is comparable.
And I am telling you that you are taking my words entirely out of context. I have never argued that promotional periods do not happen. I have never argued that PR stunts do not happen. I have never argued that games never go free, intentionally. In fact, I insist on you quoting me ever saying any of those things, if you are going to continue suggesting it.Strazdas said:
So this is going to be my last reply to you on the matter, if you continue to keep misrepresenting my stance on the matter, as I do not feel particularly obligated to reply to people that lack reading comprehension.
The only thing that I was actually arguing, is when someone made the argument that people might have legitimately thought that Fallout 4 was being given away for free through the Xbox Live marketplace, and I replied by saying that it only took some critical thinking skills to understand that Bethesda/ZeniMax are not just going to give thousands of people Fallout 4, and all of its dlc for free, which is worth over 100 USD in the current market, permanently.
And I was right. The licenses have been revoked, and it was admitted that the price was a clerical error. End of the story on the matter.