The Origin "Great Game Gurantee"

[secretkeeper12]

So EA has come out with the Great Game Guarantee [https://www.origin.com/en-us/great-game-guarantee], which basically states that they'll refund any purchase of an EA game if you don't like it. As long as you're using a payment method that CAN be refunded, you can use this for just about any reason. Granted, it's only good the first 24 hours after playing a game, but it is a really intelligent move on their part. Even Valve can't claim to do this (though they did giveaway L4D2, so still the best ).

What are your thoughts on the whole thing?

 

[tippy2k2]

That's....kind of brilliant. Seven days to return "unopened" merchandise or 24 hours to return "opened" merchandise.

Yeah I suppose there's a chance that people will buy games, play the shit out of them for 24 hours so they can beat it, and then return it but I think the goodwill gained and the people downloading Origin will more than make up for the loss of sales they may receive doing this.

 

[Caiphus]

Yeah, it's a promising step for EA to do something like this. There's not too much else to say. It's a step forward for digital ownership, although Simcity was probably a step backwards.

Whatever, you can write cynical stuff about EA all day. This is good. And this happened roughly around the time they did the Origin humble bundle, if I recall correctly. So maybe Riccitiello's departure has done some good to their corporate culture.

 

[Josh123914]

Well I can't believe I'm writing this but:
Origin 1
Steam 0

Seriously, why hasn't Valve implemented something like this before? Is the infrastructure with their partners not there for this kind of thing or has Valve just never seen the need for a return policy?

 

[DoPo]

Why is this news? I mean it's not like it happened now - it's been four months [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127004-EA-Offers-Full-Refunds-For-Unsatisfied-Origin-Customers]. We even had a thread about it which I can't find because I get, like, too many results if I try "EA" or "Origin" as a search term (and for some reasong, I occasionally got the "why didn't they shoot Voldemort" thread in the results, too ). It may had been closed in light of the news article, though. At any rate - I thought we knew.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Well I can't believe I'm writing this but:
Origin 1
Steam 0

Seriously, why hasn't Valve implemented something like this before? Is the infrastructure with their partners not there for this kind of thing or has Valve just never seen the need for a return policy?

Maybe because valve got trillion different kinds of contracts, every publisher has their own variation. Steam could do this only for Valve games, just like origin states this system works just for EA games. Now look at the steam catalog of Valve it is not that amazing compared to some other publishers on steam.

And I am quite sure if steam wants to implement something like this retroactively the publishers might rebel a bit.

I want you all take a note that Steam - Valve - does not own and control all the games on the steam services, it only controls the steam service FOR the publishers to use as a platform and offers nice systems to use for them. When you buy a game or install a game you get a pop-up with the ToS for the product - take a time to read it next time.

 

[babinro]

Origin continues to offer a better service than Steam in my opinion and this is just another reason why.

Despite this, I continue to support Steam with my money simply because I'm swayed by pricing more than customer service or policy. Sorry Origin, you just fail to compete in that regard. Heck, even Steam gets very little business from me ever since I've become aware of humblebundle. I'd rather pay ultra low prices and donate some/all of it to charity any day.