Valve close a loophole & formalise 'Advanced Access' gaming, a studio explains why they've had to release their demo, then cancel the game and lay off staff, and finally, Frontier have walked back a promise to their players.
As Totalbiscuit once said, stop fucking buying pre-order games. Don't pre order, don't buy pre-release, fuck FOMO and fuck these greedy practices. People still pay for it so greedy publishers(?) keep doing it
Edit: I did say devs yes however it's usually not the devs doing this. Regardless of who makes the final decision it's fucking up the gaming industry
Sleeman
In Australia, due to our customer protection laws, Steam is forced to honour the 30 day return policy, for faulty or misleadingly advertised products.
I believe the EU has similar laws.
finrothsmith
For those who watched the first part and are worried, don't be, he left out an important piece of information. Steam counting the first two hours of advanced access does not mean you are "stuck with it" if you spend two hours trouble shooting or the game does not work. It simply means the refund isn't 100% guaranteed. You have to explain why you are asking for a refund and a human being will look at your reason then decide if a refund is warranted. And from what I've seen, refunds for things he mentioned tend to get the thumbs up when manually reviewed. So if you are worried this new policy will affect you, it won't. Unless you were one of the people abusing the loophole to play 10+ hours of the game game then get a refund.
JRDeBo
So players will be able to know from Steam reviews if a game is broken before release? That hurts. Guess the corps gotta ship working games then. How awful.
ChitChat
Such a sad state the gaming industry is in right now. Though, they did put themselves in this situation to begin with. So many potentially good games wont get made.
Cdogttv
TOO ELABORATE ON STEAM REFUNDS: The 14 day purchase and 2 hour playtime still apply according to their version of the announcement and rule changes that are now updated, BUT any playtime ACCRUED will count before RELEASE will be counted. Also, the 14 day rule has a addendum that states the 14 day part of the refund rule does not start until release date and the game can be refunded prior to release if still under the 2 hour playtime. Hope this helps for those that wanted to read a clarification of this rule if you are like me and had a hard time following.
joeyghostx
1st story: Honestly I thought this was how it was already done and its probably what Valve intended in the first place. The reviews part is good for us and bad for publishers while the refund part is the reverse but its probably how things ought to be anyways.
2nd story: Elite was already a massive grind fest so them selling a way around the grind was inevitable in my opinion regardless of what they already promised. I imagine this might get them new players but anyone who pays to bypass that initial grind probably isn't going to stick around for the long haul because most the rest of the game is that same kind of grind anyways. Also clearly bad for us.
3rd story: That's just sad but not surprising giving the current circumstances; how many 'good' and 'great' games have publishers backed only for it to blow up in their face and them to lose their investment? Granted some of that was because of the publisher demands but still.
Lorekeeper
The gaming bubble is bursting. Companies kept pumping more and more and more money into games and their development and as a result, all those shareholders demanding more and more and more return on their investments. And with people's wallets being spread to thin just trying to survive, gaming has seen a serious drop in consumer spending. Honestly i am surprised it hasn't happened sooner. I can only hope that the industry learns a lesson from this. That you can't just endlessly pump money into things and expect endless growth. The market must be shared if it is to evolve past this boom and bust cycle.
TheSpazzDragon
This goes beyond gaming. Money is drying up all over the place. Entertainment is just one of the first things to go in tough times.
Caligulove
There are youtube channels dedicated to buying the game, speed running, getting every achievement, and then refunding it. They normally already own the game on another account, but still entertaining to watch.
mrsmith
I am glad that Valve fixed that Advanced Access issue. It was insane that Starfield was able to launch at full price and just not allow reviews on 90% of the internet for a week because they told the review sites that the game was not ready for reviews yet. That was really broken, no idea why anyone thought that was a good idea.
As for refunds, sounds fine. Steam has historically been very accommodating and understanding. That is is not automatically refunded after you played the game for a week is completely reasonable.
wisnoskij
In the majority of cases, if you spend 2 hours in a server queue/not actually playing the game steam will still issue the refund, you just have to be clear with your reason for requesting the refund.
RumpelGameSkin
we simply cannot resist a knife gabe thumbnail
BellularNews
Relabeling 'early access' as 'advanced access' also means the classic defense of 'oh, well it's easily access! You can't judge this game yet it's not done!' Falls flat. Better make sure the game you're releasing in advance is ready
rvyvyhn
Regardless of Steam's refund "policy", in Australia, businesses must either repair, replace or refund if a product is faulty. In the case of a subscription, a cancellation of the subscription. Valve tried to take away gamer's basic consumer right in Australia some time ago by stating they didn't do business in Australia (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took them to court), the judge didn't accept their bs excuse and they were fined for breaching Australian consumer law.
As far as Elite Dangerous is concerned, I don't know if the game is dieing, but Fdev's decision to sell ships stinks of desperation. Their share price never really recovered after the Odyssey debacle.
breytac
I got shafted by Steam with Payday 3. I was in the server ques for hours, crashes and everything. I tried refunding it at 17 hours "played" and even told them that it was unplayable. Refused refund. Uninstalled the game and have never played it again, nor will I.
DanielCollins
3rd story: I rather have 100-150 indie studios funded then 1 AAA.
johndoe-isfw
Worried advanced access might affect your refund? Don't pre-order and buy it ffs. Wait for reviews. It's your fault rushing in and getting disappointed in your own impatience.
JosiahBradley
It even happens to studios with well-known and received games. Mimimi Games, the developers of Shadow Tactics and Desperadoes III had to self-publish their last game, and they managed with help from the German government in form of a grant.
And then it did indeed become their last and final game. Because while it was well received by critics and fans, the sales weren't enough to fund development of a new project, and they couldn't find funding elsewhere.
That's why they closed shop late last year. Some games, might be great in their niche genre, but if that genre doesn't generate enough sales, your game can be as good as possible and still not make enough money. Pretty tragic.
dieyng
To translate for Star Citezen; "This will give players a better opportunity to fork-over heinious amounts of money for pay-for-power advantages that we will continue to push onto our playerbase for the purpose of giving them FOMO (fear of missing out), so they will spend more money in the hopes of not falling behind. We will then proceed to release even mroe packages with upgrades for those exclusive ships, and we can price them however we like, because the people who bought the ships are going to buy them anyway because they're already invested. Not that we care, we're just happy that your giving us money for a service that doesn't even respect you X;'D"
