Fallout 76 Refunds Ordered By ACCC - Could have industry-wide repurcussions

[No Exit]

Imagine buying a Bethesda sleep simulator in current year. I hope this does some good damage to the company and they actually make a fun game for once to try and win back the people.

 

[TowinKarz]

Todd Howard must be singing in his boots bout' this....

 

[frozenrunner]

On one hand, people should've expected a broken piece of shit. On the other hand fuck Bethesda.

The difference is with a single player Bethesda game you can fix the broken game with mods.

I don't know why anyone would want an always-online Bethesda game...

 

[TowinKarz]

Gamers didn't want it.... INVESTORS did.

 

[AnOminous]

It was less-so Australia demanding it than it was Valve breaking the law by not offering a refund to Australian consumers, which got them taken to court. Consumer law dictates "a store or seller MUST provide a repair, replacement or refund if an item is faulty or significantly not as described."

Dunno about the European situation.

In the U.S. almost all software licenses, on paper or clickwrap, have something like this clause:

b. Disclaimer. Neither Microsoft, nor the device manufacturer or installer, gives any other express warranties, guarantees, or conditions. Microsoft and the device manufacturer and installer exclude all implied warranties and conditions, including those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. If your local law does not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, then any implied warranties, guarantees, or conditions last only during the term of the limited warranty and are limited as much as your local law allows. If your local law requires a longer limited warranty term, despite this agreement, then that longer term will apply, but you can recover only the remedies this agreement allows.

This used to flat out claim there were no warranties at all until even most U.S. states told them no, that's illegal, you can't sell software that literally just fucking doesn't work at all and then not give a refund, but that's still usually what they'll try for. The MIT License still has such disclaimers of warranty, but at least when it's on free software what are you going to demand a refund of?

Being able to get away with shit like this was very good for the U.S. software industry while it lasted, though. However, the freedom to "innovate" sometimes turns into the freedom to release absolutely buggy garbage and then charge top dollar for it, and the EU and Australia apparently have less tolerance for that kind of scummy bullshit. Thanks to Steam's global presence, even U.S. citizens get to benefit from that.

So for a change, thanks EU, thanks Australia.

Gamers didn't want it.... INVESTORS did.

Even before it, I never had any problem getting a refund when the issue was something like simply not being able to be run.