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GOG didn't tell devs about its new refund policy - and many are worried it could be abused

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The thing about digital returns is that as long as GOG (or any digital storefront) handles abusers by blacklisting them or preventing returns, everything should be fine.

The biggest worriers are devs who make crap games.

On the plus side, a refunded videogame in tangible costs isn't even a loss per se. Yes, the revenue just got refunded, but since it's bits and bytes there isn't even a return cost/junking which every company that makes physical goods has to live with.

For example, every company I've worked at (relatively similar kinds of companies) have a loss provision allowance of about 2-4% per year per product line. This is the amount of costs the company has to eat from returned products, since the companies will toss out almost of of it since they come back all dinged and used up. Only occasionally can a durable product be sent to the refurbish dept in hopes to reclaim it, clean it, repackage it in a shitty brown box with a shitty matching label, and sell off to a liquidator for like 70% off.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
Wait so if I am playing a game and get to a frustrating awful segment that prevents me from ever wanting to play again I can get a refund and tell the devs to fuck off? Also useful when a game ships with game-breaking bugs. I like it.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Their previous policies could be abused just as easily, those devs are dumb as bricks. DRM-free, back up installers, whatever shit, whether you give people 30 days, 1 day, or 1 hour, they can abuse it & preemptively refund. Don't sign up with DRM-free services if you worry about it. Better yet, don't game dev. What this did is bring attention to gog & get people to buy shit, it's a publicity stunt that changes nothing about the ease of abusing gog. No wonder devs don't even know all the Steam services they can enable with 1 click etc., they don't know shit & make good games by luck (if ever)...
 
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I think the only risk is people who have never pirated a game before. I would think leaving a trace of your "transactions" on gog would be pretty stupid when you can do it relatively anonymously elsewhere. Pirates also tend to spend more money buying games than most people and wouldn't want to get locked out of a store. Don't shit where you eat and all that. GoG are aware of this as they have their roots as a pirate company.
 
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