Gamers in the UK to get more protection against half-assed games

Domy1

With the number of games braught to the market promising this and that but not delivering nothing, it looks like gamers in the UK are gonna be in a stronger position.

Have seen countless threads about chargebacks and whether EULA is lawful or not in individuals country, the UK is bringing in a new consumer rights bill which this time WILL include digital content.  The proposed plans will allow customers to claim refunds on faulty downloaded goods. 

Would EA admit simcity was faulty at launch?    I don't know but it should give us a little more protection.

http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/06/13/the-new-consumer-rights-bill-what-you-need-to-know/

Axehilt

The real question is whether 1 day of outage (Sim City and Diablo 3) is grounds for any action whatsoever.

irpugboss

Its a double edged sword if this becomes a global standard.

Pros:

-Consumer protection

-Ensures higher quality

 

Cons:

-Makes studios more fearful of new design/innovation...likely to stick to proven games moreso than now which is crazy

-More harsh on indie studios than mega studios

 

I am sure there are more pros and cons but those are my biggest points.

Thanks for the info though, going to be an interesting development!

aRtFuLThinG

UK has always traditionally have stronger customer protection and tort laws.

 

US laws in general are always more free market in comparison. Mobile/Telco network and HCOs are 2 perfect examples of this.

flizzer

Radical idea might be to stop buying EA games for instance.  

pmiles

Of course they could just not develop for the UK... then you'd be forced to buy games illegally because they aren't allowed in your country.  Only one it hurts really is you, the consumer.

Wizardry

It is a really tough subject to be honest,i am not sure i know the answer.On one hand being lied to or mislead is not good but on the other hand ,playing the game ,then getting a refund is not right either.

There is something to look at however in this genre/industry.We are playing ONLINE games,the game itself is useless without online status and without the developers servers.

There is no guarantee of anything ,yet the developer wants all the guarantees,that is not a fair two way street,you can't have it all and give nothing.I believe that even the NDA's are nothing more than a gimmick to keep the consumer in the dark.

So i guess since the consumer is treated less fair than the retailer is,i think we deserve the benefit of the doubt.If there was only 1 month of content in the game,you were trying to rip off the customer,so you deserve charge backs.Also without the developers servers,your game that you bought is 100% worthless,they even try to say you can't sell that game to anyone else either.

I don't know about anyone else but when i buy something i own it,yet the gaming industry likes to hide behind copyright laws and give the consumer nothing.My whole point is that too much is in the retailers favor,i am quite ok with the ONE avenue customers have for recourse.