EA's money-back satisfaction guarantee

Is this new? A good move for them after the SimCity and BF4 fiascos on launch. In short, you can get your purchase price back for any EA game purchased on Origin for any reason or no reason, so long as it's requested within the earlier of (1) seven days from purchase (or launch if prepurchased), and (2) 24 hours since you first launch the game.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/great-game-guarantee
https://www.origin.com/en-us/great-game-guarantee-terms

 

Agree, a good policy, but it's been around for a while. Have a general rule to never EVER purchase anything from Origin unless it's BF related so haven't had to try it though.

 

That is a good return policy. At least it gives you a day to try the game and if you don't like it, get your money back. Although I'm sure if you bought a SP game and ran through the campaign in a 24 hour run, they might be likely to deny you.

 

I agree, that is a good policy. Particularly since demos aren't very common these days. I wish Steam had had such a policy when I first joined, as one of the first games I purchased was a total flop, and obvious within 15 minutes of launch. For that matter, Steam might benefit from taking a cue from EA in this case.

I doubt there would be too much risk from people using it as rent-a-game-for-free for short campaign games. Most games don't lose all their replay value that quickly, and even for those who do, most people who like it would keep it anyway. Those who wouldn't would be less likely to be paying customers in the first place. And I'm sure they could put some heuristics so if someone kept doing that on games that had low return rates, without buying and keeping any/many, they could put a "potentially abusing service" flag of some sort on the account.

 

Would have saved me $60 wasted on Watch Dogs!! What a disappointment that was, but a perfect current example of a game I'd have refunded if possible through Steam.... definitely see the appeal, I just don't like EA/Origin so don't support unless I must to support my habit.... Doubt Gabe and gang really care though, especially looking at the current crap they are allowing on Steam with so much of the Early Access/Greenlight stuff... money money money

 

im pretty sure this only applies to games you buy at full price.

 

No, they offered it to me with the 50% off mass effect trilogy

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Why would it be only full price? There's no indication on that in their guarantee. I haven't used it personally but know of several people who have, and they honor it pretty much no questions asked. It definitely would be nice if Steam did this too. What I'd really like to see from Steam especially is a "used games" section where you can sell your used games to other Steam users and get Steam credits. I have probably a hundred or more games in my Steam account that I know I'll never touch and even if I got $1 or $2 Steam credit for each, it would be worth something at least, and someone else could get a bargain on the "used" game.

 

If Valve cut the publishers and devs out of that, even if they were legally able to do something like this, you would see them leaving Steam en masse.

 

Exactly.... that's the problem as I see it for resale of digital games; there isn't any difference digitally between "New" and "Used" so why ever buy the new?.... not sure what the solution is, I hope there is one day one but I sure don't know what it is. It's a different world than physical property or real estate where a new car, TV or house each have their own value over used.

 

i just bought cities of tomorow dlc for simcity and it says it refunds doesnt apply. maybe its just me.

 

Yeah, I think its states only for base games

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My thoughts exactly. You would be assured to have your money returned to you if you are not satisfied with the game after trying it out.

 

Why should they deny you?
Also is there a loophole that you can buy your game, play 24h, refund, buy again, rinse repeat.

 

No, if you follow the links in the original post, it's only for the game itself, not DLC.

 

Its a big con. I have had a few friends a whom have bought a game from origin at full price only to refused refunds because of the super fine small print. The refunds are still up to Origin to honour if they don't want to refund then they will just fob you off and say no. It was just another policy to make the consumer to feel safe to purchase a game and to sting them after.

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^see bullcrap like this is why people become pirates, and then of course it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for the publishers

 

I dunno, after having run into an issue with refunds from GMG this week (they won't refund a game that won't even start because it's a Steam key, Steam won't because GMG sold it), I'm more tempted to give Origin a try, and pointed their policy out to GMG. I was tempted to point out n=1's point about that type of catch-22 encouraging piracy as well, but decided threatening to chargeback was better to start with (though it was ultimately unsuccessful in getting a refund). At any rate, it gives me no incentive to ever purchase from GMG again.

For those curious, the game that didn't work at all was Age of Empires II HD. It gave a "Could not initialize graphics subsystem error", which upon looking at the Steam forums has affected users of multiple OS'es, including Windows 7 32-bit. I don't know if it's offered on Origin, but if it is I'd recommend buying it there if you must buy it, so you can at least have a chance at a return. I figured it was a sure thing with the original game working on my system, albeit with sound glitches, and Microsoft Studios behind it, but nope, the new version didn't work at all. That puts Microsoft Studios on my "never buy without a demo" list.

Edit: Since GMG wanted feedback on my satisfaction, I let them know I was unsatisfied and that they're encouraging piracy. EA doesn't have the best track record in that, either, with their Sim City fiasco last year doing nothing to discourage piracy since playing legitimately was impossible shortly after launch, but at least they've realized they had a problem and are attempting to address it.

 

Shareware and demos used to the rage back in the old days, whatever happened to them? They're a 100% risk free way to try out a game, and leave no excuse for piracy either.

 

EA is giving everyone on Origin free access to Titanfall for 48 hours this weekend (the complete game, not just part of it)...how is that for a shareware/demo?

 

But that's just one game. Demos used to be the norm, and I think nearly every game came with one, but now they're something of a rarity.

 

My understanding is that EA was intending on using this "Game Time" model a lot in the future; TitanFall was the first game where they debuted this feature, but it's definitely not a one-time deal. Traditional demos don't work great with multiplayer games; they were built around a single-player game format where you could give someone 1-2 levels and cut it off there. Here, instead of giving you limited game assets for an unlimited time, they're going to be giving you unlimited game assets for a limited time. It's still a demo, just a different type than the old demos for games like Doom. I think it's a great idea and an excellent way to "try before you buy."

For example, I found out that Titanfall runs buttery-smooth on my three-year-old 540M-equipped laptop so long as I set detail to low and resolution to 1280x720...but I also found out that while I like the idea of the game, I personally didn't enjoy it as much as I thought. I never would have learned either just from game trailers and reviews.