Steam offers refund to From Dust buyers
Luke Stratford August 24, 2011 - 4:58 pmRefunding digital retail games? It may sound like the most counter-intuitive business strategy ever devised, bus as Steam customers are finding out, Ubisoft’s post-DRM damage control is heading the in the right direction.
With irate customers demanding refunds after From Dust’s DRM controversy (requiring an internet connection in order to start every time), Ubisoft, then Valve by way of proxy, were bombarded with demands for a refund, despite Ubisoft assuring players that a patch would be released in the coming weeks to rectify the issue. Until now, such thoughts of actually getting you money back seemed impossible – which is where an interesting correspondence on the Steam forums comes in.
Relayed via a Support Tech user, Valve maintained that the patch was coming, but:
‘If you don’t want to wait for the patch or if you haven’t played the game, per Ubisoft’s request, we will issue refunds for this title.
If you would still like your purchase of From Dust refunded, please reply to this ticket.’
To be fair – the wording of that first paragraph, ‘If you don’t want to wait for the patch or if you haven’t played the game,’ does sound fairly ambiguous. Does this mean only people who haven’t actually played From Dust are eligible for the refund, or are there other parameters, such as actively logging a complaint, that need to be fulfilled?
Still, with some customers reportedly already getting their money back, the tide seems to be turning in the favour of the consumers in this particular instance.
(Thanks to RPS)
