PlayStation 4 owners are once again calling to question Sony’s digital video game refund policy after numerous customers have tried to get a refund for No Man’s Sky. Most of the customers’ reasons are understandable, such as those experiencing constant game crashes and motion sickness. A few are also trying to claim a refund on the grounds that the game wasn’t what they expected from the promotional trailers.
According to Sony’s PlayStation Store policy on refunds, users can only cancel a digital purchase within 14 days of the purchase date and only if they have not downloaded or streamed it. For those who have downloaded the game, the refund is only an option if the “content is faulty.” The gray obviously lies in what Sony, not the consumer, considers faulty. Is a game that crashes often faulty? If it crashes at one specific instance? And what about those who feel like they didn’t get the product they expected? Is that faulty?
Eurogamer reached out to Sony regarding this surge of refund requests, and the company responded with a rather lengthy statement.
We are aware that some players have been experiencing issues whilst playing No Man’s Sky. The development team have been working very hard to address these issues and published a patch yesterday which resolved many of the reported bugs.
For those who continue to experience problems, we would advise in the first instance that they report their issues so that the team are aware and can work to fix them. The team at Hello Games are continuing to monitor the situation, and an additional patch is expected at the start of next week to further improve and address identified bugs.
The end of the statement is most likely a form response for any inquiries into refunds.
Players are entitled to receive refunds in line with the published refund policy on PlayStation.com.
In instances where players receive a refund, they will of course be able to re-purchase the game at later date and play.
If that was “too long; didn’t read” for you, the statement essentially says go to developer Hello Games with your issues so they can fix them. Oh hey there’s a patch that should have fixed most of these, so your complaints on crashing shouldn’t be a problem anymore. The boilerplate response for the refund policy is also a nudge to shut down those attempting to claim that the product isn’t what they expected.
Unless you bought the game on Steam, which has a by far more forgiving refund policy, you’re most likely out of luck in trying to coerce a refund from Sony.
Source: [Eurogamer]
