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Game Retailers' Return Policies Criticized

Posted by simoniker on from the returning-my-atari-2600 dept.

Thanks to GamersWithJobs for their opinion piece discussing the allegedly harsh return policies for videogame retailers. According to the author, "There is no reasonable reason... why a [non-defective, but unwanted] product in such condition should not be returnable, and any retailer who refuses such should not be burdened with customers or money." However, as a forum reply points out: "...if the policy on returns is too liberal, game stores will turn into free game rental outlets for people who don't want to pay for software." Have retailers been changing policies, and where does the balance lie on this subject?

6 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. It's Real Simple Folks... by Dr.+Bent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the box is not open, you can return it.

    If it's not, you can exchange it for the exact same game.

    There's a reason game studios release demo versions. If you like it, and it runs on your computer, buy it. Otherwise, caveat emptor.

    1. Re:It's Real Simple Folks... by Firehawke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not always possible. Many games don't have a demo at all, and those that do don't always have accurate demos. It took Epic two or more months to release an updated demo of UT2K3 that accurately represented the final product instead of being the pre-release open beta.

      Then you've got console games, where demos are only obtained through magazines and are often inaccurate as well because they're 6-month-old betas in many cases.

    2. Re:It's Real Simple Folks... by exick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I also take issue with the comment in the article about stores becoming free game rental sites which is a load of bollocks basically.

      I wasn't sure how to read your comments following this. If they were in support of this statement, then I think you missed the point of the author's argument about retail stores becoming free rental outlets. If you look at it in terms of console games, copying them isn't something the average person has the skill or inclination to do. However, they might have the inclination to buy a game, play it for four days, then return it to a store that allows returns or exchanges. Repeat cycle ad nauseum. I think this is what he was getting at.

      That being said, I agree with you. The fact that the default return policy at most software/game retailers is "If it's open, piss off" is ridiculous and infuriating. And for ther record, I consider a game or program "defective" if it has an unreasonable number of bugs and doesn't run adequately under the configuration specified on the box. Just because it isn't physically malformed doesn't mean it isn't defective, and any store managers that tried to argue otherwise would be begging me to take my money back by the time I was through with them.

  2. If the game's open... by SandSpider · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...only give a replacement copy for defective games. Honestly, it's not that hard. There's plenty of other examples of the retail world of this working just fine. Otherwise, yeah, it's pretty much a free rental place. Don't like it? Rent the games from Gamefly, the Netflix of the gaming world. Doesn't help with PC games, but for any console games, it's really cool. As seen on Penny Arcade.

    =Brian

    --
    There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
  3. Yeah, right.... by QueenNina · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Considering that every other person who buys a DVD burner from me (or a computer with a DVD burner built in) asks me how to copy PS2 or XBox games, I don't think it's that extreme for us to not turn into a free copy facility. If people don't know whether they'll like a game, they should rent it from a rental place first before buying it. Or, do like I do, and buy it, and if you don't like it, say, "Rats, I just wasted some money. Oh well, off to Gamespot!" I mean, come on, be reasonable about this. Stores are sick of "renting" laptops, camcorders, digital cameras, etc. to people who are too cheap to pay rental fees. Games, etc., would be too much. There are a lot more dishonest people out there than you would think.

    BTW, no, I am not one of those anti-P2P people. I just think that it would be a pretty bad move to sell people products that can be copied, and then take it back as a return.

  4. Re:Roms and such by WaKall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I like your idea, though it has a big problem. I'll take GBA games as an example. Nintendo ships demo roms of games. First level, or only one character selectable, however they want to cripple it.

    In order for them to be accurate representations of the game, they either have to

    a) give you read-only cartridges as demos. No electronic delivery, high-cost for them.
    b) provide an emulator + rom download, thus expediting one of the two roadblocks to pure piracy (the emulator).
    c) Give you a read-write cartridge, and a rom download. You play it in your GBA. This is effectively b, but it plays on the console instead of on your computer.

    There is no cheap solution that does not encourage piracy in the case of the GBA.

    For optical media, it's a bit easier. They can put demos on other game discs in the extra space, or ship whole demo discs (PS2 does this - the JamPack demo discs. Xbox has these too). These tend to runabout 9$ a pop.

    But, they still won't let you download and burn demos to disc and run them. That would be one step closer to letting you download illegally ripped roms and playing them on unmodded hardware.

    FWIW, I bet Xbox will be the first succesful case of electronically delivered console game demos. Live + hard drive means they can give you a game demo in a controlled manner that doesn't contribute to piracy. That's a good thing.

    PS2 could do the same, provided they get a network set up. They have the hard-disk add on.

    Nintendo could have done this with the GBA player. A Flash memory unit in the player, and a hook into the broadband adapter to populate it, then customers could download GBA-cart demos and play them on the tv.

    I guess the point is use the trusted hardware that your target market already has to deliver the demos.