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Refund policy for "Early Access" products.

Steemium
Explorer
Oculus needs to have a different refund policy for "Early access" purchases. Early access implies the game will come with more content or be improved. Paying money for promise of future work should come with recourses if future work is not satifactoryly rendered.

Refund period should start after the game is first played after the update removing "early access" tag has been removed and "early access" phase duration should be limited to 1 month.

I personally purchased many early access games at high prices to later find out nothing was improved and I am left owning a bad game seemingly without any refund options.
10 REPLIES 10

Richooal
Consultant
I guess you pay a price for being the "cool" guy who got it first.

"Early access" is just a marketing gimmick which seems to be working well.


xaxaxaxa said:

Early access implies the game will come with more content or be improved



I think early access implies that you get it earlier than others.
"Pre-release", "Beta" or "Alpha" imply that things will change.
i5 6600k - GTX1060 - 8GB RAM - Rift CV1 + 3 Sensors - 1 minor problem
Dear Oculus, If it ain't broke, don't fix it, please.

Steemium
Explorer

Richooal said:

I guess you pay a price for being the "cool" guy who got it first.

"Early access" is just a marketing gimmick which seems to be working well.


xaxaxaxa said:

Early access implies the game will come with more content or be improved



I think early access implies that you get it earlier than others.
"Pre-release", "Beta" or "Alpha" imply that things will change.


Early Access is a place where users on the Oculus Store can preview playable VR experiences that are still in development.

from https://developer.oculus.com/blog/best-practices-the-dos-and-donts-of-early-access/

YoLolo69
Trustee
I don't really agree. Paying Early Access is a know risk and people should assume it. If you go that way, why not also add a bad DLC months after to justify the same refund politicy? No, no, really, it's not something possible IMHO.

“Dreams feel real while we are in them, it's only when we wake up that we realize something was strange.” - Dom Cobb

"Be careful, if you are killed in real life you die in VR too." - TD_4242

I7 10700K,  RTX 3070, 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz, Oculus Rift CV1

Techy111
MVP
MVP
As someone who is helping with our "early access" i disagree wirh the OP. The refund policy in place is fair. If the devs dont keep up with updates then that could be because they are not getting the feedback, bugs or requests for upgrades or improvements. I think it's a good idea and will support it always. I also like the try before you buy option and wish more games/apps did this.
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

SkScotchegg
Expert Trustee

Techy111 said:

As someone who is helping with our "early access" i disagree wirh the OP. The refund policy in place is fair. If the devs dont keep up with updates then that could be because they are not getting the feedback, bugs or requests for upgrades or improvements. I think it's a good idea and will support it always. I also like the try before you buy option and wish more games/apps did this.



Try before you buy? Is that referring to the free weekends on games? If so, yeah I like that too, not seen one for a while though, I wish more games did this too.
UK: England - Leeds - - RTX 2080 - Rift CV1 & Rift S - Make love, not war - See you in the Oasis!

Techy111
MVP
MVP
Yes totally mate plus as some devs do like Dan Church he time limits his software to give you a "feel" of things before you purchase.
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

Anonymous
Not applicable
The problem with that is that people can hack and get around that timer pretty easy - allowing someone full access to your game no problem. I mean look what happen with RE2 time demo! Less than a day it was hack:) From software side - this would be really bad idea unless you get your money from another way such as a store where you sell things from. Aka, why loot boxes are a thing now.

As for Early Access - there maybe some small changes that could happen - like the software team does have to release on a weekly bases with noted changes. Other wise, Early Access is what it is - Early Access to the game with stims to have risk.

Techy111
MVP
MVP
He's been doing the same since 2015 with his DCOC software for Flyinside and we haven't noticed any real problems. If someone wants to hack then they will, sadly no one can stop that. And yes, he has his own store
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Techy111 said:

He's been doing the same since 2015 with his DCOC software for Flyinside and we haven't noticed any real problems. If someone wants to hack then they will, sadly no one can stop that. And yes, he has his own store


Yes you can - dont do it. Simply as that really.

As for his games - yes some games will be protected from it because - theyre not good games to start with. Maybe fun for some - but for others not as good. RE for example is a very pop game - forcing everyone to have a time game play would also force all players to have to do the same meaning less pop games maybe wont be touch while high pop games will be hack left and right.