[News] Xbox new policy allows customers to self-refund digital games

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As the title suggests, Microsoft unveiled a new policy where Xbox and W10 gamers can now refund a digital game 14 days of said purchase and has less than 2 hours of gameplay put into it, allowing gamers the rights to their money back if they illy invested into a game. Quite similar to the Steam policy, if I recall. A win for Xbox gamers to say the least.

Xbox gamers - how do you feel about this new policy? And what do you think is the likelihood that Sony or Nintendo follows suit with a similar policy?

Is there a limit to how many times total you can do this? I think Steam only allows you to do that with 3 games total.

I wouldnt be surprised if other companies follow suit if the policy benefits Microsoft in any meaningful way.

BadSheep said:

Is there a limit to how many times total you can do this? I think Steam only allows you to do that with 3 games total.

I wouldnt be surprised if other companies follow suit if the policy benefits Microsoft in any meaningful way.

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Microsoft said they are going to monitor accounts that take advantage of the system. So you can't buy a game, return it, then buy again, rinse repeat...which was sort of what I wanted to do lol. But it makes sense.

Great news, just further proof XBOX Live is the best service.

And of course Sony will follow. Probably a year or so later.

EvilChameleon said:

Great news, just further proof XBOX Live is the best service.

And of course Sony will follow. Probably a year or so later.

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>xbox
>best service

and of course, steam did this two years ago.

Rainbow said:

>xbox
>best service

and of course, steam did this two years ago.

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Still, Sony and Nintendo don't do this, so it counts for something.

El Héroe Oscuro said:

Still, Sony and Nintendo don't do this, so it counts for something.

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oh no, i agree! i think it's great and something more platforms should do. I merely disagree with EC's claim that this makes xbox the "best platform" when it's a feature that Steam has had for years and consoles are already inferior in many other aspects.

El Héroe Oscuro said:

Still, Sony and Nintendo don't do this, so it counts for something.

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Well, we'll see. This is all being presented as something of a trial thing. If it works out, I imagine it will spread (to at least PSN, not so sure about Nintendo) before long, and if it doesn't we'll see it go back to being a purely Steam practice (disregarding the other digital distributors for the sake of discussion).

So I'm not really ready to praise them yet. I want to see how they handle this whole thing before I give 'em my claps and accolades.

BadSheep said:

Is there a limit to how many times total you can do this? I think Steam only allows you to do that with 3 games total.

I wouldnt be surprised if other companies follow suit if the policy benefits Microsoft in any meaningful way.

Click to expand...

This is the first time I've heard of a game limit. I've definitely refunded more than 3 games on steam. Maybe it's 3 games within a certain time? IDK. Could just be lucky for all I know.

As far as everyone talking about other companies hopping on the steam refund wagon with msoft, I think Sony will jump in maaaaaaaaybe in a few months max after watching how it goes.

Nintendo.... they'll probably do this in a decade and tout it as a revolutionary new feature. I mean Nintendo is normally a decade or two behind everyone else as it is. Especially with Customer Service policies like this would be, just look at their C&D policy (I'm surprised they haven't started suing families for their children drawing Mario). I'm getting off topic...

I lightly applaud Xbox for smarting up and adding this feature, but, this should have been standard practice for a while now.

I guess I can't applaud steam too much either, if memory serves refunds were a condition of full operations in Australia

Rainbow said:

oh no, i agree! i think it's great and something more platforms should do. I merely disagree with EC's claim that this makes xbox the "best platform" when it's a feature that Steam has had for years and consoles are already inferior in many other aspects.

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My reasoning for the PS4 vs Xbox One debate has always been this:

Better games, exclusives, resolution = PS4
Better software, policies, services = Xbox One

So it really all depends on which you prefer. Yes, there's no question that Microsoft's policies blew at the Xbox One's reveal back at E3-whenever, but there's also no question that with with Phil Spencer behind the helm that they've done some excellent additions to the console that have greatly benefited gamers.

I don't think there is a best console - I think each has it's positives and negatives that I'd like to think that each company strives to make better, which in the end benefits gamers as a whole. I've come across too many ignorant "fanboys" of each console to really care about which console is quote unquote "better" to really care about the matter lol.

It's simple for me.

I play solo games on the PS4, and multiplayer games on the XBOX One. Exclusives on the XBOX One too. Only exclusive I am interested in on the PS4 is The Show. Still haven't missed a year of that since launch.

I feel like it's kind of ridiculous that this hadn't already happened. But... at the same time it isn't surprising in the slightest either.

In any case I'll just sit back and see how this unfolds. In the end hopefully everyone will win.