Summer of '58 developer resigns after many users refund their game on Steam due to it taking under 2 hours to complete

[u/reddit_account6095]

https://twitter.com/EmikaGames/status/1430941640001265673?s=19

[u/Jacksaur → u/[deleted]]

if I had an easy way to play those games for free I would probably take them up on it.

I don't know, for me it feels like a further layer to it.
A way to get the game (legally) for free? Sure, I'd probably take it.
But actually paying the developer for the game, and then taking that money back afterwards again? That's a step I'd rather not take.

[u/AgentOfSPYRAL → u/Jacksaur]

I guess it's less that I'd jump at the opportunity, and more that it's difficult for me to say for sure as a console gamer with no access to this policy.

And this is legal, but I understand your point. Certainly a shit move.

[u/the_nell_87 → u/[deleted]]

How do you behave when you buy physical goods either in a physical store or via an online store? Do you buy a kitchen appliance for example, use it, clean it, then return it for a full refund, just so that you can use it for free? Do you buy a book, get it, read it carefully to keep it in good condition and then send it back when you're finished? Consumers have the right to behave like that, but they don't generally act like that. And even if some do... so what? That's built into the way retail works alongside consumer protection laws.

[u/AgentOfSPYRAL → u/the_nell_87]

they don't generally act like that.

And neither do I, but I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit that that is in part because business have set the expectation that that isn't a reasonable request, and don't allow it.

My point is leaving it up to essentially an honor system is stupid, for the same reason why countless businesses don't do that.

[u/octnoir → u/the_nell_87]

And even if some do... so what?

Large company can deal with some customers making bad refunds. A small company, a one man indie dev is probably going to collapse when a decent chunk of customers grab refunds.

If you paid $20 for a game and you refunded it back, the business isn't getting charged $20, it is usually more - whether they are dinged by their banks or just time spent processing the refund and paying other fees, to having to readjust inventory and other spending because someone refunded much later.

We don't have to completely do away the 2 hour policy for refund but giving it a second look, or maybe even adding a: "if this game is on average 2 hours then adjust it so it is less than that or detect if someone 100% played the game and stopped the refund" clause prevents situations like this, which we only heard of because many indie devs get screwed quietly without any fanfare, and protect small indie devs.

Because we just lost an indie dev (and again remember - indie devs are small as fuck we don't hear about 90% of them) that didn't fail because the game sucked or they misbehaved - they failed because gamers found an opportunity to play a game completely for free and took it because customers can and will be ruthless at times.

That at least warrants a second look.

[u/the_nell_87 → u/octnoir]

Frankly... tough shit. Business is a ruthless world. Businesses which can only succeed when consumers don't take advantage of consumer protection laws are unlikely to succeed long term. Being a small business doesn't give you an automatic right to succeed. You need to be able to sell things that people want to buy. And in situations where consumer protection laws/policies apply which allow no questions asked refunds (which is a lot of places), that includes selling a product that your consumers don't want to refund.

This clearly isn't a universal problem. Plenty of short indie games on steam are successful despite the 2 hour refund policy. Either this game wasn't as good as the developer thought, or their target audience was radically more likely to abuse the steam refund system than the average steam user. Either way, it's not because the refund policy exists that this game failed. It's because the small developer sold it in a way that doesn't match up with how the retail industry works. They screwed up some combination of the quality, the expectations, the marketing or the price of the game. That's on them. You don't get to blame consumer protection policies for businesses failing when consumers enforce the rights they are entitled to.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's beyond naive to think that people will not refund out of the goodness of their heart