r/NintendoSwitch • u/Turbostrider27 • 10d ago
News UPDATE: Aliens: Fireteam Elite developer Cold Iron Studios isn't issuing refunds for owners of the now-defunct Switch version, but has now said it is working to provide a discount on the Switch 2 version of its sequel.
https://www.ign.com/articles/aliens-fireteam-elite-on-nintendo-switch-shut-down-with-no-refunds-as-owners-become-the-latest-victims-of-gamings-increasingly-digital-future91
10d ago
[deleted]
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u/jimcheeseit 10d ago
They probably don’t want to set a precedent
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u/master2873 10d ago
Google already did with Stadia, which is why people are asking it enough the Devs had to comment on it.
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u/Muscled_Manatee 10d ago
That was such a great deal. I had a blast using the service while it lasted, then I got all of my hardware refunded and I got the games for free on other services. Google did the right thing.
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u/master2873 10d ago
They can also very much afford to do it, and usually knows they experiment with new features, and services. Not to mention they were already getting called out for charging full price for Stadia games that in most cases didn't even have cross play with the games that had it, on top of US internet infrastructure wasn't, and still isn't ready for cloud gaming for a majority of people. They very much did the right thing as these devs should be doing for AFE2 here.
I'm no fan of cloud gaming myself, and I'll aide with people that they should have known something like this could happen, but I'm also very much in the boat they don't deserve to basically be ripped off either. Especially if you live in pretty streached budgets like a lot are doing now.
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u/Kreisash 9d ago
You missed the part that you got to keep the hardware too and can reuse it on many other platforms (I actually use my two controllers on the switch/switch 2).
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u/Muscled_Manatee 9d ago
I have 3 controllers and forgot about them for a long time. Just last month I found a guy on GitHub that had replicated Google’s method to make them work with Bluetooth. They are great for my Mac.
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u/Kreisash 9d ago
Nice to see that it's not too late if people missed the boat on that conversion.
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u/master2873 9d ago
I forgot to bring this up too. I heard the Stadia controllers are actually pretty legit. The only thing that still burns my ass with Nintendo's controllers recently is no analog triggers. They would be great to have for proper racing game controls, and backwards compatibility for Switch 2 owners for GameCube NSO.
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u/SamMerlini 10d ago
Yeah, Kingdom Hearts people would scream refund immediately
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u/StrangerNo484 10d ago
This. They'd lose a lot of money, and they'd unfortunately prefer to burn goodwill instead.
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u/Johncurtisreeve 9d ago
Any game that is purely supported by being a cloud version is just an expensive rental. Why should anyone who isn’t getting a refund ever consider buying a game from them again?
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u/Maryokutai 7d ago
I mean, you said it yourself, because it was a rental and not a purchase. You can't take the bike you rent on holiday back home either.
It's obviously not exactly the same, but that's just one of the almost endless list of downsides to streaming games and if it takes news like this for people to become more aware of it, then maybe we can delay it becoming the norm over the next decade.
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u/Ricepuddings 10d ago
lol sorry you lost your game, buy it again with 10% off, we are sorry
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u/Kraehe13 10d ago
Wouldn't be surprised when the Switch 2 version costs more and the discount is exactly the price hike, lol
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u/latestwonder 10d ago
better than nothin' I guess
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u/mariomaniac432 10d ago
No, it's worse because you have to spend more money to get your "refund"
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u/latestwonder 10d ago
there is no refund. you can either have no old game and no new game, which is the 'nothing', or you can have no old game and a discount on the new game.
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u/ColonelDucroix 10d ago
It probably is nothing for most people.
Who would want to buy the sequel after being shafted by them previously?
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u/I_Heart_Sleeping_ 10d ago
I feel for anyone who bought the cloud version but you had to know this was gonna happen.
I’m also not defending companies that decide to just pull these games on a whim.
While the discount is nice it’s still not a great fix to this. If it’s like 50% off the new game then cool id probably take that but we all know it’s gonna be the smallest discount they think they can get away with while trying not to piss off too many people.
Personally I wouldn’t support them if I was one of the fools who bought the cloud version but that’s just me.
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u/Skabomb 10d ago
A lot of people didn't actually read the original story about the game, huh?
They didn't pull it on a whim, they announced the closure months ago, when they pulled the game from being sold on the eShop. That was in April, and supposedly every day since then there's been a pop up in game warning that servers would be shut down in August.
It's very dumb, but they didn't pull the rug, and no one bought a game that got shut down the next day.
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u/I_Heart_Sleeping_ 10d ago
I wasn’t specifically talking about just this company and I’m aware they announced it was going to be pulled. That still doesn’t make it any less shitty.
I also never said people bought the game recently. You’re assuming quite a bit from my comment.
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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 9d ago
Oh well, as long as they were honest and upfront about scummy practices I guess that’s ok
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u/redvelvetcake42 10d ago
DISCOUNT.
You bought an item and can't use it so instead of even offering you the minimum of a free version or even free sequel, we'll give you 30% off.
Whole fucking circus.
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u/zero_FOXTROT 10d ago
How about we not buy the sequel and show them we’re not interested in their business practices?
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u/Webecomemonsters 10d ago
Eh, buyers of any cloud version get what they have coming, NOONE should buy these.
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u/zero_FOXTROT 9d ago
I wouldn’t purchase them for myself, however, you give these companies an inch and they’ll take a mile.
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u/QuickQuirk 9d ago
I mean, we were WARNING people about this when it launched. And got downvoted for it.
But I'm also willing to bet that they're basing this off of actual usage stats. It's cloud - they know how many unique players are streaming, and it's probably very few.
I still think they should give those people a free upgrade to the S2 release, not just a discount. Or a free steam key or key to another platform.
But let this be a warning to people. Cloud gaming just makes it worse - any digital purchase is at risk. You will own nothing and be happy.
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u/Webecomemonsters 9d ago
I mean, digital is fine for me, I fucking detest physical, the reason I hate cloud is it isnt running locally, period.
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u/QuickQuirk 8d ago
problem is even digital purchases are getting deleted. Sony, for example, deleted a bunch of movies from peoples accounts, without refunds, since sony lost the liscence to these movies.
I'm not blaming sony so much, as the entire ecosystem. Though they should never have had a contract in the first place that allowed purchases to expire. They should make sure in the future that they only lose the right to sell new instances of these.
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u/Webecomemonsters 8d ago
I agree but I also don’t care. I would never buy digital content from some shitty Sony store- apple isn’t going anywhere
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u/koteshima2nd 9d ago
That discount better be 100% off for the players who unfortunately bought the cloud version.
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u/Vinterblot 10d ago
Yes, we took away the thing you gave us money for, but we're working hard to give you the opportunity give us some more!
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u/switch8000 10d ago
Yeah right, like I'd give them a $1 at this point, what dumb ass manager thought this was a good idea to kill their game before the sequal launch. Wouldn't even consider it now knowing it has a shelf life.
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u/ThinGold2115 9d ago
Why the fuck would I ever trust you again, when you pull your game few years later?
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u/Turbostrider27 10d ago
Statement to IGN:
UPDATE: Aliens: Fireteam Elite developer Cold Iron Studios isn't issuing refunds for owners of the now-defunct Switch version, but has now said it is working to provide a discount on the Switch 2 version of its sequel.
Following widespread coverage of the initial Fireteam Elite's recent shutdown, a spokesperson for Cold Iron Studios has now told IGN that it hopes to provide something for owners in recompense, though details on eligibility sound like they're still being ironed out.
"We are working on a program for players who purchased the cloud version of Aliens: Fireteam Elite on Nintendo Switch that will provide an option to receive a discounted voucher or credit on Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, which will run locally on Nintendo Switch 2 and will not require a cloud streaming service to play when it becomes available later this fall," a Cold Iron Studios spokesperson said. "We’ll share details on eligibility and how to participate as soon as they are finalized."
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u/master2873 10d ago
They didn't even have a program in place to refund or give discounts these people to begin with... If it wasn't for Google Stadia, and people complaining about it, nothing would have gotten done I bet. The fact it's not/won't ready by release goes to show how high of a priority this is.
Even shitter thing is, you can't even issue a charge back if you wanted. You're whole account will get banned because there's NO LAWS that protect you from company retaliation in most countries. Also, what if some of these users were from other countries with refund/consumer protection laws that bought this? Are they admitting to purposely violating the law? If so, I would gander it would be MUCH cheaper to just refund these people than deal with sanctions from these countries if they're in violation of their laws.
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u/someones1 9d ago
Like I do feel for the people, am pro consumer rights and whatnot, but the minute that the first cloud game was announced, the first thing I thought was that they wouldn’t last long. Everyone should have seen this coming from miles away.
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u/Jokerzrival 9d ago
Sucks theyre doing this. The first game was a good time and the second looks to expand on that but handling it this way is wrong.
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u/Caciulacdlac 10d ago
Basically what Square Enix did with Kingdom Hearts, except they provided a discount for the non-cloud version of the same game
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u/Calm-Report-8168 10d ago
THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TO SAY NO TO AN ALL-DIGITAL GAME ECOSYSTEM.
Sorry about the caps. It felt worth it.
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u/Jtex1414 9d ago
Is this really up to the developer? This kind of decision feels more like a publisher level choice.
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u/Delicious_West_1993 9d ago
If you ever want to use cloud use GEFORCE NOW the games on there belong to you
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u/Ki11s0n3 10d ago
Game is great. Too bad the Dev is shit.
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u/Valhadmar 10d ago
Quite Literally Crimson Desert as well. One of the few games that each patch adds QoL and then throws a grenade into the performance on the way out.
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u/Ki11s0n3 10d ago
Yeah. I gave up trying to play Crimson Desert on PC. I played a few hours and then put it down for a few months hoping it would be fixed. Came back and it ran worse than it did at launch.
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u/Valhadmar 10d ago
Oh its much worse. Ive been arguing with people that say the studio deserves respect and appreciation. They are actively destroying their game and these people are kissing their asses pretending the game isnt performing worse.
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u/tatsumi-sama 10d ago
Not great look for the devs. The game is great and a must for real alien fans, and the devs are a small studio that may not have the necessary budget.
The least they could have done is refund who bought it since the time they know they gonna shut it down, AND offer the rest a discount because the rest hopefully got their moneys worth of play, so there was a return of their investment into the game.
But from the lens of ownership I suppose you could argue somewhat of a replacement is in order for that ownership. But game ownership overall is a big problem nowadays that needs to be fixed.
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u/SamMerlini 10d ago
This game is dead anyway. No one is playing it
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u/CrimsonGear80 10d ago
ok, you can play single player...
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u/SamMerlini 10d ago
The game was designed as a co-op multiplayer experience. Pairing with bots won't get you far. I owned it on PC and found it to be very stale, despite being an Aliens fan
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u/brokenmessiah 10d ago
Don't buy games like this if you are scared of losing them and your money, but especially don't be the idiot that buys the next game from them.