CD Projekt Surprises Gamers With Generous New Refund Policy Upsetting Concerned Developers

As CD Projekt celebrates becoming Europe’s second-largest video game company, they also made a surprise change to the refund policy on their Good Old Games (GOG.com) game distribution platform.

Everyone at GOG believes in a ‘gamers-first’ approach. It means that every part of our store is designed with gamers in mind and your purchase safety and satisfaction come first for us. The latest update to our voluntary Refund Policy adds another piece to this customer-friendly experience. And it all sums up in one sentence: starting now, you can get a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if you downloaded, launched, and played it. That’s it.

You certainly can’t question CD Projekt’s commitment to gamers, but the response from devs has been one of concern, in part as they say they weren’t informed about the sudden change.

The question being asked is: in making their new refund policy so consumer-friendly, does it risk hurting developers? You see GOG.com already requires all games sold on its storefront to be DRM-free, which is another major selling point for its storefront.

For those unaware, DRM stands for digital rights management: a form of access control technology that prevents the sharing of copyrighted works, and video game piracy (although it often gets cracked rather quickly). Unfortunately, DRM systems have been known to hamper performance, or sometimes require players to connect to the internet even for single-player games – making it somewhat unpopular with consumers.

As such, GOG sells DRM-free games to give itself an edge in the market: but this is causing problems with the updated refund policy. A player could feasibly buy a DRM-free game, download and keep it, then request a refund – effectively getting the game for free.

The previous refund policy on GOG.com ended at the point of download, meaning if you downloaded the game, you were no longer eligible for a refund. This sudden change has been welcomed by the gaming community, but it is also a stark change and indie developers may be scared off from selling their games on GOG.com.

So, what does GOG have to say about this? How will it protect devs from customers who abuse the system? According to the refund policy FAQ:

We’re monitoring the effects of the current update to make sure no one is using this policy to hurt the developers that put their time and heart into making great games. We may refuse refunds in such individual cases. We’d also let you know about any future adjustments in the voluntary Refund Policy in advance.

There are no limits on the number of refunds a customer may request, but GOG.com says, “We reserve the right to refuse refunds in individual cases.”

“Please don’t take advantage of our trust by asking for an unreasonable amount of games to be refunded,” GOG.com adds. “Don’t be that person. No one likes that person.”