Nintendo Reported in Norway for Breaching European Consumer Law

Megalith

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Nintendo has been reported by the Norwegian Consumer Council for violating the EU’s right of withdrawal law, which allows consumers to get a refund on purchases made within 14 days. Nintendo does not allow for this in its eShop and has refused to comply. Valve, Sony, and EA have also received complaints due to their policies not fully adhering to the legislation.

The NCC says it previously wrote to Nintendo asking for the platform holder to change its practices and comply with the rules. This led to nowhere however, and the NCC is now filing a formal complaint against all four companies. Director of digital services at the NCC, Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad, said in a statement the breach of Norwegian and European consumer contracts "shows a lack of clarity by the four powerful gaming platforms."
 
Good. I understand not wanting to give people 14 days to play a game and then return it, but frankly there should be some sort of system in place for people to not just be out all their money if they bought something they just plain don’t enjoy.
 
Will kinda be interesting how they will find common ground on that.14 days is a good timeline for a casual gamer to try the game and have an idea if you like it or not,
but for someone less casual it's also enough time to play the game 100%,meaning a full refund would mean playing the game for free.

They would need to offer a full refund under a certain number of hours (2-3 hours) of playtime or a partial refund up to 14 days past that number of hours.
 
Will kinda be interesting how they will find common ground on that.14 days is a good timeline for a casual gamer to try the game and have an idea if you like it or not,
but for someone less casual it's also enough time to play the game 100%,meaning a full refund would mean playing the game for free.

They would need to offer a full refund under a certain number of hours (2-3 hours) of playtime or a partial refund up to 14 days past that number of hours.
You could also say that someone that buys a Blu-Ray movie could watch it in 2 hours and then return it, thus making it free. But too many business rely on people making the initial purchase for the product, and if they don't like it then tuff shit. This is how Hollywood and the gaming industry works. This may push game developers to make better games than to make mediocre games that just check all the boxes.

☑ Has multiplayer even though a single player
☑ Lots of side quests with no substance
☑ Lots of cutscenes
☑ Don't forget to insert black people
☑ Do something political and shocking

Goes on and on. Doesn't make for a good game but makes for a sale. Especially when reviewers nowadays don't usually get their hands on the game before it's released.
 
I'm on the EU's side on this. These companies need to be put in their places. As Dukenukem somewhat said above, if companies spent more time and resources making great products, people wouldn't be trying to return garbage to get their hard earned money back from falsely advertised products that are increasingly getting worse and worse, yet more and more expensive every year.
 
14 days? Yeah i would return each and every one.
But isn't that admitting the games have no value beyond the initial play through? I love Dark Souls so much that I keep revisiting that game. On the other hand I only played Diablo 3 for a couple of weeks and hated it. To this day I never revisited Diablo 3 and regret spending the money on that game. Metal Gear Solid 5 took me two months to fully complete each mission, including side missions. Game Studios need to put more effort into their games if they're worried about games being returned in 2 weeks.
 
But isn't that admitting the games have no value beyond the initial play through? I love Dark Souls so much that I keep revisiting that game. On the other hand I only played Diablo 3 for a couple of weeks and hated it. To this day I never revisited Diablo 3 and regret spending the money on that game. Metal Gear Solid 5 took me two months to fully complete each mission, including side missions. Game Studios need to put more effort into their games if they're worried about games being returned in 2 weeks.
I don't think they do have value after initial play, but yes i guess i am assuming shorter, and or repetitive style games in the online shop... That said i do think i would abuse this return policy.... I suppose nintendo and the other companies mentioned could start banning people on the basis of abusing the return policy.
 
I'm on the EU's side on this. These companies need to be put in their places. As Dukenukem somewhat said above, if companies spent more time and resources making great products, people wouldn't be trying to return garbage to get their hard earned money back from falsely advertised products that are increasingly getting worse and worse, yet more and more expensive every year.
You underestimate the scuminess of people. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

I like Steam's current approach to this. You need to have less than 2 hours played within the 14 days to qualify for a refund.
 
You underestimate the scuminess of people. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

I like Steam's current approach to this. You need to have less than 2 hours played within the 14 days to qualify for a refund.
Yep. People will take advantage and ruin it for everyone. Years ago when I was a kid I abused the local EB return policy. I would buy and return it with in the return window. It got to the point that the manager banned me from his store lol.
 
Yep. People will take advantage and ruin it for everyone. Years ago when I was a kid I abused the local EB return policy. I would buy and return it with in the return window. It got to the point that the manager banned me from his store lol.

That's why you'd make sure that you'll never let a young you take advantage of a policy that you craft out.
 
I don't think they do have value after initial play, but yes i guess i am assuming shorter, and or repetitive style games in the online shop... That said i do think i would abuse this return policy.... I suppose nintendo and the other companies mentioned could start banning people on the basis of abusing the return policy.
If you're going to abuse a return policy, then why not just pirate? You get to keep the game far longer than 14 days that way. Also, it's not like companies aren't abusing it when you have a limited time to return the game. Imagine buying Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 and then realizing it was a shitty game, but you can't return it due to the limited time window you have. Not everyone has the time needed to try the game enough that they know exactly if they hate or like the game.

Let game developers be put to a higher standard and if game retention is a problem then they can try lowering prices. Instead of pretending a game is worth $60 like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, it can be priced realistically to $15 where even if it is a shitty game a person might think twice of returning it. You could beat the game in 2 days and return it, but maybe you have a fetish for topless pregnant women covered in nazi blood and afterall the game was only $15.

My point is the 14 day thing isn't bad until game developers fill their games with repetitive boring tasks or side quests to lengthen the game. Which 14 days is enough to say fuck it I want my money back.

 
If you're going to abuse a return policy, then why not just pirate? You get to keep the game far longer than 14 days that way. Also, it's not like companies aren't abusing it when you have a limited time to return the game. Imagine buying Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 and then realizing it was a shitty game, but you can't return it due to the limited time window you have. Not everyone has the time needed to try the game enough that they know exactly if they hate or like the game.

Let game developers be put to a higher standard and if game retention is a problem then they can try lowering prices. Instead of pretending a game is worth $60 like Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, it can be priced realistically to $15 where even if it is a shitty game a person might think twice of returning it. You could beat the game in 2 days and return it, but maybe you have a fetish for topless pregnant women covered in nazi blood and afterall the game was only $15.

My point is the 14 day thing isn't bad until game developers fill their games with repetitive boring tasks or side quests to lengthen the game. Which 14 days is enough to say fuck it I want my money back.


Pirating takes more effort. People will choose the easy route if it exists.

Also you can't pirate Nintendo Switch games, not yet at least.
 
that's clickbaity

"A survey carried out in December last year found that Nintendo failed to offer consumers the option to cancel software pre-ordered on the eShop." - this is seriously wtf

"Although Steam was called out by the NCC, the distributor does actually offer a refund policy similar to the right of withdrawal which allows consumers to return a game within 14 days of purchase, providing they have less than two hours of recorded game time." - o'really?
 
The eshop does need a refund policy like Steam.

There are more demos on the eshop than Steam, but it's still only around %10. I've gotten burned on about $60 worth of crap. If they had refunds I'd get that money back, and try another game. Instead of getting pissed off at wasting $20, and stop shopping.

So yeah, EU law is a little too aggressive, but somebody needs to take Nintendo to court over this.

EDIT: DukenukemX,

thanks to the shitshow that is Wolf 2, ID Software titles are going back on my "Wait until this costs $10" wishlist. Doom and Wolf 1 were the shining examples that gave me false hope.
 
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what stops someone from beating the game and never paying ? I'm ok with this if they had a limit like 3 claims per year ... or a smaller window like 72 hours.
 
You could also say that someone that buys a Blu-Ray movie could watch it in 2 hours and then return it, thus making it free. But too many business rely on people making the initial purchase for the product, and if they don't like it then tuff shit. This is how Hollywood and the gaming industry works. This may push game developers to make better games than to make mediocre games that just check all the boxes.

☑ Has multiplayer even though a single player
☑ Lots of side quests with no substance
☑ Lots of cutscenes
☑ Don't forget to insert black people
☑ Do something political and shocking

Goes on and on. Doesn't make for a good game but makes for a sale. Especially when reviewers nowadays don't usually get their hands on the game before it's released.

I think Steam sort of has it with a 2hr refund. That way at least in most cases you can demo the games and not get owned by crappy product but at the same time it's fair to the developers to reduce fraud. Devs won't make better games since many franchises get bough anyway so at least with a reasonable refund window, it all works. I do agree that 14 day return for a game is bullshit, most people even casual gamers will complete a game in this time. With this 14 day law many would try to complete games in this time to take advantage of the system.
 
Pirating takes more effort. People will choose the easy route if it exists.

Also you can't pirate Nintendo Switch games, not yet at least.
Pirating takes more effort, if you don't know how to torrent. Nintendo Switch is kinda fucked with piracy eventually. If not by people cracking the machine and putting in a custom firmware or emulators on PC. Though pirating on a Switch will certainly take a lot of know how to get it done. But the audience for a Switch is not exactly adults. We are talking about a company making cardboard as a way to play games here. Sure adults have the Switch, but even those adults who use the Switch will need more than 14 days to beat a game, unless they don't have a job.

People will do it, I'm sure they will, but people also return tools to Autozone after using it for a day. If game studios see this as a big problem then they need to rethink their game design. Games can take a page from the 80's/90's where games were hard and weren't beaten so fairly quickly. Maybe Fallout 4 should have had a better ending like New Vegas where it shows what you've done and not just some generic ending that everyone sees. I see this as a design problem, not a return policy problem. Japan has a piracy problem as well, and lots of people just download videos. So how do anime studios make money? They put sexy characters that they can sell in stores cause the men will buy products with them. Let game studios adapt, not the consumer.
 
Good. I understand not wanting to give people 14 days to play a game and then return it, but frankly there should be some sort of system in place for people to not just be out all their money if they bought something they just plain don’t enjoy.
I've returned PS2 games I recieved from Christmas after playing them. I traded a crap games based on some crap disney movie for FFX. 15 days is enough to beat almost any game. I think the solution with digital download is 14 days if game play is less than X hours. 5 hours would be enough to get a feel of the game but not finish it.
 
I've returned PS2 games I recieved from Christmas after playing them. I traded a crap games based on some crap disney movie for FFX. 15 days is enough to beat almost any game. I think the solution with digital download is 14 days if game play is less than X hours. 5 hours would be enough to get a feel of the game but not finish it.

The amount should be dynamic. A cookie cutter open world RPG should get 5 or so hours, but a well crafted campaign/story based game 2 hours. MP games 4-5 hours, ect.
 
I do hate the nintendo store on my switch. I bought an arcade game port that was honestly terrible. I really wanted my money back (within like 30 seconds of game play), but would have been satisfied with the ability to leave a poor review to warn others. Unfortunately neither is an option.
 
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