Origin Great Game Guarantee
Imagine you bought the recent Realms of Arkania game, and within an hour you were horrified at the bugginess. Steam and GoG.com are good about refunds in these cases – but what if it was an acclaimed game like Skyrim, and you just couldn’t connect? Tougher sell for a refund – so now EA’s Origin has a ‘Great Game Guarantee’.
The ‘Great Game Guarantee’ is fairly simple in theory: you can return EA full game downloads (PC or Mac) purchased on Origin for a full refund–within 24 hours after you first launch the game, within seven days from when you purchased it, or within the first seven days after the game’s release date if you pre-ordered it.
In the Origin client for Mac or PC, or the origin website, just head to your order history and choose ‘Request a Refund’ … and in theory after a few simple questions you will have the game removed from your library and a refund issued.
A few notable items:
- The policy went into effect immediately.
- It doesn’t cover third party (i.e. non-EA published) games.
- If you bought the game elsewhere (e.g. Amazon.com, which has great sales on Steam and Origin games) and activated it on Origin … you aren’t covered, even if it is an EA game.
- Certain payment methods are non-refundable, but you will be told this during check-out.
- Refunds on Mac/PC compatible games (such as The Sims) would include BOTH platforms, also if you ask for a refund when buying a bundle (such as Mass Effect trilogy) you may need to return the entire bundle.
I used some soft language because while Steam and GoG.com have been good with returns, Origin has a history which could best be described as ‘horrific’, culminating in the SimCity post-release debacle in which several customers reported being harassed and threatened by EA customer service employees when seeking a refund for their (unplayed) pre-orders. It will be interesting to see how this policy works after the buzz from the press release dies.
Head to the Origin news blog for more details, and to the ‘fine print’ page for policy and terms!