UK Consumer Rights Act Changed, Protects Gamers Affected by Broken Games

2nd October, 0 replies

Changes to the Consumer Rights Act in the UK have gone into effect and it now means that consumers who buy faulty goods are entitled to a full refund for up to 30 days after the purchase. This includes games sold physically and digitally.

Several games released in the last year would be considered faulty, including Batman: Arkham Knight for the PC, Assassin's Creed: Unity, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo must also comply with the new Consumer Rights Act with respect to their online services.

The new Consumer Rights Act states the following:

"It is the norm to encounter some bugs in a complex game or piece of software on release so a reasonable person might not expect that type of digital content to be free from minor defects. Consequently the application of the quality aspect 'freedom from minor defects' to digital content will depend on reasonable expectations as to quality.

As with goods, quality does not refer to subjective judgements as to the artistic value of the content itself (e.g. whether or not a book was interesting or well written).

For an expensive, complicated piece of software which may require a patch to bring it in line with the contract (i.e. it may need to be repaired rather than replaced) the process might be expected to take longer. But, if the digital content was obtained with a specific purpose in mind, for example, when a consumer has paid an extra amount to have early access to an online multi-user game but the server crashed and so the consumer was not able to access the game early, a repair or replacement may not be possible so the consumer would be entitled to a price reduction of an appropriate amount."

Source:

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