Arkane claims that 2 hour Steam refund policy is demo for Prey game

Prey developer claims that Steam's refund policy acts as a PC Demo for the game

"It's just a resource assignment thing. We couldn't do a demo on both the console and on the PC, we had to choose. And besides, PC has Steam. Steam players can just return the game [prior to playing] 2 hours so it's like a demo already. I also want to clarify that there's no PC port. I keep on hearing 'oh they're going to screw up the PC port' there is no PC port. We do the game on PC. It's a PC game. It's a different engine to Dishonored as well. So we might have our own sets of problems, but we are of course very careful because of what happened with Dishonored 2. So we wanted to make sure the PC version of Prey is good."

Prey's co-creative director, Raphael Colantonio, has called Steam's 2-hour refund policy an effective replacement for a dedicated PC Demo for the game. This response came after questions regarding the lack of a PC Demo for Prey, with AusGamers alleging that this could show a lack of confidence in the game's PC version. In response, Colantonio stated that Prey's PC version is not a "port" and that the game was developed from the start with PC in mind and that the lack of a PC demo is due to the developer's limited resources.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/software/prey_developer_claims_that_steam_s_2-hour_refund_policy_acts_as_a_pc_demo_for_the_game/1

What a crock. That is not what the Steam refund policy is for. I will probably wait for a heavily discounted sale before I consider buying this game.

wow as if he suggests abusing the refund system, what a tool.

So I guess people that buy a retail DVD or buy from a different outlet than Steam and find their game isn't working for them are Fvcked ?

Yep, no PC demo for them. Such a lazy excuse from the dev.

I kinda like Raphael and Keith and I fcking love their games, but stuff like this I don't like reading:

"I keep on hearing 'oh they're going to screw up the PC port' there is no PC port."

Trust has to be earned, and it's obvious they didn't earn our trust with how Dishonored 2 turned out on PC.

Right? People have a reason to suspect that it might be a crappy PC version... We don't, however, have a reason to think that it'll be a great version, because we haven't had a demo! All we have is their word, and I'm pretty sure they also gave us their word on Dishonored 2...

He is right though. PC gamers can play the game for 2 hours and if they don't like it get a refund. I don't see the problem. They are using the system to there advantage and in this case efficient use of man power.

I feel like the 'demo' has been dead for a very long time. Now it's more of an outlier if a game actually offers a demo. What a shame.

It's like the world just keeps getting more and more anti-consumer and there's nothing we can do about it.

Oh well at least Steam refunds are easy and I guess if you play the demo and liked it you'd buy it. If you don't like it it's easy to get your money back. The trouble is it can technically take up to a week to actually get the money back into your account - usually it doesn't take that long but that's what they say.

If you don't like a product or it's broken, you return it. That's the case in most cases with other goods. I don't see the abuse.

before Doom beta. people were saying same thing about it. they were based on MP beta and think whole game will be like MP beta. and after game released. opinion changed.

PC gamers have a loud minority which spend most of their time complaining.

Devs still do demos?

At least release the benchmark or something. PC gamers are concerned not really because Prey as a game is going to suck, but because your last game on PC was a f*cking horrendous port that slashed framerates down even on Titan X Pascal.

Are these guys pulling Dishonored 2-level of port again and they don't want people to know or something?

This is enough for me not to buy the game or support them. Screw them.

@n64dd: ...what? Because there's no demo? A bit silly, don't you think?

Dont see a problem. If the game has issues or if people don't like it they get their money back and they get 2 hours to try instead of 1.

Did you read the thread?

@n64dd: You mean you're angry at their statement? So if they said nothing, it would be ok?

Pretty much. Don't see how this is news worthy.

Console players have a free demo of 2hrs.

PC players can pay for the game and if they don't like it, they can refund it provided they played 2hrs or less.

What exactly is the problem here?

I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

Their statement that will be backed by actions. Yes I will not support because of a decision they made.

I WANT TO BELIEVE THEM, BECAUSE WAY TOO MANY GAMES ARE PORTED OVER TO the PC these days and they are terrible, terrible ports.

I find it more interesting that people still get upset at the lack of demos for games. Demos made sense twenty years ago when budgets were way smaller, marketing was far more narrow and smaller scale, and there wasn't Youtube/hundreds of review outlets to let you know about a game. I remember having to wait for my monthly copy of Gamepro Magazine just to know what games were good or not. The internet was just not a thing and very few video games ever got TV commercials.

Demos just don't make sense today from a developer's point of view. The whole purpose of a demo was to better sell the game. Other methods of marketing have replaced it that cost the developer absolutely nothing.

I also believe demos were never a great way of selling a game. It only showed you a tiny, highly polished, little vertical slice of the game. There was never a guarantee that the rest of the game would be as fun as the demo. Often they weren't. Reviews do a much better job of giving you an idea of the entire package rather than the vertical slice. Reviews also don't cost the developer time and resources to put out. It's win-win for everybody.

And finally, my least popular opinion, $60 isn't worth spending hours pondering if a game is worth my time or not. I either know if I want a game or not way before it's released. If I end up waiting to read reviews about it, odds are I'm not going to spend $60 on it regardless of how good it is.

Spot on. I would say that Twitch + Youtube killed the demo since you are able to get a good feel for how the game plays without wondering if the footage is rendered and of the like.

I don't like that they are calling the return policy a demo. You can also return games you buy a disc for, but we don't call that a demo. My worry is that it could cause frustration from Valve, making them change their policy.

I actually agree with basically everything you just said.

Yeah, i pre-ordered and getting Steam code from other place, 42,9euro, steam take 59,9 euro for the game. I am fcked if i want refund.

Rage was a console game ported to PC and did not work on AMD cards when it launched, it also didn't have an options menu when it launched.

In fact it was such a bad port when it launched it didn't even work on two of the systems I owned.

So yeah, again EXACT SAME situation: Developers need to earn our trust when they have broken it in the past, we shouldn't give them our money just 'expecting the best' for the next game :/

This is nothing new. Demos outside of conventions, are rarely done since they are hard to make with demanding deadlines. And usually end up being older buggy builds that don't properly represent the final product.

I've personally only played one demo this whole generation. That being the FF15 one, which I was going to play regardless. Nowadays I know what kind of games I like to play. Anything I'm unsure of, is a rent or a dirt cheap digital purchase.

Well, first off, it's a burden on the user, which makes them go and submit a support ticket for a refund. Secondly, it's abusing Steam's refund policy, and placing the burden solely on them in the event that a person wants to refund it. They are basically shoveling off their own dev work onto the consumers and distributor platform of their game. It's a cheap way to save money, and quite shady on top of it.

But they give demo's to press all the time.

In fact the opening hour demo for Prey was a demo given to the press months ago.

So if they can give demo's to the press or let people play them at conventions, so they can build hype around their game, what's stopping them from letting everyone try out the demo ?

Not having a demo at all is one thing, but when you supply a demo to both PS4 and Xbone users and then neglect one of the major platforms, it's a huge red flag.

I don't see the problem. If it's not great, refund it. Two hours is more than enough. Most demos don't even last that long.

Oh noes the user has to send in a report ticket which takes 30 seconds and they have to wait hours to get their refunds. How dare they!

I hate using that word but some people really act like entitled brats. Giving a demo is not something they are obligated to do. It's something most devs don't bother with. They gave console players a 2hrs demo to see if they like it. PC players don't get the demo but can purchase the full game and if they don't like it they can refund it which is exactly why Steam has a refund policy. There's nothing shady about it. Quit acting like a spoiled child. It's 100% honest and legal and they're forthcoming about what they're doing.

You were screwed anyway. That's the risk you take when you buy a cd key from another site. The trade-off is that you save some money. Some sites let you refund, but only if you haven't already applied the cd key to your steam account, like Greenmangaming.

This, however, is a pretty lousy thing to do. Supply a demo for console users, neglect the PC users and then tell them they can refund their game if they want a "demo."

Demo's take a lot of extra time to make.
Like weeks. I can't fault them for putting that time into the game.

The problem is the Steam refund policy is not meant to be a demo practice. Some people can get flagged and banned from submitting anymore refunds if they are considered as "abusing" the system.

Even though they supplied demos to both XBone and PS4?

So, you must be very anti-consumer. You must enjoy it when a company makes you call in on a product and waste 30 minutes of your time, like your cable company probably regularly does. But it's ok, because you don't have a life and you don't care about wasting your time even though you're the paying customer.

Yeah so I just read about that while you replied. I was not aware that the console versions did get a demo. That makes it a little less clean. Hmm. I mean I can't remember the last time I used a demo for a game so personally I am not affected but yeah, that is kinda weird. I don't know how to explain that one.

A shame, but I don't know how Steam gauges that.

Last time I waited about a week before I got a reply back. What is these hours you talk off ? I never had Steam Customer service reply that fast. Not for a refund, not for a problem not for anything.

Lol why lie? I purchased Just Cause 3 on Steam to see if it would run well on my PC. It didn't. I sent a ticket which took 30 seconds and got refunded the next day. It doesn't take 30 minutes. Don't make shit up to prove a point.

It took me less than 48hrs to get refunded by Steam when I bought Just Cause 3. I bought it on the 26th of Nov at 6:50pm and got refunded on the 28th at 2:30 am. I even got the emails to prove it. I only tried refunding once. Otherwise Steam is painfully slow to reply to inquiries. It takes two, even three weeks at times.

Meanwhile, your money was held hostage until the next day or a week off. You must have gotten lucky, though. Most people have to wait about 3 days to get their money back. If a game doesn't run well, then that's grounds for a refund, and I absolutely support that, however, supplying demos to both consoles, and then telling PC users they can waste their time by submitting a ticket and having to wait for their money is incredibly anti-consumer. If you can't see that, then I suppose you also don't mind your internet being held captive until you pay a second time to use it.

What a plonk. Especially given that it could impact future refunds if they see abuse of the system.

Most developers don't provide a demo so what are you even talking about?

One of the reasons they even provided a demo for console gamers is that they don't have refund policies like on Steam last I heard. PSN gives you 14 days provided you haven't even downloaded the game yet. How are they anti-consumers? They provide console players a way to decide whether their game is worth it or not and there is already a system in place for that for PC gamers. You're making a mountain out of a molehill. You don't like it on PC? Send in a ticket. Literally takes 30 seconds to a minute. Once it's processed, your refund will be processed within the next couple of business days. I mean really? You expect refunds to be instantaneous or something?

I'm expecting a 6/10 game at this point.

No, I expect the dev to put out a demo and not burden the consumer and distributor. Lmao. Are you not understanding this?

The refund policy is not meant to be a demo platform. It's meant to be for games that are either not what they advertised or run poorly or not at all. You do realize people can get banned from using the refund system if Valve thinks they might be abusing it, right?

As a consumer, you shouldn't have to pay(even if it is temporary) 60 dollars to "demo" a game. If they didn't provide a demo at all, well, then that would be more understandable, because that would mean they either don't have dev time or money to supply it, which happens. But, this is a huge studio--a AAA studio--that released a demo on both PS4 and Xbone, and then told PC users to refund their game as their demo.

It's a bad business practice, and it means that either they don't have confidence in their game, or they just don't care about the userbase.

I don't care about much about demo , I just want it optimizded

Yeah I guess my COH2: British Forces expansion was refunded within two days as well :)

They would have been far better off explaining that a demo wasn't possible (for whatever reason), rather than to give this idiotic excuse. Demos haven't been popular on PC for a while (not including open/closed alphas/betas).