Gaming
Valve Loses Steam Refund Policy Appeal in Australia
Last year, Steam got into some legal issues with Australia. The Federal Court fined Valve $3 million AUD ($2.2 million USD) after ruling that the company breached consumer law when it didn’t offer a refund between 2011 and 2014.
They also have been charged with having dubious and misleading practices in order to get Australian consumers to purchase their products. Of course, this all happened before the Steam Refund Policy got implemented into the platform in 2015.
Of course, Valve tried defending themselves from this blow by making an appeal case. Said appeal was rejected just a few days ago by the Federal Court. According to the court, Steam can’t prove that consumers weren’t deceived by them.
“[Valve] had a culture by which it formed a view without Australian legal advice that it was not subject to Australian law, and it was content to proceed to trade with Australian consumers without that advice.” Said Justice Endelman, from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission according to the Morning Herald of Sydney, all the way back in 2016.
There is this law in Australia where consumers are basically guaranteed that they are going to get a product that’s been Quality Tested in order to satisfy the customer’s needs. This collides with Steam’s Refund Policy, which isn’t adequate to the standards imposed by the Commission.
As such, the Australian Federal Court has celebrated this appeal loss and consider it a message towards any popular international company. It’s of utmost importance to make clear that the companies’ services accommodate to the standards and laws of the country, not the other way around.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean that Valve will be changing their refund policies. They are just making an exception to the rules in Australia. So keep that in mind as you move forward and check the laws regarding product quality in your country of residence.
Since the excellent Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out in the wild for a while, interesting data can be gleaned, such as how players choose to play an innovative new RPG from home. Stats from developer Larian Studios and posted on the PlayStation Blog show that most people want to play as a stealthy archer like in Skyrim when given nearly limitless options.
According to a fascinating graph, Rogue/Ranger is the most popular multiclass build, with over 175,000 players using it to snipe unsuspecting enemies from range. The next two builds reveal similarly. 150,000 played Barbarian/Fighter because they loved pummeling things, and 109,00 played Barbarian/Paladin, which lets players talk to their victims before beatings.
More sense emerges as you descend. If the Paladin/Warlock/Sorcerer/Bard has high Charisma, any combination can be interesting. Charisma helps these classes cast spells and abilities and interact with NPCs outside of combat.
Playing a single class through Baldur’s Gate 3 feels great, which is what most players do. A pure Fighter or Wizard becomes so powerful by game’s end that we don’t blame you for not mixing things up!
Play as a Tiefling Oathbreaker Paladin, Dark Urge Origin (which you must resist), or Bard for real moral dilemmas. You could also play pseudo-Aragorn again.
Techland is continuing to release Dying Light 2 content as part of its long-term support. This is surprising since the meaty Good Night, Good Luck update was released a few months ago. It’s nice to know what’s coming, but no timeline was given.
IGN-exclusive roadmap trailers reveal more co-op missions, board quests, a tower raid, and replayable GRE anomalies. Executions and finishers may be added to the April Gut Feeling update, which overhauled melee mechanics. Graphical options, weapon repair, gear, and mod dismantling are always welcome.
Knives, polearms, and more enemy variants are coming, including a Nightmare difficulty. Changes to NG+ include firearms. Players can finally dress to their hearts’ content with new cosmetic options.
Has Techland’s Dying Light 2 support lured you back? Would you rather focus on something new?
Epic Games expanded the Fortnite V-Buck “pricing alignment” after laying off almost 900 employees, citing “inflation and currency fluctuations”. Fortnite’s premium currency will rise in international markets, including the largest.
Epic Games will raise the price of V-Bucks and real money content packs in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the US (including all US Dollar storefronts) on October 27.
Raising the price of this fictitious currency was successful when the company trialed it in the UK, Canada, and Mexico, so it was decided to announce it worldwide now. These USD increases range from $1 (1000 V-Bucks, previous $7.99) to $10 (13,500 V-Bucks, previous $79.99).
How do you view Epic’s timing and pricing increase?
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