They are DRM-free with their catalogue curated, unlike Steam, and so the rules would have to be different. Someone ”has to be on the hook” if an Early Access is fraudulent.
Iwinski fears digital stores who don’t have a facility in place to refund consumers who’ve been ‘hit and run’ by a dodgy project. There has to be a safety net, he argues.
”We’re obviously looking at it,” Marcin Iwinski told Eurogamer. ”As you know our concept is different; first of all it’s DRM-free and second it’s curated. I’m often very lost in a lot of stores - apps being my example today. Or even Steam. I don’t know what’s happening; there’s hundreds of releases a month, and I really believe - and our community’s clearly showing that - there is a place for a platform which is choosing the stuff.”
”With the approach that Steam has they decided not to, and it’s fine, it works extremely well for them and some developers, but it has threats like the one of bad Early Access games. And it’s tempting, it’s really tempting: you’re a developer and you can get to Early Access and charge 40-whatever for your game, for your non-working alpha. And they’re pocketing immediately.”
”We would definitely consider it,” he said, ”but again it would be the GOG way. It would have to be curated and, we believe - we are always saying this very openly - we are responsible in front of the gamer for what they’re buying on GOG.”
Earth: Year 2066 turned out to be a scam on Steam Early Access with Valve refunding purchases out of their own pocket, most likely. ”If you would do it, it would have to have some kind of protection,” he explained, ”because consumers are coming, they are seeing certain promise.”
”Of course it’s like ‘hey it’s alpha’, but the little devil inside your head is saying ‘ooh I want to play, it looks so cool in the screens’,” and many are lulled in to be set up for disappointment. ”If you’re unhappy and they’re constantly updating it, that’s fine, but if you’re unhappy and they just took your money and ran away like typical hit and run… There is somebody who has to be on the hook for it, and I really think this should be the case,” Iwinski said.
”Definitely not every game should be permitted,” he continued, ”and consumers should have an option to opt out if they’re really unhappy. It can be done better still.” Iwinski offers ”big kudos” to Steam being the first to offer this service; ”a lot of developers - I was talking to some and they’re really happy with it. But the good ones! It’s always the good ones.”
”Ultimately the market will rule out the greedy thieving ones,” he concludes. GOG.com already offers refunds to games purchased if they don’t work properly on a gamer’s PC, but as there’s no real way to know if a complaint is true, GOG.com openly admits they’re just going on trust, especially as all titles are DRM-free.
