Sony has been urged to offer PS4 game refunds following reports that Microsoft will do the same for Xbox One and Windows games.
A screengrab of an Xbox One announcement was posted on Reddit, indicating that Microsoft will offer self-service for refunds for purchases on its Microsoft Store, which covers both Xbox One and Windows games. This new option will allow gamers to receive a full refund on downloaded games within 14 days of the purchase being made, though they must have played the games for less than two hours in order to do so.
This is a huge move by Microsoft, with it finally answering requests from gamers to provide a way for them to refund digital purchases they are unhappy with. Now that Steam is offering its own return policy on digital goods, there have been an increasing number of calls for consoles to follow suit, but until now these have gone unanswered.
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Unfortunately, Sony has yet to implement a similar policy for the PS4, despite repeated requests for them to do so. Sony currently allows users in the UK to request refunds to their PSN wallets within a 14 day period, though as noted by the PlayStation UK help site, the company will not refund any content that has been downloaded or streamed. In the US, PS4 owners are told to contact Sony if they have any issues with the products they have purchased via PSN, though the help site states that refunds are not available “except where required by law.”
It’s unclear whether or not Sony will change its approach to refunds following this move from Microsoft, but with Sony having wanted to appear as the more consumer-friendly company throughout this generation of consoles, this could well be the case in the near future. Microsoft’s announcement on the Xbox One dashboard reads: “You’ve spoken; we’ve listened. In support of offering gamers the freedom of choice, we’re making changes to the Microsoft Store purchase experience by offering customers a simple way to instantly return digital products like games and apps through account.microsoft.com.”
There’s no word yet on when this refund policy will exit the preview stage, but Microsoft should provide a full update soon. Along with refunds only being able to be processed within a 14-day period, Microsoft also specifies that DLC, season passes and add-ons are not included in the policy, and that they reserve the right to block access for users who abuse self-service refunds.
