Elite: Dangerous has been skirting the line of acceptability for a while now, as far as treatment of its consumers goes- for instance, the developers actually had the audacity to charge players full price just so they could beta test the game earlier this year. Now, it seems, the developers are trying their best to be ‘indie EA’ again, as just before the game was due for launch, they announced that it would not be supporting any kind of an offline mode at all– a clear violation of their promises to consumers before, who were willing to support the game’s development financially based on said promises.
Some people are obviously unhappy with how this has gone down, and they are asking for refunds, reportedly, flocking to the game’s forums to such a degree that the developer was forced to issue an official response:
“We have started responding to requests where there is a clear outcome,” said director David Braben.
“Those who have pre-ordered an Elite: Dangerous release version from our online store and have therefore not yet played the game are eligible for a refund.
” Those who have already been playing the game online in the Alpha and/or Beta phases, regardless of whether they backed the project via Kickstarter or purchased access to Alpha and/or Beta through our online store, are not eligible for a refund.”
That said, they did re-iterate that they would be looking into this on a case by case basis.
“We want to make sure we treat each person’s situation with the thoroughness it deserves, and have contacted each of them to ask that they bear with us over the next few working days if their circumstances do not fit either criteria above as we look into individual requests.”
Right.
Guys, maybe you all could have just, I don’t know, kept your promises?
