Assassin’s Creed Unity – will the new law help prevent disasters like this?

The new Consumer Rights Act in the UK not only protects you against faulty games, but also broken online services like Xbox Live and PSN.

According to the new law anyone who buys faulty goods in the UK is entitled to a full refund for up to 30 days after purchase.

The new law specifically covers digital content, such as eBooks and music, and that means games as well. But while we don’t ever remember an online movie not working, video games are a different matter entirely.

The details of the new act are clearly described on the Citizens Advice website, where the following paragraph in particular shows just how wide-ranging the new law is:




For the first time, there are clear rules for what should happen if a service is not provided with reasonable care and skill or as agreed. For example, the business that provided the service must bring it into line with what was agreed with the customer or, if this is not practical, must give some money back.

Batman: Arkham Knight – video games still have a problem with broken launches

The problem for video games companies is that not only do new games often not work properly at launch, and sometimes take several months to fix, but the new law also covers online features and services like Xbox Live and PSN.

According to the law itself a product must also be ‘of satisfactory quality, based on what a reasonable person would expect, taking into account the price’.

We don’t how you go about proving a video game isn’t of sufficient quality, except quoting some reviews, but again the Citizens Advice has some useful examples.

Will this new law convince Sony to have a more reliable service?

But the changes don’t end there, as it will now be possible to have American style class action lawsuits, where one or more people can sue on behalf of everyone. Several of these cases in the US have involved video games, including one that cost EA $60 million.

The only downside to the new law is that companies are no longer obligated to replace or refund consoles (or anything else) after one month, as long as they repair it instead.

Although most publishers have cleaned up their act this year, after 2014 being dominated by broken games and unreliable online features, there have still been some big name controversies, including the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight that had to be withdrawn from sale.

In fact it’s a very good job this law didn’t come into being last year, as until a few months ago there was no proper refund system on Steam, or other download services like Origin and GoG. Now though it looks like they’ll be used more than ever…

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