Ubisoft Caves to Fans, Allows Refunds.

Strap yourselves in, boys and girls, we have ourselves a wild ride ahead of us.

With Konami in the spotlight, it’s easy to forget that there are other gaming companies out there we hate for their shady business dealings and crappy customer relations. One of those has been Ubisoft, who I expected to stay out of the spotlight until Assasin’s Creed Syndicate game out, but has jumped the gun and pissed customers off before they could release their inevitably buggy follow-up to Assassin’s Creed Unity.

See, recently, Ubisoft shipped their highly anticipated Collector's Edition of Might & Magic Heroes VII, which were supposed to have rare physical copies of the game and the soundtrack, since the game is normally available as a digital exclusive. However, there was a little snag midway between announcing the Collector's Edition and actually shipping it, because Ubisoft decided to get a little sneaky. They removed the physical copy of the game and soundtrack--you know, the whole reason you’d want the collector's edition--and just put download codes into the box.

And, where the CDs were supposed to be, there was a whole lot of empty air. At first, Ubisoft had nothing to say to the legions of angry fans who had been duped--or at least, mislead--into buying the Collector's Edition of the game. Worse still, it seemed like efforts to ask for refunds were met with refusals by Ubisoft’s HR team.

Well, shout loud enough and even Ubisoft’s deaf-prone ears will twitch, and after Reddit entered an uproar Ubisoft has officially announced they would issue refunds for the Collector’s Edition, saying:
 

“Ubisoft regrets any confusion created by the marketing materials from our Might and Magic Heroes VII Collector’s Edition. We understand that some customers in North America were not aware the Collector’s Edition delivered digital versions of the game and soundtrack. Ubisoft apologizes for any frustration and disappointment resulting from these items being in digital format vs. physical format. We are accepting complete refunds from any dissatisfied customers and will be providing a compensation plan of one complimentary digital PC game for consumers that have already purchased the Might and Magic Heroes VII Collector’s Edition from the Uplay shop in North America. Affected consumers will be able to pick one game of their choice from a selection including Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed Rogue, The Crew, Toy Soldiers: War Chest Hall of Fame Edition and Zombi.” We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope the above statement will help to clarify the current situation.”

I don’t want to call this a win, because it’s pretty crappy it happened in the first place, but at least it’s SOMETHING--and at least Ubisoft is self-aware enough to just give people the compensation package right off the bat. If anything, we should take note how action spawned response, so next time a company screws you over, remember--you can vote with more than just your wallet!