If You're So Inclined, Steam Now Offering From Dust Refunds

The sordid tale of From Dust's is-it-or-isn't-it digital rights management appears to be finally coming to a close. Ubisoft has promised a patch within the next few weeks to make the game completely playable offline, and I've just received word that Steam is offering refunds to unsatisfied owners of the game.

There were reports of Steam offering refunds to aggitated From Dust owners last week, but when I personally submitted a customer support ticket asking about a refund, Steam flatly denied it was a possibility.

In light of recent events, appears Ubisoft has asked Steam to give players the option to get their money back.

"Ubisoft has just announced that they are working on a patch that will eliminate the need for any online authentication for From Dust," reads the updated support ticket sent my way tonight. "The patch will release in approximately two weeks. If you don’t want to wait for the patch or if you haven’t played the game, per Ubisoft’s request, we will issue refunds for this title. If you would still like your purchase of From Dust refunded, please reply to this ticket."

I haven't purchased From Dust on PC, only inquired about the refund through my Steam account, but it appears anyone who has picked up From Dust and would like to reverse that decision has the option.

Customers were upset at Ubisoft for originally announcing From Dust would not have any DRM. When the game arrived on PC, in addition to other port issues, the game required users to login online at the start. Ubisoft has a history of flip-flopping on DRM for its PC ports, which has given the publisher a bad reputation amongst PC gamers.

dang

Nice

Sigh

It sucks that the game wasn't what it could be but good on Ubisoft for doing this.

Now if only I could get a refund for Saints Row 2. That was a terrible port to PC.

I finished it. Uplay was a bitch for me when i had forgotten my Uplay account info, but i got it to work and finished the game.

The game's ok but if anyone's thinking about picking it up i'd wait for a Steam sale, by then the patch will be out for it...win win.

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Gamers win this round, Ubisoft relents on their DRM - and people still want a refund? I don't like DRM either, but this is just ridiculous. I guess if you just flat out didn't enjoy the game, then congrats on getting your money back. Otherwise...just wait a few weeks if it bothers you that much.
 
(Full disclosure: Played this game on 360 because my PC is fairly outdated. Loved it.)

Did I misread that article, or are they only offering refunds to people who haven't played/installed the game?

So now all 3 of the people who bought it can get a refund? And they say that crime never pays...

So do they delete the files from your Steam account?

This is one Pretty Good Thing about digital distro: despite all the "no refund" blankets, a publisher CAN make an executive decision to sort things out for everyone. If I bought a game box or a redeem card from Staples do you think they'd give me one bloody minute to show them a press release to get my $15 back? Hell no. No software refunds. GTFO. Wait 6-8 weeks for a processing house to send you a credit. The 20th century was kindofa bitch that way.

Good on ya Ubi. Still love ya Chahi.

So.....all I've heard is that this is because of a DRM. Shouldn't there be more to warrant a company offering refunds to players?

A very admirable step in the right direction. Righting a wrong with good customer service goes a very long way.

I'd rather they patch it to fix the absolutely terrible mouse control.

I revoked my steam support ticket which was asking for a refund after they announced they are removing the DRM. Nothing pisses me off more then when paying customers get fucked because of shitty DRM.

so since its locked at 30fps does that mean it looks like...the 360 version? is that so horrible? Guess ill play it with a controler when i eventually get it on a sale I guess if the mouse doesnt feel right. I just find it funny that people say this is HORRIBLE on pc, when as far asx i can tell, its just the same as its on 360, where most people say its quite good...hmmm....

I guess this is great for everyone who was dissatisfied with other parts of the product (namely the shoddy port controls and locked framerate).

An appropriate response to legitimate consumer upset over something that should never have happened in the first place. It'd be nice if I thought this would mark any kind of reversal of Ubisoft's continued trend of sodomizing their PC customers with a rusty fork, but I suspect it to be a momentary lapse into sanity at best.

When are they gonna learn DRM does absolutely nothing?
 
Pirates are still gonna pirate it. What are they thinking when they push these decisions to waste money and resources on something that only punishes people who give you money?
 
Oh and From Dust is a  broken mess too apparently, bravo.

It sucks that this game on PC will always be weighed down by this shitty DRM situation and awful port job because it looked pretty interesting.

This whole ordeal seems overwrought on both sides of the argument. I'm not sure if a full refund is really necessary, the patch seems justice enough. A lot of these comments have want to demonize Ubisoft, which is sort of ridiculous.

I'm so happy I bought Bastion instead of this. What a mess..

I still won't buy it until they fix the fucking atrocious port.

They're removing the part that was only a burden to those who bought it legitimately(the pirated version was available from day 1). I guess that's commendable.

Firstly I straight up HATE Ubisoft's DRM purely because it's another crappy layer of login shit that I don't want to experience when using Steam, but separate to that I really don't mind From Dust at all. The controls are fine and I haven't noticed any framerate slowness.

The DRM was never an issue for me. The inexcusably terrible controls and lack of meaningful graphics options were but. Too bad I've already played it for 15 minutes. As much as I want one, I probably can't get a refund now.

Dudes who do get a refund should sink that money into Bastion. The difference in quality and consideration for the customer is mind-blowing.

@ribeye said:

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Exactly how I feel. I hadn't heard anything about the DRM until after I had started playing. Honestly it didn't affect my experience at all, but the controls did.

Great strategy: 
1. Include draconian DRM 
2. See if anyone complains 
3. Remove the DRM

@ribeye said:

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Exactly how I feel. I hadn't heard anything about the DRM until after I had started playing. Honestly it didn't affect my experience at all, but the controls did.

@smiddy said:

@ribeye said:

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Exactly how I feel. I hadn't heard anything about the DRM until after I had started playing. Honestly it didn't affect my experience at all, but the controls did.

I really don't see the problem people have with the controls...it's not a cursor, so it shouldn't move like one.

so since its locked at 30fps does that mean it looks like...the 360 version? is that so horrible? Guess ill play it with a controler when i eventually get it on a sale I guess if the mouse doesnt feel right. I just find it funny that people say this is HORRIBLE on pc, when as far asx i can tell, its just the same as its on 360, where most people say its quite good...hmmm....

@Rhaknar said:

so since its locked at 30fps does that mean it looks like...the 360 version? is that so horrible? Guess ill play it with a controler when i eventually get it on a sale I guess if the mouse doesnt feel right. I just find it funny that people say this is HORRIBLE on pc, when as far asx i can tell, its just the same as its on 360, where most people say its quite good...hmmm....

Going for the lowest common denominator is a terrible idea. It's barely an insult to the customer. If you have a PC capable of running this game with all the bells and whistles, why would you have to settle for a lower quality option? If you wanted to play with a gamepad at 30FPS and get the same experience as in a console, you would get the console version.

I'm not one to complain about the "consolization" of gaming, but supporting shoddy ports like this one (and blaming the player for complaining) is killing the industry.

I believe they also said they are removing the DRM?

about time i played this game done 3 levels of it shut down went to work and found no matter how meny times i retried i could not get back into the game ...

but before asking for a refund i will wait to see if this patch fixes my problems ...

What about all the other issues? I hate DRM, but I don't mind it as much as long as the rest is fine; problem is, it's definitely not. I'd rather if they fixed the locked-on 30 fps and the terrible mouse/camera controls!

@smiddy said:

@ribeye said:

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Exactly how I feel. I hadn't heard anything about the DRM until after I had started playing. Honestly it didn't affect my experience at all, but the controls did.

I really don't see the problem people have with the controls...it's not a cursor, so it shouldn't move like one.

Hah, good.  
 
Now how the hell do I get my money back? 
I submitted a ticket like Thursday, Steam is fucking slow in getting back to me every time.

@Rox360 said:

@Vodun said:

@smiddy said:

@ribeye said:

the DRM didn't bother me, i just want them to fix the fuckin' retarded controls, seriously

Exactly how I feel. I hadn't heard anything about the DRM until after I had started playing. Honestly it didn't affect my experience at all, but the controls did.

I really don't see the problem people have with the controls...it's not a cursor, so it shouldn't move like one.

I haven't played the game, so I don't know what it behaves like on the PC, but... That totally is a cursor. It's a cursor in the same way that the hand in Black & White was a cursor. An entity that moves around in the 3D world and interacts with things as it does, yes; But still a cursor.

No, it's not. It's your character. You are the "breath", it's not the thing you point at stuff to do things with, it's you. There is a rather large difference in this and how it is presented from a gameplay perspective.

It's nice that Ubi has told Steam to offer folks refunds for From Dust, but it sure isn't fair. Where's the refund for my 360 version, eh?

@MurderByDeath said:

It's nice that Ubi has told Steam to offer folks refunds for From Dust, but it sure isn't fair. Where's the refund for my 360 version, eh?

Why would the 360 version users need a refund?

@Vodun said:

@Rox360 said:

I haven't played the game, so I don't know what it behaves like on the PC, but... That totally is a cursor. It's a cursor in the same way that the hand in Black & White was a cursor. An entity that moves around in the 3D world and interacts with things as it does, yes; But still a cursor.

No, it's not. It's your character. You are the "breath", it's not the thing you point at stuff to do things with, it's you. There is a rather large difference in this and how it is presented from a gameplay perspective.

You are arguing the semantics of the game's lore over a technical aspect. The "thing" in From Dust is exactly the same as the hand in Black and White. You can call it hand, breath or Bob, your avatar or whatever, but it's a cursor. It may not be a white arrow, but you use it to interact with the world. With a mouse, it should feel like using a mouse, not a gamepad.

@JoeyRavn said:

@MurderByDeath said:

It's nice that Ubi has told Steam to offer folks refunds for From Dust, but it sure isn't fair. Where's the refund for my 360 version, eh?

Why would the 360 version users need a refund?

@Vodun said:

@Rox360 said:

I haven't played the game, so I don't know what it behaves like on the PC, but... That totally is a cursor. It's a cursor in the same way that the hand in Black & White was a cursor. An entity that moves around in the 3D world and interacts with things as it does, yes; But still a cursor.

No, it's not. It's your character. You are the "breath", it's not the thing you point at stuff to do things with, it's you. There is a rather large difference in this and how it is presented from a gameplay perspective.

You are arguing the semantics of the game's lore over a technical aspect. The "thing" in From Dust is exactly the same as the hand in Black and White. You can call it hand, breath or Bob, your avatar or whatever, but it's a cursor. It may not be a white arrow, but you use it to interact with the world. With a mouse, it should feel like using a mouse, not a gamepad.

Eric Chahi thinks you should 'chill down'.

@MurderByDeath said:

It's nice that Ubi has told Steam to offer folks refunds for From Dust, but it sure isn't fair. Where's the refund for my 360 version, eh?

Why would the 360 version users need a refund?

@Vodun said:

@Rox360 said:

I haven't played the game, so I don't know what it behaves like on the PC, but... That totally is a cursor. It's a cursor in the same way that the hand in Black & White was a cursor. An entity that moves around in the 3D world and interacts with things as it does, yes; But still a cursor.

No, it's not. It's your character. You are the "breath", it's not the thing you point at stuff to do things with, it's you. There is a rather large difference in this and how it is presented from a gameplay perspective.

You are arguing the semantics of the game's lore over a technical aspect. The "thing" in From Dust is exactly the same as the hand in Black and White. You can call it hand, breath or Bob, your avatar or whatever, but it's a cursor. It may not be a white arrow, but you use it to interact with the world. With a mouse, it should feel like using a mouse, not a gamepad.

UBI soft may be shit but at least they are somewhat making up for it. The game however is very good so they can keep my money and i hope those guys can spend them on making more good games.

Meh, the game wasn't that great to begin with. If I had bought it via Steam I'd probably take the refund just because of how dissatisfied I was with the game itself, not only the DRM.

@Brackynews touches on something that I think is important about digital vs. physical distribution, though: digital distribution (via something like Steam) makes it easier to give refunds, because the publisher can just yank the content from you and give you your money back. They have the ability to track how much of the game you played, for how long, etc., so they could potentially introduce refund policies that are based on total time played (diminishing refunds).

Meh, the game wasn't that great to begin with. If I had bought it via Steam I'd probably take the refund just because of how dissatisfied I was with the game itself, not only the DRM.

UBI soft may be shit but at least they are somewhat making up for it. The game however is very good so they can keep my money and i hope those guys can spend them on making more good games.