I recently discovered GOG, and decided to start supporting them instead of going through Steam where possible.

The other day, I purchased Armello to play with my friends who had purchased it on Steam.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, despite the game having been advertised as having "cross platform multiplayer," it, in fact, does not have much of a multiplayer system at all. Long story short, I could not play with my friends who had all purchased on Steam unless I also purchased on Steam.

So I requested a refund and purchased on Steam instead.

~

The reply I got from GOG Customer Support was this:

"Unfortunately I'm not able to make a refund in this case, because you've already made a download attempt. In order to be eligible for 30 Days Money Back Guarantee program, you should not made a download attempt."

I was then linked to the FAQ for the Money Back Guarantee program.

I read through said document above, and nowhere does it state that you are ineligible if you downloaded. And honestly, how can you know if a game works properly if you don't download it?

Am I just crazy or is this really weird?

I believe that if the game is downloaded, they still can offer a refund if they are given the chance to try and fix the issue. But support is definitely strange here. Sometimes it will take forever to hear from them and sometimes the fixes they recommend break the games even further. That's my take anyway. I could be wrong.

GOG has two types of refunds.

1) No question asked, but only if you didn't download the game. This is for people who changed their minds. Not relevant in your case.

2) Due to technical inability to make the game work on your computer after attempts from GOG to assist you. You might try to state that you bought the game only for cross platform multiplayer, but that would be tricky because I just checked the GOG game page and I don't see anything about such a feature mentioned there. Try explaining it to them and perhaps they'll allow you an exception. If not, I guess you might as well enjoy the single player game.

Good luck.

Tell them you're asking for refund for false advertising.

Honestly you should've gotten it from Steam from the start since your friends are all on Steam playing that game. It's pretty ridiculous expecting it to be cross-platform when it's a half baked idea from the start.

While it is true that it doesn't state that on the GOG page, the game itself has been advertised by the creators as having the capability (and the Steam page itself does, in fact state cross-platform multiplayer).

In either case, one could also argue that the MULTIPLAYER functionality itself doesn't work, considering that PC is typically considered a single platform anyway.

Said FAQ sadly doesn't document everything as it should. If you take a look at the new GOG Refunds announcement dated half a year back, you will see that the info provided to you by techincal support staff is indeed correct, and logical: That being said, reading the rest of the article as well as Money Back Guarantee FAQ, you will see that they provide help in resolving any technical issues you might have and if that's not possible (and only in that case) they offer several ways to refund.

As far as your game is concerned, you haven't provided enough details here, but is there a chance that maybe something on Steam's end is preventing you from running multiplayer properly?

So I advise you to contact support again (by replying to your original ticket) and elaborate about your problem, then follow the given instructions in trying to solve the issue. And tell them to update their FAQ :)

Does it state which platforms the "cross-platform multiplayer" applies to?

Explain this to GOG and ask for a refund again, stating you have no interest in the single player game. Let us know how it works out.

To be honest, that certainly doesn't sound like the fault on GOG's part. You can still try talking to GOG about contacting developer to fix this issue.

Read their money back program more carefully. GOG actually offers two money back programs.

1) The first is supposed to protect you from mistaken or impulse purchases. It allows you to refund anything bought from GOG within 30 days with no questions asked provided you didn't download anything from your purchase. Since you have already downloaded the game you do not qualify for that.

2) The second guarantees that the game will run on your system as advertised if your computer meets the minimum requirements. If it doesn't run as it is supposed to contact support and describe your problem. If the support can't help you to get the game to run then you qualify for this money back program.


Your mistake was that you instantly asked for a refund instead of telling support that you are having technical difficulties. Since you have already downloaded the game you do not qualify for 1) and since you didn't give support a chance to help you with the problem you do not qualify for 2).

Was Armello actually advertised as cross platform multiplayer enabled? I can't find that on the game card. Was that in the release news? If it was point support to where that was mentioned and tell them you can't get cross platform multiplayer to work. If they can help you get it to work then you can play with your friends and everything's fine. If that turns out to be an error and the game isn't cross platform multiplayer and therefore they can't help you with that then you'll certainly get a refund.

If you were mistaken and the game was actually never advertised with cross platform multiplayer then you might be out of luck. Though sometimes they do make an exception but will only give store credit in such cases.

Oh, I agree. I absolutely do not blame GOG at all.

But since there's no way for me to get a refund from the developers themselves, I am doing the only thing I can do :)
I feel I made a mistake when I mentioned cross platform multiplayer, as people seem fixated on this point.

So here are the points:

1) The copies of this game my friends are playing are, in fact, on the same platform: PC. The only difference is they are playing on Steam and I purchased it via GOG.

2) Even Multiplayer itself between Steam and GOG copies do not work.

3) While the GOG page does not mention Cross Platform Multiplayer (I am not even sure if GOG has such a tag), the Steam page does (http://store.steampowered.com/app/290340/), and the devs said in their reddit, livestreams, etc. as having Cross Platform Multiplayer support

Of course, you can argue that GOG and Steam might not be the type of "cross platform support" they meant, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that a game advertising cross platform multiplayer to be able to handle people who purchased the game at different storefronts.

But yea, I understand this is not a standard refund situation so I might be out of luck here. In any case, I now have 2 copies of a game that can't play with each other.

I can't even let my wife use the GOG copy to play with me on the Steam copy :(

You can also invite your friends here :)

Haha, technically true :) Though it was easier for me to get a Steam copy than get 3 people to buy a second of the game on GOG !

Understandable. But you see, it's not about the 3 copies, but the chain reaction that will ensue!