As you may have already heard, there is an online petition making the rounds that Battlefield 2042 fans are signing in earnest. The petition, found at Change.org, claims that those that purchased Battlefield 2042 should be issued refunds due to "false advertising" along with "millions of dollars in damages" and hurt feelings.
No, seriously, they actually included the reason of "upset thousands of customers worldwide" as one of the reasons they should get a refund.
According to a press email I received today from Change.org, this petition is now the "largest petition in both the video game and consumer rights topics on Change.org so far in 2022." The year is barely into its second month, so that's a bit of a weird flex. As it stands right now, the petition has pulled in over 162,000 signatures from people all over the world who may or may not actually own Battlefield 2042.
According to many consumer reports, Electronic Arts and DICE did not keep many promises made at launch, and Battlefield 2042 was launched as unplayable. Even today, Battlefield 2042 has bugs that drastically change the in-game experience so much that it’s deemed an unfinished release by many community members.
The petition continues on to say...
In fact, Battlefield 2042 was so poorly made that even Steam, a highly reputable provider of PC video games, allows customers to get a full refund.
Steam refunds are in no way guaranteed as this petition seems to suggest they are.
Signing this petition will get you one step closer to getting a refund on Battlefield 2042. Suppose this petition receives 50K signatures or more. In that case, I will reach out to some of the best class action lawyers in the country to evaluate a case against EA and DICE.
The gaming community should not tolerate this abuse and bullying from multi-billion dollar corporations who make unfinished games and false advertisements.
Unfinished game? The game was finished. A product was shipped and playable. Your definition of playable or finished doesn't really matter here. False advertisements were also covered previously but again, they did not falsely advertise anything.
Whatever it is that this online petition hopes to accomplish just isn't going to happen, at least not because of this petition. Online petitions do not work. Online petitions targeting aforementioned "multi-billion dollar corporations" such as Sony, Microsoft, and EA really do not work. They especially do not work when the petition is poorly written, poorly thought out, and already threatens legal action.
It's not a great game and it has bugs but that's about it, this isn't Cyberpunk on the PS4 where the game just barely functions, you can have complete matches of 2042 even if there isn't a scoreboard.
In general i don't think refund policies on digital stores are generous enough, in some countries i think they're even illegal but i guess they're covered by the agreements we make when we create accounts on their stores, but if you managed to play enough of the game to where you don't qualify for a refund on Steam that's kind of proof enough that it at least functions, if you've spent over an hour trying to get a brand new game working get a refund.