Electronic Arts’ Origin service adds 24 hour refund policy for EA games

You know what’s a nice change of pace? Writing some news about Electronic Arts doing something great and laudable for its customers. This news certainly qualifies: EA has added a 24-hour no-questions-asked refund policy to its Origin service. While it apparently only applies to games made by Electronic Arts itself, let’s not mince words – this is a fantastic policy, and a pretty daring one for a company that has recently received some serious criticism for the quality of at least one of its major titles at launch. The FAQ further explains that this policy is in effect for games purchased “within seven days from your date of purchase or within seven days from the game’s release date if you pre-purchased/pre-ordered, whichever comes first.” Money-back policies on digital downloads are still a rare sight among direct download services, so EA should be credited for making a move which actually has it standing out against its competitors at the moment.

Granted, this is a pretty limited policy at the moment – once again, the policy FAQ makes it sound like it only applies to Electronic Arts’ own games, as opposed to third party titles that get sold through Origin. And the limitation on refunds sounds a bit odd as well – so if I pre-order a game a month in advance and it turns out to be terrible, I’m not owed a refund? That rather discourages pre-orders for all but the hardcore. But these are minor criticisms of what is a very generous policy change on the part of Electronic Arts, so I salute them openly. Good job, Electronic Arts!