PlayStation Australia Isn’t Making Exceptions For No Man’s Sky Refunds

The No Man’s Sky train is still going strong after a couple of weeks. But it hasn’t been the smoothest ride, and fans haven’t been shy letting the developers know.

It has even gotten to the point of people seeking refunds, despite having played the game for a substantial amount of time. But while users have had mixed success on some marketplaces, PlayStation Australia is firmly putting their foot down.

A user has posted an email reply from a support ticket with PlayStation Australia, where the latter says that the company is “aware of comments online from some players expressing disappointment with the release features of No Man’s Sky”.

The email goes on to explain that PlayStation Australia — and presumably PlayStation worldwide — won’t refund any games, add-ons, consumables, PS Video or season passes “that have started being downloaded or streamed”.

But the interesting element of it all is what PS Australia says about the development of the game:

“Hello Games made choices during this development which they believed would provide the best experience for the players,” the email reads. “No Man’s Sky was intended to be something unique, vast and inventive, and we feel Hello Games delivered that.”

It goes on to say that the game will get “new features over the coming months”, but doesn’t say anything about those features nor whether those features might have any relation to the complaint submitted.

According to the user who posted the email, they also called Sony’s support line to inform them that their game continued to crash. “I also let them know that since buying it I’ve found out there is no multiplayer, which was a big selling point for me initially,” they wrote.

Sony eventually confirmed with me that the email was “official communication” from PlayStation Australia and that the policy was “in line with Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe”. They added that players would be able to receive refunds “in line with the published policy on PlayStation.com”.

When I asked specifically whether Sony had granted any refunds on technical grounds — hard crashes, bugs, software failures and the like — they said that “we do not disclose this information” but that the company complies with Australian Consumer Law.

Their published policy has one line in regards to technical errors:

Digital content that you have started downloading, streaming and in-game consumables that have been delivered, are not eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty.

Users have gotten refunds in the past from marketplaces for games that don’t work as advertised, whether it be for hard crashes or missing features. It’s clear that Sony and PlayStation Australia doesn’t see No Man’s Sky as fitting in that bracket.


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