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AtomLung

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,642
How would Sony even offer refunds? Wouldn't they have already distributed Gazillion's cut from the sales?
 

Fart Master

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
10,323
A dumpster
Oct 27, 2017
17,973
This is terrible and I feel no schadenfreude. It's not good for anyone.

For decades now, when you buy a game you legally agree to accept it "as-is", though your retailer or payment service may give you avenues to refund or re-sell should you want to. Is there a general legal provision for purchases explicitly made for unspent game "credits"? Or have you paid for a service you agree can be terminated at any time?
 

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
This shit right here is fucking disgusting and is going to lead a lawsuit. You can't just pull the rug out from people like that.
Going off sheer memory, I think a company needs to have a minimum of 100 FT employees, and at least 50 in a particular location, for federal law to apply and make it illegal to close down without warning.

My numbers could be off naturally, i haven't read the labor site in awhile.
 

Vaelic

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,048
So they fired a gazillion employees? Sorry for the cheap joke...

What a shitty situation. This industry is filled with whales and sharks.

Companies need to work on their sustainability, damnit.

What dreadful timing. I feel bad for everyone involved. This is just bad.
Man that's not funny...
 

Worthintendo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
943
This fucking sucks, I played abit of Marvel Heroes a year or so back and always intended to get back into it. When I first heard about the intial closure I was bummed but this is just a horrible thing to do for both the employees and the people/communities playing the game :(
 

Bigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,619
Fuck, a good friend of mine worked at Gazillion : ( This really sucks.

My understanding is that management really took a turn for the worse once Brevik left.
 

jmizzal

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,171
I guess I need to check my MS account and see how much I spent and get a refund

These higher ups suck doing that to those people

edit

Dang I thought I spent like $10, I spent $30
 
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WhySoDevious

Member
Oct 31, 2017
8,451
I was so, so, so tempted to buy some heroes to play this.

Fortunately, I didn't find the button-mashing gameplay all appealing, so I deleted the game.
 

Santini

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,616
All the best to the folks that lost their jobs today. Getting laid off before the holidays and without PTO pay (as well losing medical coverage) is beyond terrible.

Also, aren't there labor laws in California to prevent this? Something that makes it so that wages that are owed to you are ultimately paid out? Gazillion didn't declare bankruptcy, did they?
 

FFNB

Associate Game Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
6,089
Los Angeles, CA
Man that sucks so bad. I hate hearing about people losing their jobs, especially when it happens suddenly. I've been on the receiving end of that stick too many times to count, especially working in the gaming industry.

Wishing all of them the best, and hopefully they're able to land on their feet and find gigs elsewhere.
 

Marjorine

Member
Oct 27, 2017
749
Disney has not been having a good month with their licensed properties in the videogame world. What a joke to do this to people before a holiday.

I want to say what a joke it is to do to consumers, but it pales in comparison to losing a job.
 

Skai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,172
I played a good amount back in 2015 when Brevick was the lead and things were going really good. I spent a shit ton of money that year on it, don't regret it, so it sucks to see it go.
 

Jezabel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
111
What a shitty thing to do. I hope everyone lands on their Feet. Surely someone can be held accountable for this.
 

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,310
Feel bad for Anthony Gallegos, and his dog that has cancer, and the rest of the employees that went out in the worst possible way in this scenario. Fuck all of the execs involved in this whole series of decisions.

I was looking forward to all of the heroes going free and getting time to play a bunch more of it before it went away for good next month. Now I'll have to pop in tonight or tomorrow just to see it off.

 

jmizzal

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,171
I just got my refund of $30 from Microsoft no issues

I did it in chat too, didnt think it would be that easy, took a lil while but got my credit, now have some money on Xbox live to go shopping :)
 

Deleted member 9971

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,743
EDIT: My friend who spent on the $90 on the PS4 version at launch just contacted Sony support. He was told they will not refund because, "You spent the money and activated it."

Sony's costumer support has always been such a shitshow. It's still hilarious they can get away with that oldskool bad service of telling outright no, while other companies do offer a solution in same situations (Microsoft does refund in this case).

About the fired devs part it's quite sad to do so before the holidays and how it's done is very scummy. That CEO is such a pos. Hopefully the employees can land quickly on their feet and find a new job.
 

-PXG-

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,186
NJ
It's shit like this that makes me not want to work in the industry full-time. It's so backward, corrupt and unstable.
 

xlestattx

Member
Oct 30, 2017
59
I just got the platinum trophy a few hours ago. I was afraid they would pull the servers early, glad I didn't wait.

...

Congrats on your platinum. Thank goodness they fired everyone a few days after you received it and not before.

Think of what may have happened to your gamer cred?

This. I used to be big into achievements and was a 100% completionist, but even I wouldnt walk into a thread about people losing their jobs right b4 the holidays with a "whew! got my 1k, dodged a bullet there!". What a shitty, shitty post.

I pray the employees saw the writing on the wall and had plans in place. I pray none of the more vulnerable ones consider doing anything rash. This time of year suicide rates go up, and something like this can be the proverbial straw. I pray their families and friends step in and support them and try to bring cheer in spite of this.

Edit: Saw your post saying you didnt mean to be flippant. Ok man, but next time maybe consider that someone who just lost their job might be reading the thread amd put yourself in their shoes. Condolences (while hollow being on the internet) and outrage against the CEO/company might be appreciated, posts like that would likely not be. It comes off as insensitive at the very least.
 

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,061
My friend who spent on the $90 on the PS4 version at launch just contacted Sony support. He was told they will not refund because, "You spent the money and activated it."

I would say that this is obviously a special case and Sony needs to help out their customers here. Yes, we all know that we might lose access to digital content in a game like this eventually. Absolutely no one expects that to happen less than 5 months after it launches on consoles despite it being on PCs for 3-4 years prior.

Sony should make an one time exception and refund anyone who purchased Marvel Heroes and especially considering that the devs are shutting down early.

Why can't they just refund it no problem? Is PlayStation customer support really that inept? I'm not sure tweeting at Shuhei or anyone from Sony will do anything but you never know.
 

TRUE ORDER

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,368
I just got my refund of $30 from Microsoft no issues

I did it in chat too, didnt think it would be that easy, took a lil while but got my credit, now have some money on Xbox live to go shopping :)
Wow, didn't know that MS was that fast on solving problems.

Would be great is Sony follows their example.
 

tommy7154

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,370
Everyone could get a refund if people would stick together and boycott...I bet it'd take less than 24 hours.
 

xlestattx

Member
Oct 30, 2017
59
Wow, didn't know that MS was that fast on solving problems.

Would be great is Sony follows their example.

MS has been, for the most part, very good about refunds on digital purchases for several years now when there is a valid reason. Their official policy is no refunds on digital, but they make exceptions regularly when warranted. Of course sometimes you still get a CSR who gives you grief or wont do it, but overall those experiences seem to be in the minority in cases where there is a valid reason for requesting the refund.
 

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
Sony should make an one time exception and refund anyone who purchased Marvel Heroes and especially considering that the devs are shutting down early.

Why can't they just refund it no problem? Is PlayStation customer support really that inept? I'm not sure tweeting at Shuhei or anyone from Sony will do anything but you never know.
Realistically, Sony may never get the money back from Gazillion if they do that.

For what reason should Sony give Gazillion more credit when banks find them too much of a credit risk?
 

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,061
Realistically, Sony may never get the money back from Gazillion if they do that.

For what reason should Sony give Gazillion more credit when banks find them too much of a credit risk?

I understand that and by that logic neither would Microsoft get the money back from Gazillion. But why would Microsoft go ahead and do it and Sony wouldn't? Microsoft wouldn't get anything out of it and would lose money too with issuing a refund.

This is just a basic customer support response. Sony can look like heroes (no pun intended) if they do the same thing as Microsoft.
 

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
I don't know. I'm not privy to either of their customer contract language.

Maybe Microsoft doesn't realize that company suddenly went out of business on a holiday week, or there was a credit on the Gazillion account to cover refunds, or they have a bigger expected bad debt expense in their budget than sony.

But getting mad at these other vendors is misplaced anger, really.
 

Deleted member 11517

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,260
I'm hearing this from a few people at the moment. Still trying to get all of the details as it is a mix of Twitter and stuff on Discord.

- Gazillion has apparently fired their employees today, the day before Thanksgiving.

- Marvel Heroes was announced to be shutting down on December 31, 2017. Word from the official Discord server is that they will instead pull the plug in TWO days. There may not even be an official announcement, it could just be shut down.

- Players are trying to get refunds on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, due to how ridiculous it is that it's alerady being shut down after launching less than 5 months ago. I've heard some people having better luck with Microsoft than Sony.



EDIT: My friend who spent on the $90 on the PS4 version at launch just contacted Sony support. He was told they will not refund because, "You spent the money and activated it."

I would say that this is obviously a special case and Sony needs to help out their customers here. Yes, we all know that we might lose access to digital content in a game like this eventually. Absolutely no one expects that to happen less than 5 months after it launches on consoles despite it being on PCs for 3-4 years prior.

ZeoVGM I'm fairly certain that Sony and probably others have a clause for cases like these. Honestly I haven't read the thread, but if this is an online only game and from the sounds of it it is, then there's a clause that says a shutdown of the game services must be announced 3 months in advance. Should be in the psn store where you buy the game. If this clause isn't fulfilled you - or your friend have a right to compensation. You'll just have to check if this clause actually is in effect for this game.

Otherwise, idk, don't buy games from shady publishers in the future to avoid things like this maybe. This isn't "victim shaming" btw, it's your or your friends money and if your money is important to you, you have to do some research before investing or just have some common sense really.


Tldr, kinda sounds like the NMS scenario where most people got refunded (even if for slightly different reasons)


PS: the game was out on pc for several years already? That's certainly quite strange then, definitely check the psn store if it says something about the announcement of a shutdown - it's really like a standard clause and most or all games I ever checked about this had it.
 
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TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
Bet they were planning their last few paychecks leading up to the 31st.....what a shitty thing to have happen the day before thanksgiving.