Proposal by EU for 2 year guarantee

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: killroyishere
The only people I think who would abuse this system are those that 'think' about how it can be abused.

Yogiism.......................

[Erik Rutins]

Alright, time to lock this up as it is once again heading into politics (partly my fault).

My two (serious) cents on this subject... I agree that customers should expect and receive a working product. I disagree that a customer who gets a working product that only entertains him for two weeks should be able to return it as if it were defective.

A two year guarantee is just ludicrous, given that the vast majority of problems with games (at least well made games) actually come down to the hardware, drivers and installed software on the customer's system. You'd be amazed how many games that have bugs appear after release work perfectly on the developer's system and those of the beta team that tested it. This is not an excuse, but when you look at the fact that in two years a customer will likely have upgrade at least one piece of hardware and installed who knows how many software upgrades, it's just not a reasonable period of time for a guarantee. Even with perfect testing and coding, a developer can't predict what new bug will appear in a driver/hardware combo or in an OS update two years after the release of his game.

Consumer's rights are important, and I realize this original topic was not an actual proposed law but just an "idea". Nevertheless, it seems to me like another case of government looking to get involved without being adequately informed. Guaranteeing PC software is not the same as guaranteeing a refrigerator.

Regards,

- Erik