Tweet Ticked off about the recent closure of Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin? Well you're not alone, and surprisingly enough it seems like Electronic Arts has heard your cries for justice. According to reports from CVG and SavyGamer, the publishing giant is ponying up a free download from the EA Store for customers who purchased APB via Valve's Steam digital distribution platform.
The list of possible freebies is nothing to sneeze at either, as it includes BioWare darlings Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, as well as Spore, The Saboteur, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and several more. There's currently no word on refunds or compensation for those who purchased the ill-fated urban crime MMOFPS from retail outlets or other digital shops.
[Editor's Note: Having just gone through this process myself, I can tell you that it's easy and virtually painless. Simply visit www.ea.com, choose your country of origin, visit the support link in the upper right hand corner, and log into your EA account. Once that's done, click the "contact us/email us" button to create a new question to ask the EA support representatives. Select APB as the game in question and tell them that you own the game, where you bought it, and that you'd like to take advantage of their refund offer. The representative will ask you to make a list of games you'd like (pre-order titles are excluded and only games in the EA store are being offered) and that's it! Once you send your list, they'll give you a game (most likely your first choice) and you can download it using their instructions. ~Seraphina]
Reader Comments (74)
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:04AM Phenomen said
Anyway, it's better than nothing.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 3:21PM (Unverified) said
Especially since some retailers are STILL stocking it, such as Amazon and GAME (biggest game retailer in the UK)
Told a store manager the other day and he had no clue, despite knowing a little about the game and an MMO player himself. Even then he said he'd "have to check with head office"
wtf?
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Told a store manager the other day and he had no clue, despite knowing a little about the game and an MMO player himself. Even then he said he'd "have to check with head office"
wtf?
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:13AM (Unverified) said
How do we get it? How do we redeem it? That's the information we need in an article.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:49AM Seraphina Brennan said
The article has been updated with my impressions of the refund and how to get your own.
~Sera
Reply
~Sera
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:12AM Thac0 said
I would hope so. People paid full box price for a game and its completely unplayable just a few months after purchase; to me that is unacceptable.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 10:16AM swarmofcats said
@ lord_simon
I'd say MMO players succeeded in getting their point across with APB seeing as how RTW didn't make enough money to keep the servers up.
It sucks for the people who dropped cash on the game. But at least now other game companies can see this as an example that MMOs are not the cash cow they used to be. We have more games to choose from now, and you have to make a fun and finished game for it to be profitable.
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I'd say MMO players succeeded in getting their point across with APB seeing as how RTW didn't make enough money to keep the servers up.
It sucks for the people who dropped cash on the game. But at least now other game companies can see this as an example that MMOs are not the cash cow they used to be. We have more games to choose from now, and you have to make a fun and finished game for it to be profitable.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 12:15PM alinos said
i don't think we sent a message at all
from what i understand they were basically out of money/in debt at launch
sure maybe if it had more player's EA may have kicked money into the pot to help
but the reason the game failed was because it was tossed out into the cold before it was finished
It's is basically no different than a console game being tossed out in an effort to stall bankruptcy it will crash and burn, the one catch is when the company does fold the games not playable
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from what i understand they were basically out of money/in debt at launch
sure maybe if it had more player's EA may have kicked money into the pot to help
but the reason the game failed was because it was tossed out into the cold before it was finished
It's is basically no different than a console game being tossed out in an effort to stall bankruptcy it will crash and burn, the one catch is when the company does fold the games not playable
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:14AM ZachDude said
What if I bought it from direct to drive?
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:15AM (Unverified) said
and what about those of us who bought it out of steam?
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:17AM AyAitch said
Could that mass of hyperlinks have been any less helpful? You've got links to Valve and Steam and Massively's APB tag and Lord knows what else, but no link for "go here to ask EA for a refund." And CVG just copies and cites SavyGamer, so linking it as further proof doesn't mean anything.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 11:51AM Seraphina Brennan said
I've updated the post with my impressions of the refund process and how to get your own refund, so no more clicking through multiple links or searching. It's right on the page now.
~Sera
Reply
~Sera
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:20AM (Unverified) said
This is why, despite all the backlash they get I still see EA as one of the best game publishers. Excluding EA Sports of course.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:19AM AyAitch said
According to a comment left on SavyGamer (since we're taking all of our information from there), this applies to all digital copies of APB, not just those through Steam.
Posted: Sep 27th 2010 9:21AM Jef Reahard said
For the lazy: http://support.electronicarts.co.uk/cgi-bin/eauk.cfg/php/enduser/home.php?p_sid=KqnSq3bk
Try asking there. There's no official info on it in the article because EA hasn't released any; this info came from players who took the initiative to contact them and ask.
Try asking there. There's no official info on it in the article because EA hasn't released any; this info came from players who took the initiative to contact them and ask.


