On the one hand I like GOG because it has no DRM and has better prices (in my country) than Steam and I have the feeling that on the one hand it follows more the open source philosophy than Steam itself, but Steam has helped enormously to play Windows games on Linux, so I haven’t really made up my mind.
On the one hand I want to buy on Steam for the convenience, but on the other hand I prefer GOG because (in my country) is cheaper. Which platform do you prefer and why?
To give an example, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is currently $15 on Steam with regional pricing, but on GOG it’s worth just $6.
I can get faulty physical goods fixed/refunded by the store up to 2 years after purchase (EU). It’s the store’s problem to get a refund from the manufacturer. The same should be true in case of Valve and a publisher.
Agree, I’m just explaining the reasoning behind it, that’s part of the risks of running a store. That being said even here in the EU you can’t get a full refund months after the purchase for a working product, which is what we’re talking about here so your example is not oranges to oranges.
In the EU you’re definitelly entitled to a full refund if a product does not work as advertised - in English the magic words are “not suitable for purposed” - or if it doesn’t work at all, and there are no or very extended time limits on that (if I’m not mistaken for the “not fit for purpose” cases there are no time limits at all, whilst as pointed out by a previous poster it’s 2 years for non-working products)
However there are carveouts specifically for “digital goods” in those regulations in the EU thanks to lots of lobbying ($$$) by industries in Copyright-heavy areas. No idea if Valve or Steam were amongst the ones participating in that lobbying effort or not.
So if you buy an egg-beater online and it doesn’t actually work as an egg-beater, you’re entitled to a refund with no matter when you find out it doesn’t actually do what it says on the box, but if you buy a game and it doesn’t actually work as a game, you’re shit out of luck.
There are differences of course. Still, Steam’s policy, which is often internationally praised as consumer friendly, is very restrictive from a European perspective.