August 29, 2008
Stardock Announces “The Gamer’s
Bill of Rights”
Indie Developer / Publisher Hopes
to Encourage Better Customer Service
Stardock announced today the Gamer’s
Bill of Rights: a statement of principles that it hopes will encourage the PC
game industry to adopt standards that are more supportive of PC gamers. The
document contains 10 specific “rights” that video game enthusiasts can expect
from Stardock as an independent developer and publisher that it hopes that other
publishers will embrace. The Bill of Rights is featured on Stardock’s website
www.stardock.com and
is on prominent display in Stardock’s booth (1142) at the Penny Arcade Expo.
“As an industry, we need to begin
setting some basic, common sense standards that reward PC gamers for purchasing
our games,” stated Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock Corporation. “The
console market effectively already has something like this in that its games
have to go through the platform maker such as Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony. But
on the PC, publishers can release games that are scarcely completed, poorly
supported, and full of intrusive copy protection and then be stuck on it.”
Chris Taylor, CEO and founder of Gas
Powered Games stated, “This is an awesome framework for the industry to aspire
to, and ultimately so that we can provide our customers with the gaming
experience that they have wanted for years, and really deserve.”
As an example of The Gamer’s Bill of
Rights in action, Stardock instituted a policy of allowing users to return
copies of The Political Machine purchased at retail to Stardock for a full
refund if they found that their PC wasn’t sufficient to run the game adequately.
“The PC market loses out on a lot of
sales because a significant percentage of our market has PCs that may or may not
be adequate to run our games. Without the ability to return games to the
publisher for a refund, many potential buyers simply pass on games they might
otherwise have bought due to the risk of not being certain a game will work on
their PC. The average consumer doesn’t know what ‘pixel shader 2.0 support’
means, for instance,” said Wardell.
According to Stardock, the objective
of the Gamer’s Bill of Rights is to increase the confidence of consumers of the
quality of PC games which in turn will lead to more sales and a better gaming
experience.
The Gamer’s Bill of Rights:
1) Gamers shall have the right to
return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
2) Gamers shall have the right to
demand that games be released in a finished state.
3) Gamers shall have the right to
expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
4) Gamers shall have the right to
demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be
forced to load in order to play a game.
5) Gamers shall have the right to
expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will
play adequately on that computer.
6) Gamers shall have the right to
expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful
software without their consent.
7) Gamers shall have the right to
re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8) Gamers shall have the right to
not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9) Gamers shall have the right to
demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet
every time they wish to play.
10) Gamers shall have the right that
games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain
in the drive to play.
For more information about
Stardock’s games and software, please visit
www.stardock.com.
