Buying ingame items/Paying for apps

RedRhino

Sorry if i am posting this in the wrong section or if a similar thread has been started like this, i did a quick google and search and found nothing so here is my problem/ warning.
So i play alot of online games whether it be MMO's or Apps on the ipad etc, and occasionally i will buy the odd thing on them or the odd paid app lol

But one of the games that i recently played (i say recently last time i logged in was summer 2013) and i never really played it that often but it has shut down. I was shocked because it had a huge fan base and when i last played it was still opening up new servers for the 'overwhelming number of players' this is the first time i have experience this so i am wondering what are the next steps i should take.
The game company is Game321 but credit to them because apparently they were giving out compensation for players. what they would do is shift the value of the in game items from that game to another. so you would effectively would not be loosing out on anything.
they posted this in january i believe
I have been in contact with the company all week and have been asking them to give me the value and shift it to another game but they sate the compensation event is over. Thats it. I am out of pocket.
i was not told anything about them closing down, they had my email address and i was not sent an email. I had liked the game on facebook and it still posts pictures and events of other games (which it did anyway) and going though the page (back to september) there is no mention of anything to do with them closing down. infact the page still posts, as i wright the last post was 11 hours ago.
I don't know what to do next. Is there anything thing that i can do/can be done? if another company was to do this, do they have to offer some sort of compensation? I have looked in my account with Game321 and it shows a full recored of purchases so i have that evidence.

Going though this has seriously made me wonder even about paying for apps from the app store, because if i dont update my device but they update their software and no longer support the older devices could the same happen and i will be out of pocket again in that scenario?

Tropez

Okay, there's a very sketchy legal area but the key point is:

Did the company in question make any guarantees as to the time their service would be available at the time of purchase?

As it stands, the vast majority of games developers regard their online transactions as paying for access to services (such as in MMOs, you pay for a mount, the mount is regarded as a service and not property) and in their terms and conditions there is usually a section that states that they provide no guarantee that the service in question will always be available, but that you will have access to the service as long as it is available.

At the moment, there's some low-key discussion on increased regulation of virtual products and services (in fact new regulations from the OFT are due to come into effect this month) but that might not necessarily help you.

As I don't know the exact date of these new regulations or what they regulate you might want to drop the OFT an email and see what they have to say on the subject?

RedRhino

Tropez wrote: »

Did the company in question make any guarantees as to the time their service would be available at the time of purchase?

The way the ingame purchases work are differently compared to other games, With Game321 you buy the ingame currency with Game321 then transfer it to any of their games. Rather than some other companies where you buy it directly in the game. i believe that this way the IGC will be available in your G321 account till consumed. i did have some left in there for a few months and it remained.

Tropez wrote: »

As it stands, the vast majority of games developers regard their online transactions as paying for access to services (such as in MMOs, you pay for a mount, the mount is regarded as a service and not property) and in their terms and conditions there is usually a section that states that they provide no guarantee that the service in question will always be available, but that you will have access to the service as long as it is available.

At the moment, there's some low-key discussion on increased regulation of virtual products and services (in fact new regulations from the OFT are due to come into effect this month) but that might not necessarily help you.

Yes i had read that they were going to bring out some new laws regarding this. I know some people on particular games that are well over 5 digits in spending... im shocked if i go into the 3 digits so something dose need to be done

Tropez wrote: »

As I don't know the exact date of these new regulations or what they regulate you might want to drop the OFT an email and see what they have to say on the subject?

Ok i shall send them an email. Thanks!

RedRhino

Hi,
Ive not contacted the OFT before but the Office of Fair Trading actually closed on the 31st of march (just my luck lol)

If there a subdivision i should contact or something instead as i could not find anything useful on their website read more area, -.-

Tropez

Ah, so they did. Funny, I didn't realise that.

Maybe the Citizens Advice Consumer Service could direct you to the relevant department?