Oculus will start refunding users for bad VR content

Oculus wants people to keep buying VR content, but one bad experience with an overpriced piece of crap game can rub a user the wrong way.

Today, the company announced that they’re putting formal processes in place for users to get refunds for VR content that didn’t meet their expectations.

There are obviously stipulations, the major one being that for Rift titles you must have purchased the titles within the last two weeks and can’t have dropped more than two hours into it. For Samsung Gear VR content, it’s a lot tighter. Users can’t exceed 30 minutes of playtime and have to have purchased the title within the past three days. The refund policy also will not apply to movies, bundles or in-app purchases.

Users can request refunds through the purchase history page.

People have been saying VR has a problem with content quantity and quality, and while the former definitely appears to be getting solved as time goes on, the latter is a bit trickier. It isn’t in anybody’s best interest for people to download a game, have an awful experience and then grow discouraged from investing in future content. For Oculus, the content team has to get people comfortable with paying for high quality stuff.

Nevertheless this is all a bit complicated for developers. Users who drop $20 on a title expecting what they’d get from a comparable console game are never going to be pleased with VR. The market is so much smaller that unless devs have substantial VC subsidization, the margins aren’t going to allow them to basically give away content their teams labored away on. I would expect some backlash from developers, especially regarding the length of time users can play a game before deciding they don’t want to keep it.

The new refund policy is live now, the company details that the process should take no more than five days to initiate a refund if the request is eligible.