
Civilization VII was released almost a month ago, a simultaneous launch on PC and PS5. We've seen plenty of complaints from PlayStation players, but also quite a bit of praise for Firaxis' latest, which really is a wonderful game at its core. Perhaps the strangest thing about the affair is that the famously reluctant Sony is seemingly issuing full refunds for the game, provided you push for one.
Take the following with perhaps a single tile of the salt resource, but a post over on the Civilization subreddit is gaining traction. A player claims to have asked for, and received a full refund for the game on PS5, posting what certainly appears to be part of a chat log with PlayStation's support service.
We have no real reason to suspect it's a phony, and others in the thread have alleged they have successfully received a refund for the game despite being well outside its usual 14-day criteria. Still, others claim to have been unsuccessful when attempting to get money out of Sony, and that we'd believe with every fibre of our being; as we said, it's a strange situation.
This scribe has spent a fair bit of time playing Civ VII on PS5 Pro in the past few weeks and has had quite the journey, it must be said. After repeatedly failing to get more than 20 turns into a dozen or so separate multiplayer games with a patient PlayStation friend, constant crashes and desyncs caused us to put those plans on hold.
Paradoxically, we've had a smooth experience playing solo, putting a few dozen hours in. We can recall no crashes and haven't experienced any graphical oddities other PS5 players have reported. In fact, now that we've had some time to marinate and get used to some of its bolder design decisions, Civ VII is probably our favourite entry in the storied series. Looking around, that doesn't seem to be the case for all players. Curioser and curioser.
What has your Civilization VII experience been on PS5? Are you experiencing crashes, bugs, or glitches? If so, have you approached Sony for a refund? Further, have you managed to get any blood of that particular stone? Record your responses for future generations to read in the comments section below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 13
I got a refund for a game a few years back after a pricing error early in the PS5 days, when the PS4 version which entitled you to the PS5 version was actually cheaper than the PS5 version which I had bought not realising that this was even possible - it was right at the start of PS5 when they were having problems with this, and only took a quick phone call (then I bought the PS4 version).
Yeah, I got a refund, too, when I bought the wrong game. They do offer them. Just not as easily as steam
If it doesn't work as advertised, then they are due their money back by law.
If they simply don't like the game, that's an entirely different case, but if an advertised feature does not work, then Sony don't really have a choice. Quite right too, this slapdash approach to releasing unfinished software has become the bane of the industry.
I got refunded a few times, for either buying the wrong version or actually getting a DLC from incorrect region. Assuming you get to a human being, didn't run the game/DLC, they are pretty understandable.
However, if you ran the product, they used to have zero tolerance policy in place (well, maybe only Nintendo really has zero tolerance policy).
@breakneck
Fully agree - even if money isnt involved, getting through to a human is usually the best way of sorting things quickly (as with most companies).
Though I didnt have a good experience with their technical help back end of last year, even after talking to people - they just kept sending the same bog standard info I could have got online, even though I kept telling them I had done all of it, and it was a bug in the system software - though word must have got through to their software team eventually from me or someone else as it was fixed in the next system software update.
Edit: certain companies do like hiding their humans away though...
Hm, I only tried once to refund a game that I had purchased, downloaded, but not played yet (within like the first week) and I was told by the person in the phone they couldn’t help me if I’d already started downloading. I still have that game in my library, unplayed.
Good for them. Wish I could say the same. I pre-ordered the Star Wars Battlefront 2 collection. On the day it came out, I tried playing split screen with my daughter. We tried 5 matches, and were kicked out of every single one within 2 minutes. Sony then denied my refund stating the game would "eventually be patched" even though my playtime was about 20 minutes. I was furious. Of course, the game was eventually patched, but good luck finding a server with other players on it.
I’ve had probably over 70 crashes on PS5.
I desperately want to love the game but really frustrating.
Mainly in the modern era with 4 other AI players. Upgrading commanders and natural disasters are almost automatic crashes
Played 50hours.
I got a refund for KCD2 because it's unplayable due to a sound stuttering bug. After a quick chat with Sony, at my surprise I got a refund with no questions asked. I'm probably not the first one to ask a refund for this specific issue, a quick look at the official Reddit reveals that it's unfortunately a wide spread problem. Devs are aware and there is allegedly a massive update coming up, but I'm not paying a gold edition $90 to let the game untouched for months. Hopefully I will come back to this game when fixed.
I know it's barely related to the point of the article but this quote: "Civ VII is probably our favourite entry in the storied series" holy crap that's a moment to let you know how massive the gulf is sometimes in what player vs reviewer likes and wants from video games. Like the kind of stuff that informs what sources you'd look at to decide to buy a game or not. Glad I read this.
Jesus £114? That's actually insane for a Civ game and the initial DLC
When Sony has no problem offering refunds for a game that is never a good sign. I personally interpret it that Civilization 7 is broken at launch and has serious problems/issues.
Just don't tell them the reason is out of spite. You cannot take it back and will be out of luck.
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