I bought a hard copy of the game on Playstation or Xbox
Under consumer rights rules, sellers have to provide a repair, replacement or full refund where a physical item is faulty. If you purchased a physical copy of the game online, you have added protection too. Here, all online orders can be returned in exchange for a full refund within 14 days of arrival. And it’s the seller’s responsibility here; not the manufacturer’s. So ask the shop for a refund in the first instance.
CD Projekt Red adds that if you’re having trouble getting a refund from the retailer, you should contact it at helpmerefund@cdprojektred.com by 21 December, although some shoppers have reported hearing no response back yet. It’s unclear what will happen after this date, though the experience of the game may improve after various bugs are fixed.
I bought the game on PC
It appears most PC versions of the game were sold via Steam, which sends out digital copies. So here, consumer rights rules indicate you can ask for a repair or replacement. If the repair or replacement doesn’t work, or isn’t possible, you can then ask for a reduction in price instead.
However, Steam’s returns policy goes above and beyond this. It says that in general you can get a full refund within 14 days of purchase if you haven’t played the game for more than two hours, and so long as the game has not been “consumed, modified or transferred”. You can request a refund on the Steam website.
If your purchased the game elsewhere, you’ll need to speak to the seller directly. As above, if you purchased a hard copy sellers have to provide a repair, replacement or full refund. If you purchased a physical copy of the game online, you have added protection too. Here, all online orders can be returned in exchange for a full refund within 14 days of arrival.
It doesn’t appear, however, that you can take complaints about the PC version to Projekt Red – its statement implies that it will only look into complaints about hard copies of the game purchased from PlayStation or Xbox. We’ve asked for clarification.
Will the game improve?
The developer of the game, CD Projekt Red, has apologised for the problems and says it’s working on improving many of the issues gamers have noticed. It says the first round of updates have been completed and the next ones will be finalised in the coming days. Further fixes will then be issued in both January and February. You can see its full statement below: