This wouldnt be an issue AT ALL if you stop preordering and read reviews when a game launches.
But yeah, sure, I just remembered "we hate" reviewers and whatnot.

Probably never which is why I mainly pre-order games on PC. There are quite a number of stores such as Steam that have a refund system if you don't like the game assuming you played less than the required time. With Steam, less than two hours of play time but even if you played more than two hours, you can submit a support ticket and more often than not, Steam support will refund you the game as long as it's within reason.

Really the biggest question should be why are console manufacturers so archaic when it comes to digital refunds? We have seen since the PS3 days that a game releasing on console doesn't automatically mean it's well optimized and bug free. Like I once was thinking to refund a game that I bought on PSN because as soon as I bought it, I realized it was cheaper on amazon. So when I went go refund the game on Sonys support site, it says:

"After purchasing this type of content through PlayStation Store, you have 14 days from purchase to request a refund. If you have started to download or stream the purchased content you will not be eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty."

I am sorry but what? If I buy a game on PSN and I download it, not even play it, I can't refund it? Excuse me??? Luckily at the time, I was vaguely aware of how stupid console policies can be so I didn't download it as I bought it from my phone so I was able to get a refund. But the entire thing is very dumb because if I were to buy a game on Steam and I find it cheaper someone else such as on cdkeys or greenmangaming, they will give me a refund no questions asked as long as the play time is within 2 hours or it's less than 2 weeks.

Really console manufacturers need to do a better job with their refund system from their online stores. Yes developers should make games that aren't poorly optimized and bug riddled to begin but we all know that's not going to happen. A refund system that isn't terrible would solve many issues on consoles.

After probably 30 hours Astroneer has arrived at a game breaking bug where I can’t save. Yep…sure would be nice to have a refund or something. Certainly I’ve gotten some enjoyment out of the game, but not being able to finish the last half of the game (or however much was left) really sucks.

This should happen naturally. Broken games should lead to less sale, lead to angry shareholders, lead to change in leadership, lead to less broken games releasing. The problem is step 1; people just keep buying broken stuff.

Gamers are sheep. As long as people buy crap we get more crap. So, they'll never be held accountable.

Consumers in general are this way. It's why Apple rose to such dominance despite selling technology at a ridiculous up charge compared to competitors, why Facebook has to this day not had a real challenger since it redefined social media from what Myspace did despite being hated by conservatives for years and now liberals, and it's why Tesla will continue to dominate into the future despite competitors offering better bang-per-buck electric vehicles options in the decades to come.

Consumers jump on the bandwagon and don't get off unless there is an earthquake-like event that knocks them off, and even then their first instinct is to try to get back on and pretend the earthquake wasn't so bad.

Very fucking much, thank you for this dose of common sense.

It's mostly Western games that release before they are ready. I prefer Japanese games, and they rarely have this problem. For Western games wait for a later release that happens a year or two later with all patch content, dlc, etc... included.

There are actually a lot of regulations for different product classes regarding the quality. The most obvious is food, but eveb other product may have to meet certain standards to be approved, be it getting an FCC-approvalor something like that. In europe standards like that are even budled into the CE-logo, that have to be met.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking

Software (not only games) though is an area that lacks similar standards of product quality.

I dont believe it will change. Especially now that companies can patch games later where as in the 80s and 90s, once a broken game, always a broken game.