'The $1.4 million scam': Gamers outraged, demanding Steam refunds for AAA blockbuster, requesting special mechanisms that put Valve in a difficult position!

Following controversies surrounding its console performance, Crimson Desert continues to be the target of criticism on PC, with a growing wave of gamers demanding refunds.

With a price tag of around 1.4 million VND for the standard version, many players feel they didn't get what they expected from a AAA blockbuster.

The issue this time isn't about the graphics or gameplay, but rather stems from the fact that the game was found to be using AI-generated content that wasn't clearly disclosed from the start.

This has left many feeling misled, especially as the trend of opposing AI in content creation is becoming increasingly popular among gamers.

On the Steam platform, numerous refund requests have been submitted. However, most have received unsatisfactory results. This stems from Valve Corporation's familiar policy: only accepting refunds if the player plays the game for less than two hours. For a large-scale game like Crimson Desert, exceeding this time limit is almost inevitable, resulting in the majority of requests being rejected.

Meanwhile, the developer Pearl Abyss has acknowledged that some AI resources inadvertently appeared in the official version. They also quickly updated the store page, adding information about the use of AI generation. However, this damage control measure was deemed too late and insufficient to appease the community's outrage.

On major forums like Reddit, many gamers share their bitter experiences of spending a considerable amount of money only to discover that the product had elements that were not transparent from the start. Some posted screenshots of refund requests, emphasizing reasons related to AI, but were still automatically rejected by the system. This further fueled feelings of injustice, as players felt they were being bound by a regulation that did not reflect the actual situation.

From here, the community began calling on Steam to consider implementing a special refund mechanism. Their argument was that developers failing to disclose complete information from the outset violated consumers' right to know. Therefore, these cases should be considered exceptions, instead of rigidly applying the current 2-hour rule.

Although Steam has required developers to be transparent about the use of AI on their product pages, the platform has yet to offer any additional refund policies for similar cases. This has made the Crimson Desert story a major test for the gaming industry in the age of AI.