After Bungie region-locked Destiny 2 and blocked access to it in certain territories, Valve has begun issuing refunds to affected players, regardless of whether they fall within the usual parameters or have thousands of hours in the game.
According to various reports on the Destiny subreddits and other social media, some players have suddenly started receiving the TAPIR error code when trying to log into the game, usually indicating that servers are offline or undergoing maintenance. However, the error persists, reportedly first starting to appear to users in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan on Sept. 17.
After days of asking the devs to clarify the issue, Bungie's staff replied with the same message every time: “Destiny services are not available where access is restricted by law,” PCGamesN wrote. In the meantime, those affected have been petitioning Steam Support to issue refunds to them, given that their access to the game has been blocked, seemingly out of the blue.
To the amazement of everyone, Valve's cooperating. Though it has pretty strict refund policies that require players to have less than two hours played on any given game, it seems the company has been giving out refunds even to players who have 2,000 hours in the game, essentially circumventing its own rules.
One user wrote that he was given a refund of the game's Year of Prophecy Ultimate Edition, which costs $100. They argued to Steam Support that the game's online service does not function as well as that it “appears to be a shadowban of all CIS-based accounts, without any notice, explanation or anything.”
“None of the content I purchased is accessible, and I can't do anything about it except to request a refund,” they told Valve, which agreed to grant their refund request.
Not everyone has been as lucky. Some replying to this user said they tried several times to get Valve to issue the refund, but couldn't get past pedantic Support agents who did not wish to turn a blind eye to the platform's stated rules.
Therefore, it seems Valve isn't giving out blanket refunds but rather Steam Support showing sympathy to players negatively affected by this move, which came as a complete surprise.
The CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) is a cooperative organization founded by many members of the former Soviet Union, who maintain good relations and trade. However, Russia's influence over CIS countries has always been strong, given that it's the biggest of them all, and has the largest military and economy.
With Russia's aggression against Ukraine, sentiments toward the country have drastically changed, with many Western companies pulling out of it. Bungie wouldn't be the first to do so, and it could very well be that a new Russian legislature aimed at its adversaries had caused the company to follow many others and cut its services to the region. The company cited law as the reason for restricting access, but the lack of further explanation muddies the waters.
It's unclear what really happened, but it's good to know Valve is helping players out no matter where they come from, even if it is just a sympathetic support agent.
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The post Good guy Valve strikes again by issuing Destiny 2 refunds following Bungie’s sudden region lock appeared first on Destructoid.
