Refund Woes...

This is a long story, so I'll try to make it brief. I loved PoE1 and was happy to give GGG some cash to get my hands on PoE2 a bit earlier.

I got the Lord of Ogham Supporter Pack on PC even though it was a little hard on my wallet. Well folks, my laptop could barely run PoE1 at more than 15 FPS and PoE2 taxes it to it's core. Technically, I can play, but it's not a great experience overall.

That's when one of my friends reminds me that it's on PS5 and cross-play. I was very lucky to get a cheap used PS5 a while ago before prices rose, so I think "Perfect! I'll play on that instead and it'll be a way better experience."

Except the Supporter pack on PC didn't let me download on PS5. It turns out you need to purchase separately from Sony. Alright, a little upsetting, but not a big deal. I purchased it again on PS5, figuring I could just get a refund on PC as I'd barely played. And I certainly do NOT have it in my budget to buy the same game twice right before Christmas.

The only issue is that the PS5 version, for whatever reason, just doesn't work for me. I'm sure it's working for other people, but for the last 10 days, I've tried playing on PS5 and about 1% of the time, it's glorious. It plays well, the graphics aren't all on the absolute lowest. The FPS is above 10. The other 99% of the time? I see "GAME PAUSED" at the bottom of the screen for several minutes before the game kicks me for "Doing too many actions too quickly."

Well, I can tell you, that's been pretty frustrating. I wanted to play the beginning of the EA with my friends, so I abandoned good graphics and FPS dreams on the PS5 and just opted to play potato mode on my bad laptop, which inexplicably has no server issues like I have on PS5. I figured it wouldn't be an issue to get a refund from Sony since the game just didn't work at all and I'd barely played, but it turns out that they just don't give refunds for Early Access games at all. At least not here in Japan. So that's a lot of egg on my face. I guess I did have it in me to buy the same game twice before Christmas. I'll just need to figure how exactly...

I don't particularly hold it against GGG. I think the game is wonderful still, even though I'm playing it heavily pixelated. I'm having a good enough time with it. There are a lot of builds I can't play because they're too taxing, but if my PS5 version ever becomes playable, I guess I can try them out then. I guess this is just a cautionary tale and a way for me to vent a bit. I'm really kicking myself for buying the more expensive supporter pack. I can't even use Ogham MTX's because they chug my computer... But at least I can still play in some fashion.

TL;DR - Sony Japan does NOT give refunds for EA games, even when they aren't working. Somehow, GGG has used wizardry to allow PoE2 to function on my old laptop that could barely play PoE1 and that's neat.