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New Piñatas • New Deals • Last Chances


The final 72 hours of Piñata Madness are here, and the mystery-sale bonanza grows bigger – today brings exciting new Piñatas and hot new offers!

If you haven't tried your luck yet, now's the time with new additions to the pool. These include: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition 1 & 2, SWAT 4, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, NEO Scavenger, Wasteland 2, This War of Mine.
Plus all things Homeworld with Homeworld 1 & 2 Remastered, Deserts of Kharak, as well as the long-gone expansion – Homeworld: Emergence.

If you're not the type to smash Piñatas, there are new great games on sale right now so make sure to give it a browse – and while you're here, check out the Carmageddon 20th Anniversary Sale at 75% off!


--Original announcement--
Piñata Madness is back – meaning excitement, mystery, and exceptional deals on some of our favorite hand-picked titles.




What is Piñata Madness?
For $3, you can buy and smash your own digital Piñata, each holding one of 100+ mystery games worth anywhere from $5.99 all the way up to $44.99.
Visit your <span class="bold">Pinata hub</span>, where can buy, open, and see everything Piñata Madness!
Just like real-life Piñatas, they'll bring you joy, surprise, and reward. Unlike real-life Piñatas, ours drop really good games instead of candy – games like Pillars of Eternity, Shadow Warrior 2, Heroes of Might and Magic, Victor Vran, and more!
It's a great way to broaden your horizons and try out games you otherwise wouldn't, knowing you're always getting a deal that's worth it. And if you already own every game included in our Piñatas, each game you drop will be a giftable code so you share the joy with your friends.







Weekly Megasale
If you'd rather know exactly you're getting, check out the Weekly Megasale featuring great deals up to -90% on some of our favorite titles including Darkest Dungeon, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, Heroes of Might and Magic III, and more!



The Piñata Madness and Weekly Megasale last until August 21, 2017, 9:59 PM UTC.
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i_ni: Just for my better understanding: has anybody tried to refund a pinata game because (s)he will not play it? Is it "no questions asked" or a technical reason (as I'd expect) is required?

N.B. I'll not refund the pinata games I don't want; my concern is the quality of the pool will get worse, see https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_pinata_madness_sale_starts_now_98cd1/post439
I requested a refund on three games that I got from pinata's, simply because I already had the three games DRM-free from humble. They granted my request, and I bought three more pinatas. I was disappointed three more times. Still no Cossacks 3 or Tyrrany for me :(
high rated
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i_ni: Just for my better understanding: has anybody tried to refund a pinata game because (s)he will not play it? Is it "no questions asked" or a technical reason (as I'd expect) is required?

N.B. I'll not refund the pinata games I don't want; my concern is the quality of the pool will get worse, see https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_pinata_madness_sale_starts_now_98cd1/post439

Edit: And it's a bit tricky for me to decide to continue with the "mystic sale" considering the quality of the Pool is undisclosed by the rules of the game, as per Pinata FAQ:
"""
Will new games be added to the Piñata pool? *Is there a list of games*?
- Throughout the Piñata Madness, new games may appear. But the When and the What are just part of the mystery!
"""
(removal or depletion of games not formalized)
I feel like gog is going out on a limb so to speak to give people a chance to get a deal on games and even really good deal. I think its wrong to request a refund of a game you didn't like from the pinatas, its part of the whole deal, they have give low priced games away with the expensive ones or else they wouldn't be able to do it.
Post edited August 17, 2017 by jrich3500
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jrich3500: I feel like gog is going out on a limb so to speak to give people a chance to get a deal on games and even really good deal. I think its wrong to request a refund of a game you didn't like from the pinatas, its part of the whole deal, they have give low priced games away with the expensive ones or else they wouldn't be able to do it.
Thing is a lot of games cost the same as a pinata and it's not supposed to cost less, so it's not like anything is being subsidised like is normally the case with these mystery box thingies. Personally I wouldn't take a refund for something that works as long as it's not utter crap that shouldn't be on GoG in the first place but it seems some people are more picky about what they'll play. I can understand the frustration though of people that only play a certain genre or OS.

A big problem here though seems to be that some people only got the low end titles because the high end ones weren't in the pool at the time due to some technical issues but were advertised as being part of it. That is unfair and I think if these people aren't satisfied they should be refunded without any prejudice.
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PromZA: A big problem here though seems to be that some people only got the low end titles because the high end ones weren't in the pool at the time due to some technical issues but were advertised as being part of it. That is unfair and I think if these people aren't satisfied they should be refunded without any prejudice.
That was a tech error, and it's been resolved. From page 20 of this thread:

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elcook: Hey all, as promised I’m back with some explanation and a solution for all who received a game in a Piñata, that was cheaper than a Piñata itself in certain regions due to local pricing.

First things first, to fix the situation for all future purchases, we’re removing from Piñatas the games that in some regions are available cheaper in the sale This means you won’t be getting those games popping out from Piñatas any more - feel free to buy them in the sale that is running alongside Piñata Madness. Since not everything can be fixed that way, we’re removing a few games from the sale.

Because the removal of games from Piñatas will decrease the overall pool of titles available to get from Piñata, we’re right now adding new games to the selection, and we’ll be adding more in the coming days, to cover the excluded ones. Those new additions are not available on sale, and their base price is at least $5.99 USD.

Last but not least, if you were affected by this issue, we have a solution for you. First, you are eligible to get a refund for such purchase (or refunds if you received multiple games that were cheaper than a Piñata) - just reach out to our support and ask for a refund which will be done as GOG Wallet funds. To make up for the trouble, we’re also going to give you a code for one free Piñata. The code will be provided to you by our support, and will need to be redeemed before the end of the Piñata Madness sale.

Once again, sorry for all the trouble and we hope this will address most, if not all of your concerns regarding this situation.
What does "$ undefined" mean?
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Yezemin: This is not true. It's been part of their TOC for years. And they state clearly that the 30 day refund policy pertains to all purchases on GOG as long as you don't download them. It was that way during the last mystery sales, too (there've been 4 or 5 before this one).

So people complaining is because they didn't read the TOC not because GOG forgot to tell them they could refund. They simply saw no need because it's already there for everyone to see. While there's a lot of cases where GOG shows an appalling lack of communication, this is not one of them.
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i_ni: I'm sorry, I see it differently: you "touch" the product when you break the Pinata.
You're given an unknown product for a fixed price. And product is the Pinata, not the game it hides.
If I don't like the game I get(not because of technical reasons but because I don't want to play it) then how the event is different from buying/refunding until I get a game from my wishlist (costing times more than Pinata) for the price of a Pinata? It effectively make the price of all games equal to 1 Pinata. I honestly don't get such a business model...

Edit: And GoG will protect itself against losses by reducing the Pool to low-priced games only. This is not what I want - I want to be able to win high-valued games. Getting a garbage I'd not play is fine with me. It's luck(or the lack of it), OK?
It's already happening. As it currently stands 94 out of the 159 games seen so far in this pool have been on sale in the recent past for anywhere from $0.39-$3.00. That means, all things being equal, you have a 59% chance to get a game that can be bought on sale for less - sometimes far less - than the pinatas themselves cost. One of the worst offenders is Gomo, which could have been bought 8 months ago for $0.39. Others, like Faces of War, Men of War, and Men of War: Red Tide, could have been picked up just last week for $1.19. If you didn't get these titles - and dozens of others - on sale recently (maybe because you weren't interested in them to begin with, or you lacked the funds at the time) you now have the chance to randomly 'win' them for $3. For many people these titles represent games they don't want, or would rather wait for a sale to get them cheaper.

One of the big problems with this Pinata gimmick is that we don't know what's in the pool to begin with because GOG won't publish it (excepting a very few select high-profile titles to whet people's interest). This means people are buying blind with the promise of great rewards. It's not until the community starts reporting what they're getting, such as in the Pinata Tracker thread, and other's compiling a list, that we can begin to get a glimpse of what's actually on the table and whether it's worth the risk or not.

Speaking personally, at first I was excited for this event and supported GOG as it seemed promising. However, over time I now have mixed feelings about it. Especially after they removed the games that were currently on sale for cheaper than $3, ostensibly because people were complaining about receiving cheaper games than the pinatas were worth, only to replace them by even more games that have a far lower historical sales price. Nearly 60% of the games you could 'win' for $3 could be had for cheaper simply by waiting for them to go on sale - and then you can select exactly what you want rather than being 'surprised' with games you might never normally want/buy. Fortunately for the customer GOG is honoring refund requests.

Speaking of which, how long does this process normally take? It's been nearly three days since I last heard from support on my ticket and I still haven't received my requested refunds. I requested a Wallet refund which the support staff recommended as "Cash refunds take a couple of business days to be fully processed on both sides, whereas GOG Wallet funds gets assigned immediately." I understand they may be busy, but when I'm reading of others who opened tickets yesterday or today already receiving their refunds then it makes me wonder if mine somehow got lost. :/

In the end though, I do still and will continue to support GOG. They have been amazing thus far and I can see that they are trying to help the customer, even while trying to run a good and successful business.
I talked myself into buying another Pinata. I got - Bionic Dues

um, well this pinata didn't pan out so well I'm pretty sure i will never play this game. I did get some others I will try though.

I wish we could buy a genre pinata, like an adventure Pinata, or shooter pinata, or sports pinata.

Really the turn based strategy games i don't play at all and i'm batting about 1 in 3 on the pinatas for those.
I did get 3 adventure games: Wolf amoung us, Kim, dead Sychronicity, these games are the type i play so out of 6 pinatas i got 3 i would actually try to play.

So far I got in order i received them.. the one with stars I will try and play for sure

Wolf Amoung us ** - I like, nice
Seven Kingdoms 2 HD - nah
Heroes Might Magic 4 complete - nah
Kim ** - is okay, like
Dead Synchroncity ** - is okay, like
Bionic Dues - I need a barf bag this one is horrible, arghhhh

It looks like if you keep buying you get a mix of decent games to games you wouldn't play. I'd say just wait for the next big sale or buy the games on sale...It wouldn't hurt to gamble on a few but I found my willingness to buy more pinata depends on the games I was getting, I can't take another game like Bionic Dues, I almost upchucked in my mouth when I saw that come up but I did pick up 3 decent ones for decent price, and the freebie game gog gave to everyone.
Post edited August 18, 2017 by jrich3500
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i_ni: Just for my better understanding: has anybody tried to refund a pinata game because (s)he will not play it? Is it "no questions asked" or a technical reason (as I'd expect) is required?

N.B. I'll not refund the pinata games I don't want; my concern is the quality of the pool will get worse, see https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_pinata_madness_sale_starts_now_98cd1/post439

Edit: And it's a bit tricky for me to decide to continue with the "mystic sale" considering the quality of the Pool is undisclosed by the rules of the game, as per Pinata FAQ:
"""
Will new games be added to the Piñata pool? *Is there a list of games*?
- Throughout the Piñata Madness, new games may appear. But the When and the What are just part of the mystery!
"""
(removal or depletion of games not formalized)
avatar
jrich3500: I feel like gog is going out on a limb so to speak to give people a chance to get a deal on games and even really good deal. I think its wrong to request a refund of a game you didn't like from the pinatas, its part of the whole deal, they have give low priced games away with the expensive ones or else they wouldn't be able to do it.
Nope, it's not wrong to request a refund for a game you haven't played. You have every right to do so.

When GOG sets up a gambling website, has the appropriate gambling liscences, makes the correct information avaiable to customers (ie odds of winning) and has the correct goverment messages about gambling - if you land a game you dont want in that instance- then yes, tough luck
( dunno why the reply system is broken with my browser)
I bought my games over the course of the last few days, but they may happen if you have nearly exhausted the pool of not owned games I guess.
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i_ni: Just for my better understanding: has anybody tried to refund a pinata game because (s)he will not play it? Is it "no questions asked" or a technical reason (as I'd expect) is required?

N.B. I'll not refund the pinata games I don't want; my concern is the quality of the pool will get worse, see https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_pinata_madness_sale_starts_now_98cd1/post439
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hummer010: I requested a refund on three games that I got from pinata's, simply because I already had the three games DRM-free from humble. They granted my request, and I bought three more pinatas. I was disappointed three more times. Still no Cossacks 3 or Tyrrany for me :(
Keep requesting the refunds for those games you don't want. Hopefully you land something decent eventually.
high rated
The problem also GOG faces is exactly that more and more people are trying to gamble the system, namely strictly buying a stack of pinatas and refunding over and over all games they don't like.

I would not be surprised if they have already started to limit refunds in order to protect themselves from such abuse.
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Yezemin: This is not true. It's been part of their TOC for years. And they state clearly that the 30 day refund policy pertains to all purchases on GOG as long as you don't download them. It was that way during the last mystery sales, too (there've been 4 or 5 before this one).

So people complaining is because they didn't read the TOC not because GOG forgot to tell them they could refund. They simply saw no need because it's already there for everyone to see. While there's a lot of cases where GOG shows an appalling lack of communication, this is not one of them.
avatar
i_ni: I'm sorry, I see it differently: you "touch" the product when you break the Pinata.
You're given an unknown product for a fixed price. And product is the Pinata, not the game it hides.
If I don't like the game I get(not because of technical reasons but because I don't want to play it) then how the event is different from buying/refunding until I get a game from my wishlist (costing times more than Pinata) for the price of a Pinata? It effectively make the price of all games equal to 1 Pinata. I honestly don't get such a business model...

Edit: And GoG will protect itself against losses by reducing the Pool to low-priced games only. This is not what I want - I want to be able to win high-valued games. Getting a garbage I'd not play is fine with me. It's luck(or the lack of it), OK?
Good post i_ni and exactly the problem with the communications from GOG. People could have easily thought their rights only applied to the pinata, and not the game you got afterwards. People may have thought you couldn't get a refund, as like you say, the pinata was "touched". I know I certainly did.
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i_ni: I'm sorry, I see it differently: you "touch" the product when you break the Pinata.
You're given an unknown product for a fixed price. And product is the Pinata, not the game it hides.
If I don't like the game I get(not because of technical reasons but because I don't want to play it) then how the event is different from buying/refunding until I get a game from my wishlist (costing times more than Pinata) for the price of a Pinata? It effectively make the price of all games equal to 1 Pinata. I honestly don't get such a business model...

Edit: And GoG will protect itself against losses by reducing the Pool to low-priced games only. This is not what I want - I want to be able to win high-valued games. Getting a garbage I'd not play is fine with me. It's luck(or the lack of it), OK?
avatar
Onsdag: It's already happening. As it currently stands 94 out of the 159 games seen so far in this pool have been on sale in the recent past for anywhere from $0.39-$3.00. That means, all things being equal, you have a 59% chance to get a game that can be bought on sale for less - sometimes far less - than the pinatas themselves cost. One of the worst offenders is Gomo, which could have been bought 8 months ago for $0.39. Others, like Faces of War, Men of War, and Men of War: Red Tide, could have been picked up just last week for $1.19. If you didn't get these titles - and dozens of others - on sale recently (maybe because you weren't interested in them to begin with, or you lacked the funds at the time) you now have the chance to randomly 'win' them for $3. For many people these titles represent games they don't want, or would rather wait for a sale to get them cheaper.

One of the big problems with this Pinata gimmick is that we don't know what's in the pool to begin with because GOG won't publish it (excepting a very few select high-profile titles to whet people's interest). This means people are buying blind with the promise of great rewards. It's not until the community starts reporting what they're getting, such as in the Pinata Tracker thread, and other's compiling a list, that we can begin to get a glimpse of what's actually on the table and whether it's worth the risk or not.

Speaking personally, at first I was excited for this event and supported GOG as it seemed promising. However, over time I now have mixed feelings about it. Especially after they removed the games that were currently on sale for cheaper than $3, ostensibly because people were complaining about receiving cheaper games than the pinatas were worth, only to replace them by even more games that have a far lower historical sales price. Nearly 60% of the games you could 'win' for $3 could be had for cheaper simply by waiting for them to go on sale - and then you can select exactly what you want rather than being 'surprised' with games you might never normally want/buy. Fortunately for the customer GOG is honoring refund requests.

Speaking of which, how long does this process normally take? It's been nearly three days since I last heard from support on my ticket and I still haven't received my requested refunds. I requested a Wallet refund which the support staff recommended as "Cash refunds take a couple of business days to be fully processed on both sides, whereas GOG Wallet funds gets assigned immediately." I understand they may be busy, but when I'm reading of others who opened tickets yesterday or today already receiving their refunds then it makes me wonder if mine somehow got lost. :/

In the end though, I do still and will continue to support GOG. They have been amazing thus far and I can see that they are trying to help the customer, even while trying to run a good and successful business.
So, Onsdag, unless all the games are sold for their lowest price ever, the Piñata Madness sale is no good? Does this apply to all other sales too? Must all sales beat, or at least match the current discount record, for all games?
Post edited August 18, 2017 by Kristian
There's a few things I wish were done a little differently with the pinatas, but the main thing is that I wish they gave gifts/codes for the games instead of just adding the games to your library. I bought ten pinatas and got ten games I will never, ever, ever touch. They won't ever be downloaded. All ten of them are marked as hidden in my library.

Wish I could give them away to someone who would actually play them. It's not like I received them for free, afterall.
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Qwertyman: There's a few things I wish were done a little differently with the pinatas, but the main thing is that I wish they gave gifts/codes for the games instead of just adding the games to your library. I bought ten pinatas and got ten games I will never, ever, ever touch. They won't ever be downloaded. All ten of them are marked as hidden in my library.

Wish I could give them away to someone who would actually play them. It's not like I received them for free, afterall.
Maybe you can try asking support nicely to convert them into gift codes?