“Early access” games have typically been a risk to you, the consumer. You’re basically paying for a game that you understand is still in development, and committing to playing a game that is likely rife with bugs and very likely lacking much of its content. It can be a great way to get in on a game you’re excited about on the ground floor and contribute to its testing and development, but sometimes the experience doesn’t pay off. Development may take a turn for the worse, the game may never be completed, updates are constant, and any update may be the one that breaks the game for your particular machine or OS.
GOG wants to do early access the right way, with minimal risk for the buyer. “We want all gamers on GOG.com to have access to what these titles have to offer, but we want to get it right,” said Piotr Karwowski, GOG managing director. “[We’re] carefully evaluating each and every game, offering a 14-day refund policy, and providing GOG Galaxy support with update rollback and more.” What that means for you is if you invest in a game that ends up being a total dud and you hate it, you don’t have to lie about glitches or save issues to get your money back; you can return it with no problems. With GOG Galaxy support and rollback, if an update ever downloads that corrupts the game in some way, you can just revert back to an older version that still works for you since every game is free of digital-rights management software. Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me, and I expect Steam may be changing its policies in the near future to compete.
Source: VentureBeat