Key Takeaways
- Steam's refund policy changes won't affect most players, just those exploiting loopholes.
- Early access playtime now counts towards the two-hour refund limit upon release.
- Supporting developers by not abusing refund policies ensures a healthy gaming industry.
The words “Steam”, “change”, and “refund policy” probably scare you a bit when you read them. I don’t blame you. There’s nothing worse than deciding you don’t actually like this 50 quid game you were on the fence about and realising you’re three minutes past the refund window. But, if you’re more careful with your stopwatch than I, Steam's refund policy is a nice safety net that allows you to try out games that may or may not be your jam.
Change is scary. Change to your consumer rights is scarier still. Luckily, Steam doesn’t have the authority to change your consumer rights, and therefore isn’t doing so. It is changing its refund policy, however, but you should have nothing to worry about.
“When you purchase a title on Steam prior to the release date, the two-hour playtime limit for refunds will apply (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds will not start until the release date. For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, any playtime will count against the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title which is not playable prior to the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title, and the standard 14-day/two-hour refund period will apply starting on the game’s release date.”
Before now, any playtime before a game’s release wasn’t counted towards your two-hour refund limit. This statement from Steam basically means that you can’t put 500 hours into a game’s early access period and immediately refund it upon release. And let’s be honest, only scumbags were exploiting this loophole anyway.
There are no other changes to the lenient refund policy, so the vast majority of players will be completely unaffected by this change. To be completely honest, I’m amazed that this loophole was open for so long, as it seems ripe for abuse.
I can’t imagine playing a game like Hades for dozens or hundreds of hours in its advanced access period, helping the developers to shape their vision for the roguelike and testing new features with thousands of others, only to refund it when it releases. Sure, you’ve had your fun, but was that not worth the 20 quid you paid a few years ago? Do you really need the money so badly that you’d rip off the developer of a game you clearly love – or else you wouldn’t have put so much time into it – for no good reason?
Steam’s refund policy remains as pro-consumer as ever. You can still refund any game if you’ve played for fewer than two hours, within 14 days of purchase. Most of the rules for early access are unchanged, too, except your pre-release playtime is taken into account. If you bought an early access game two years ago and left it to languish in your library, only to remember its existence on full release, fear not. So long as you haven’t played it for more than two hours at any point in development, you can refund it within 14 days of its full release.
Beta testing is different from advanced access, and therefore has a different policy.
That’s not to say there are no loopholes in Steam’s policy. Games shorter than two hours still suffer, particularly from points-hungry achievement hunters who will race through the game in order to hit all the checkboxes, not take in any of its meaning or mechanics, and immediately refund it. Itch.io remains a better storefront for independent creators, but the likes of Supergiant Games will be enthused by Steam’s refund policy update today.
If you find yourself short-changed by this short change, take a look at yourself. Think about your actions. Why did you want to refund a game you’ve played for dozens of hours? Do the developers not deserve your money, simply because you played before other people? What gives you the gumption to demand so much for so little? Developers deserve to be paid for their work, and we should support the things we love. Gaming is a symbiotic relationship between player and developer, and if everyone was like you, we’d be no better than leeches. We’d take, take, take, and give nothing back. We’d ruin the games industry, destroy thousands of careers, and have no more games to play. Why are you like this?
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