Refund policy is poorly-worded and not great.

[ucksmayitfay]

I explained my situation and I didn't get a refund for an early access game with less than 2 hours of game-play. Barely feels any better than competitor refund policies at this point. "Purchasing with no risk" my arse. Even the 2 hour countdown can be debated because of many games having very long cutscenes that stretch that time out, but THAT part is reasonable. The arbitrary 2 week time limit, however, makes me not want to buy digital anymore, even on Steam.

February amendments from later in the thread:
-The refund policy is generally worded well in retrospect, but the early access/pre-release section in particular is worded poorly. It needs to specify what qualifies as a "release date" and specifically state that games in early access count as having a release date.
-I didn't know about the fees, charge-backs(?) to the developers, history of digital storefront refunds, and so on, so I take back a lot of this post.
-I'm doing a 180 to say 2 hours across-the-board is bad, since some games can be beat in two hours while others (like Far Cry 4 with its unskippable cutscenes) barely even get started by two hours. Two weekends to meditate on the purchase decision IS fine, however. Maybe an improvement to the refund system would be ~15% of the average time it takes to complete the game. This data could be drawn from "beating the main story" achievements in relation to the playtime counter, community feedback, or journalism sites. Then for pay-to-play competitive games (Team Fortress Classic is the only one I can think of), you could get two hours and thirty minutes of playtime for the refund window. as that would probably be enough time to get a basic feeling for these games and have a few sessions (for single player mixed with pay-to-play competitive games like GTA Online, the programming would be complex, so base it on the story time return window plus two hours and thirty minutes). ~6 hours in GTA San Andreas and ~4 hours in Far Cry 4 would be a great demo periods.
-I was still right about all the competitors having the same or greater refund periods. Even anti-consumer EA gives you 24 hours after launch for a refund, which is a lot fairer than TWO.
-Fees could be addressed with only partial refunds (like 50%) under certain circumstances.

[Knee]

Never hand anyone money and trust them when they say “no risk”

[Chika Ogiue]

The 2 week limit is not arbitrary. If you don't fall within less than 2 hours played AND less than two weeks owned, you are not guaranteed a refund.

[Runkel]

Yeah, right. Just hold the funds indefinitely and don’t pay the developer of the game just in case someone might, at some point, decide they don’t like the game...

[KarmaKrazi]

The policy is worded just fine. If you don't want to purchase online games anymore, that's just fine too.

[Seraphita]

The two weeks thing is funny because all games I have is in my backlog so even if I found one that didn't work for me, I can't really refund them anymore, anyway.

I rarely play games as soon as I buy them. It's not a complaint. Just something I found funny. I can still enjoy games just fine. I never really abuse refunds, anyhow.

[Nx Machina]

Refund policies - Take your pick. Note: (***) same refund policy.

(1) (***) Steam - Within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime.

(2) (***) Epic - Games and products are eligible for refund within 14 days of purchase. However, you must have less than 2 hours of runtime on record.

(3) (***) Ubisoft (UPDATED) - You can request a refund for a digital PC game within 14 days of your purchase, as long as the game has not been played for more than two hours.

Previously it was: (You can request a refund for a digital order within 14 days of your purchase, as long as the content has not been launched).

(4) EA Play - Whichever comes first.

a) Within 24 hours after you first launch the game.

b) Within 14 days from the day you bought it, if you have not launched the game.

c) Within 14 days from the release date if you pre-ordered the game, if you haven't launched it yet.

(5) Blizzard - The game is newly purchased within the last 3 days. You haven't started the game; if the game has been played at all it won't qualify for a refund.

(6) GOG - starting now, you can get a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if you downloaded, launched, and played it. That's it. #

# (Open to abuse and they monitor for abuse and reserve the right to refuse a refund as do all PC stores). https://ibb.co/ZzXPMwv


Even GOG the people's champion have set criteria for refunds.

How often can I refund my games? Is there some sort of limit?

We trust that you're making informed purchasing decisions and will use this updated voluntary Refund Policy only if something doesn't work as you expected.

We reserve the right to refuse refunds, or only offer Wallet Funds conversions, in individual cases.

Please respect all the time and hard work put into making the games you play and remember that refunds are not reviews. If you finished the game and didn't like it, please consider sharing your opinion instead.

Also, please don't take advantage of our trust by asking for an unreasonable amount of games to be refunded. Don't be that person. No one likes that person.

[J4MESOX4D]

Ursprungligen skrivet av ucksmayitfay:

I explained my situation and I didn't get a refund for an early access game with less than 2 hours of game-play

What about being owned for more than two weeks? Early access titles are subject to the same conditions as fully released titles. You can't expect people to buy into early access and the the developer to start refunding people months/years later.

The refund policy is quite clear so maybe read it in full and not just what you want to hear or what you think is correct.

[Vox]

When did you get the game?

[eram]

less than 2 weeks from purchase AND less than 2 hours played is clearly defined. the language and wording is not the issue

[Nx Machina]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Vox:

When did you get the game?

According to their game badge their last purchase was 28 Dec 2024. More than 2 weeks ago.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Hmm maybe time not to pre-order just wait till the game is out than decide IF you really want it.

[Chika Ogiue]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Seraphita:

I rarely play games as soon as I buy them. It's not a complaint. Just something I found funny. I can still enjoy games just fine. I never really abuse refunds, anyhow.

I've asked for refunds about three times, got refused one. Found out three weeks after I bought it, that it didn't launch on my PC. Now, even if I don't intend on playing immediately, I always download and check games launch within the two week refund window.

Ursprungligen skrivet av SpeedFreak1972:

Hmm maybe time not to pre-order just wait till the game is out than decide IF you really want it.

Pre-orders have nothing to do with the refund limit the OP is complaining about. They have their own limits: as in, you can refund at any time prior to the game becoming playable.

For example, if a pre-order is offered six months before release, you can request a refund one day before release and that will be automatically approved. The exceptions being if the game becomes playable before release (e.g. beta access, early unlock).

[ucksmayitfay]

I got the game in September, actually. All the games I got in December were only 36 dollars total and very good games I'll keep supporting the devs for. I haven't played them either, but I hope to play them some time. Palworld, the game I wanted a refund for, I guess is OK, and maybe I'd get into it more if I had lots of time to kill and started playing it further into my backlog. Part of it is user error/misremembering, but the rest of it is the phrasing of the early access part specifically. I thought it said early access could be refunded within 2 hours of gameplay REGARDLESS of whether or not the game was bought longer than 2 weeks ago. And at least GOG gives the industry standard 30 day return window for a product. I could return the December games then and get roughly the same value then if I bought them on GOG instead. I just don't see why there's a time window. It says risk-free, and I took a risk in purchasing a product that I might've wanted to play later, but never got around to doing it, and wanted a different game instead. Even GameStop would've probably exchanged it for in-store credit past the return window if it was a physical copy, but not 100% sure about that.

Either way, Gabe said that piracy is a service issue first and foremost. Why is Steam of all places giving me such a service issue? Like what difference does 2 weeks and now make? It's a product I don't really want. 30 dollars is not the end of the world, but it would've been nice to play a different game I'd enjoy more and can't afford RIGHT NOW during this weather emergency. But noooo. The critics of the media industry have done the same kind of practices they hate. I guess I'll have to wait until next week and eat up some of my savings OR just beg on the applicable forums.

[Zarineth]

Ursprungligen skrivet av ucksmayitfay:

I got the game in September, actually. All the games I got in December were only 36 dollars total and very good games I'll keep supporting the devs for. I haven't played them either, but I hope to play them some time. Palworld, the game I wanted a refund for, I guess is OK, and maybe I'd get into it more if I had lots of time to kill and started playing it further into my backlog. Part of it is user error/misremembering, but the rest of it is the phrasing of the early access part specifically. I thought it said early access could be refunded within 2 hours of gameplay REGARDLESS of whether or not the game was bought longer than 2 weeks ago. And at least GOG gives the industry standard 30 day return window for a product. I could return the December games then and get roughly the same value then if I bought them on GOG instead. I just don't see why there's a time window. It says risk-free, and I took a risk in purchasing a product that I might've wanted to play later, but never got around to doing it, and wanted a different game instead. Even GameStop would've probably exchanged it for in-store credit past the return window if it was a physical copy, but not 100% sure about that.

Either way, Gabe said that piracy is a service issue first and foremost. Why is Steam of all places giving me such a service issue? Like what difference does 2 weeks and now make? It's a product I don't really want. 30 dollars is not the end of the world, but it would've been nice to play a different game I'd enjoy more and can't afford RIGHT NOW during this weather emergency. But noooo. The critics of the media industry have done the same kind of practices they hate. I guess I'll have to wait until next week and eat up some of my savings OR just beg on the applicable forums.

This is literally a self-inflicted issue. If you buy games in bulk (like me for example) you should not expect them to be refundable months later. No store agrees to that, not even GoG.

Also I love how people pretend, that this quote from Gabe somehow makes all their complaints worth more. Especially considering how much in the wrong they often are.

[KarmaKrazi]

Ursprungligen skrivet av ucksmayitfay:

I got the game in September, actually. All the games I got in December were only 36 dollars total and very good games I'll keep supporting the devs for. I haven't played them either, but I hope to play them some time. Palworld, the game I wanted a refund for, I guess is OK, and maybe I'd get into it more if I had lots of time to kill and started playing it further into my backlog. Part of it is user error/misremembering, but the rest of it is the phrasing of the early access part specifically. I thought it said early access could be refunded within 2 hours of gameplay REGARDLESS of whether or not the game was bought longer than 2 weeks ago. And at least GOG gives the industry standard 30 day return window for a product. I could return the December games then and get roughly the same value then if I bought them on GOG instead. I just don't see why there's a time window. It says risk-free, and I took a risk in purchasing a product that I might've wanted to play later, but never got around to doing it, and wanted a different game instead. Even GameStop would've probably exchanged it for in-store credit past the return window if it was a physical copy, but not 100% sure about that.

Either way, Gabe said that piracy is a service issue first and foremost. Why is Steam of all places giving me such a service issue?

If you got the game in September as you say, then you'd be well passed the 30 day window of GOG even. Also, if you had purchased it at GameStop, you could purchase the game, and come back in a couple days and you may get a couple bucks for it. Some pocket lint too, if you're lucky.
Steams refund policy isn't in place so that you can demo games. What you're quoting, "risk free purchasing", refers to the ability to refund a game that is fundamentally broken, unplayable, ect. You can refund a game for these reasons at any point, even passed the 2 week threshold if you send a manual ticket. That's what they mean by "risk free". Figuring out that you don't really enjoy the game or have time to play it 4-5 months after you purchase the game really isn't on Steam. They've already handed the money over to the developers. Why should they be on the hook for you being irresponsible with your purchases?