Can Valve Force Refund Games?

[Lindo [EN][ES]]

People in The Day Before community are saying that, since the developers openly said they would abandon the game and close all servers, Valve received a lot of refund from the game (which make sense), and eventually forced a refund from everyone who bought the game...

I never saw Valve doing that, and I'm here since 2004? 2006... I don't know, for a long, long time. This is against the law in a lot of countries (including Brazil), also, it's easier (and more likely) that Valve allows people to refund indefinitely than force refund... Yet, I'm wondering if Valve changed the TOS and EULA for some reason and now Valve can do those force refund, removing the game from your Steam library and give you a refund even if you don't want.

I know other abandoned games that people could do refund even with hundreds or thousands of hours, but never heard of force refund. That's why question, can Valve force refund a game you bought?

[Mokum]

Im just going to tag myself here so i can see the reply

since i already know the reply but you dont believe me lols

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The Developer already made a statement that they were going to allow refunds on the game.

[rawWwRrr]

The only thing that was "forced" was allowing refund requests beyond that of the 2-hr/2-wk cutoff. They made this same exception when Cyberpunk 2077 was released to less than stellar results. Eventually, that extension of the grace period will come to an end.

However, if users wish to keep their copy, they more than welcome to do so. Valve will not make users refund a game they would rather keep even if it is broken.

[Mokum]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

The only thing that was "forced" was allowing refund requests beyond that of the 2-hr/2-wk cutoff. They made this same exception when Cyberpunk 2077 was released to less than stellar results. Eventually, that extension of the grace period will come to an end.

However, if users wish to keep their copy, they more than welcome to do so. Valve will not make users refund a game they would rather keep even if it is broken.

https://twitter.com/playdaybefore/status/1738112110385914052

nope forced refund

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Mokum:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

The only thing that was "forced" was allowing refund requests beyond that of the 2-hr/2-wk cutoff. They made this same exception when Cyberpunk 2077 was released to less than stellar results. Eventually, that extension of the grace period will come to an end.

However, if users wish to keep their copy, they more than welcome to do so. Valve will not make users refund a game they would rather keep even if it is broken.

https://twitter.com/playdaybefore/status/1738112110385914052

nope forced refund

That's from the developer, not Valve. And "proactive" does not mean "forced". It merely means they will make sure that refunds are provided when asked for regardless of the playtime or length of ownership. You still need to actually ask for the refund to get one.

There are users that still want to own the game.

[Cathulhu]

Which will turn unplayable just barely a month after its "release".

[Lindo [EN][ES]]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by Mokum:

https://twitter.com/playdaybefore/status/1738112110385914052

nope forced refund

That's from the developer, not Valve. And "proactive" does not mean "forced". It merely means they will make sure that refunds are provided when asked for regardless of the playtime or length of ownership. You still need to actually ask for the refund to get one.

There are users that still want to own the game.

:winterpenguin2023:

I know, but if you look at this chart:

https://steamdb.info/app/1372880/charts/

It shows the player just went from 100% to 0% in a single day.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Nego Lindo:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

That's from the developer, not Valve. And "proactive" does not mean "forced". It merely means they will make sure that refunds are provided when asked for regardless of the playtime or length of ownership. You still need to actually ask for the refund to get one.

There are users that still want to own the game.

I know, but if you look at this chart:

https://steamdb.info/app/1372880/charts/

It shows the player just went from 100% to 0% in a single day.

That just means no one is playing it. You can still own a non playable game. There are quite a few on Steam.

Trust me. Some users are going to keep the game just to say they have a game that few others own regardless if it works or not. I thought about it myself, but I didn't want to spend that much on a ♥♥♥♥ game.

[Mokum]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by Nego Lindo:

I know, but if you look at this chart:

https://steamdb.info/app/1372880/charts/

It shows the player just went from 100% to 0% in a single day.

That just means no one is playing it. You can still own a non playable game. There are quite a few on Steam.

Trust me. Some users are going to keep the game just to say they have a game that few others own regardless if it works or not. I thought about it myself, but I didn't want to spend that much on a ♥♥♥♥ game.

:winterpenguin2023:

believe what you want idc i will believe wht i saw with my own eyes

the game got forced refunded

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Mokum:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

That just means no one is playing it. You can still own a non playable game. There are quite a few on Steam.

Trust me. Some users are going to keep the game just to say they have a game that few others own regardless if it works or not. I thought about it myself, but I didn't want to spend that much on a ♥♥♥♥ game.

believe what you want idc i will believe wht i saw with my own eyes

the game got forced refunded

Valve didn't reverse purchases without the users requesting them.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Mokum:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

That just means no one is playing it. You can still own a non playable game. There are quite a few on Steam.

Trust me. Some users are going to keep the game just to say they have a game that few others own regardless if it works or not. I thought about it myself, but I didn't want to spend that much on a ♥♥♥♥ game.

believe what you want idc i will believe wht i saw with my own eyes

the game got forced refunded

It's not a belief that I am standing behind. But you continue to believe what you want.

[Coors]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Mokum:

believe what you want idc i will believe wht i saw with my own eyes

the game got forced refunded

Valve didn't reverse purchases without the users requesting them.

:winterbunny2023:

Except for the fact that they did

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1372880/discussions/0/4030223299344943385/

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Coors:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Valve didn't reverse purchases without the users requesting them.

Except for the fact that they did

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1372880/discussions/0/4030223299344943385/

Steam keys were being revoked if you got it via third party sites. The game dev revoked all keys used, purchased outside of Steam.

[Coors]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Coors:

Except for the fact that they did

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1372880/discussions/0/4030223299344943385/

Steam keys were being revoked if you got it via third party sites. The game dev revoked all keys used, purchased outside of Steam.

:winterbunny2023:

It's not just keys from third party sites. You can see for yourself by checking the TDB discussion forums. Looks through the posts. Look how many people have the symbol next to their name marking ownership. You'll have to sort through a bunch of troll posts but there are plenty of posts made by people defending the game. Even those people no longer have it.

The only person I'm aware of that still has the ownership symbol in the entire TDB discussions is "Spell Vamp" in this post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1372880/discussions/0/4030223299346032211/ . And that's because they were a Fntastic volunteer that was given some sort of non-retail key.

[rawWwRrr]

Maybe we should stop referencing users as proof. User proclamations are prone to exaggeration and absent of context. And I'll admit, I haven't cared enough about this debacle to follow its aftermath.

According to:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1372880/view/3892863510718337808

As previously communicated, Mytona, as the investor, has been working in collaboration with Steam to facilitate refunds for all game purchasers. For any players that have not already had their purchase refunded, Steam will now proactively refund all remaining players.

This is a different scenario than "Valve is forcing refunds".

Refunds are being given to everyone as a result of the publisher, not Valve. Valve is simply transacting them. So, yes, in this context, purchasers of The Day Before on Steam are going to be refunded regardless if they asked for a refund or not.