Costumer limitations with 14-day refund policy

[Norakt3]

I have an issue with the game "My Life As An Alchemist" by "Delirium Tremens Games", which is a game sold as complete (not early access) at 29 July 2024, having his last patch at 1 August 2024.

That game is abandoned by the developer with gameplay bugs that prevent achievement list completion.

With that i ceased playing the game (clocking 35 minutes of gameplay) and waited for an update since the game was recent (at the time of purchase), an update that never came.
As an "achievement hunter" i do not want that game blemishing my library and want to spend my money on other deserving developers, so i applied for refund.

Steam won't apply the refund (3 tries) since it breaks the 14-day policy, which in this situation, the costumer either judges quickly on the developer and gives up on him or gets stuck with a bad purchase. That leeway cultivates a toxic posture for either a serious costumer or a serious developer (14 days is not that much time to debug or rework a game, although enough for someone serious about his work).

The game is approaching a year of premature launch and it still is being sold at the store, although there is enough negative reviews now to prevent this "complete game" from being bought by someone impressed by the developers earlier games, which are not at incomplete and unresolved state.

I suggest Steam to include some kind of 1-year no-update-patch policy refund (and store close) to prevent flimsy developers from bailing out with the money of someone who trusted them with a game that was not as advertised (complete).

This inflexibility also erodes costumer confidence and gives ground to piracy, nullifying some of the good points steam has against it, by not having a safety net for the costumer against unprofessional developers. (bought several games in blunde, played other games, time passes, life happens, when i realized 14 days had passed, and dev bails* forgot to add, since context is never enough)

[Gilga ™ |Yonaguni|]

Who cares about achievements when you casn use Sam?

[Aluvard]

Not going to happen. You could refund the game, while you still were within acceptable refund limits and decide to rebuy it when it will be updated.

What you're showing now is buyers remorse, cause you bought bad game.

EDIT
As Gilga said, use SAM for bugged achievements.

[Wolf Knight]

you bought the game almost a year ago, you are way outside the refund policy. at some point, steam has to send the game developers their money. how long do you want steam to hold the money for? if you were a game developer, how long would you be willing to wait for steam to send you your money from the sale of your game?

your idea wouldnt fix the problem, it would simply result in massive loss to steam because at some point, every game stops being updated because the game developer has moved on to something else.

a safety net exists already, you just have to use it. you have to stop buying games with the expectation of them getting an update.

[nullable]

Yeah, keep dreaming that your "special" scenario will result in special policies and bizarrely favorably refund policies. Kinda seems like what you really want is Valve to back all games on Steam with some kind of guarantee of satisfaction, and don't hold your breath on that one.

[$2 Hero]

99% of all early access games are scams.

[J4MESOX4D]

If a developer fails to get their game to market because of financial reasons, where do you expect the refund money to come from exactly? If Valve did apply a patch policy, developers would just fake update their games.

If you don't want to end up in this situation, stop buying into early access with unproven developers and concepts.

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

If a developer fails to get their game to market because of financial reasons, where do you expect the refund money to come from exactly? If Valve did apply a patch policy, developers would just fake update their games.

If you don't want to end up in this situation, stop buying into early access with unproven developers and concepts.

Exactly!

I purchased ONE EA game in all these years but only because I believed the Developer would follow through. And they did. But their history was a major part of that decision.

I have had a bunch on my wish-list but most have not done a thing with updates for years... Every time I notice one in my wish-list that hasn't done anything for years, it gets removed from wish-list and most likely ignored from there...

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

-snip-

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

-snip-

While I agree with both of you, game in question wasn't early access but probably a financial fail.
Post #5 derailed the thread.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by Aluvard:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

-snip-

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

-snip-

While I agree with both of you, game in question wasn't early access but probably a financial fail.
Post #5 derailed the thread.

Ah I see. Well it begs the question as to why the OP bought an unfinished finished game then. People are too reliant and expectant of patches these days which is partly why games release this way or they have false expectations.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Norakt3:

With that i ceased playing the game (clocking 35 minutes of gameplay) and waited for an update since the game was recent (at the time of purchase), an update that never came.

Don't do this going forward. If the game is broken enough where you are hoping for an update, get your refund then and there. You can always rebuy it later.

[Norakt3]

Originally posted by Aluvard:

Not going to happen. You could refund the game, while you still were within acceptable refund limits and decide to rebuy it when it will be updated.

What you're showing now is buyers remorse, cause you bought bad game.

EDIT
As Gilga said, use SAM for bugged achievements.

learning now of the existence of this. can you consider that?

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Norakt3:

Originally posted by Aluvard:

Not going to happen. You could refund the game, while you still were within acceptable refund limits and decide to rebuy it when it will be updated.

What you're showing now is buyers remorse, cause you bought bad game.

EDIT
As Gilga said, use SAM for bugged achievements.

learning now of the existence of this. can you consider that?

If you mean SAM - repository is on Github and lot of guides on Youtube.

[Norakt3]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

If a developer fails to get their game to market because of financial reasons, where do you expect the refund money to come from exactly? If Valve did apply a patch policy, developers would just fake update their games.

If you don't want to end up in this situation, stop buying into early access with unproven developers and concepts.

suggesting as something that would trigger if a recently launched game gets a net negative review upon launch for consistent issue amongst user review. steam should retain more of the profit in case of this. i know it is not simple, all rules will be abused eventually, and legitimate developers would be affected by those policies

[Norakt3]

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

If a developer fails to get their game to market because of financial reasons, where do you expect the refund money to come from exactly? If Valve did apply a patch policy, developers would just fake update their games.

If you don't want to end up in this situation, stop buying into early access with unproven developers and concepts.

Exactly!

I purchased ONE EA game in all these years but only because I believed the Developer would follow through. And they did. But their history was a major part of that decision.

I have had a bunch on my wish-list but most have not done a thing with updates for years... Every time I notice one in my wish-list that hasn't done anything for years, it gets removed from wish-list and most likely ignored from there...

not saying a game should have consistent updates throughout, that would be equivalent of selling an never-ending book, but a refund policy that would suit a legitimate bailout. all products you buy at the market are done as is, this is a digital
inconvenience

[Satoru]

People really need to take responsiblity for their own decisions instead of hoping the universe will fix their own problems for them