Use the new "trial" feature instead of refunds

[Simbiat]

As some may know Steam enabled a "trial" feature for Dead Space remaster, which allows you to play the game for 90 minutes. IMHO, this feature should be enabled on all (or at least most) games.
Think about it: there are few demos in the past years and a lot of people use refund policy for the sake of trying a game and then refunding if they did not like it. But having a "trial" thing as they have it on Dead Space right now would work the same way, with a bonus of Valve's support not needing to process as many requests.
I would consider having a 1 hour trial for all games by default, and then also keep the 2 hour refund policy. If you purchased the game from the get-go - you get 2 hours of play max for a refund. If you did not purchase the game, but you played the trial, the hours spent is deducted from the 2 hours max for the refund policy, if you buy the game after trial.
I see only 2 problems in this:
1. How should the games be shown in the library? Right now I do not own Dead Space remaster, but it is shown in my library, because I activated and played the trial. I think this should be handled same way demos are.
2. Games with separate launchers that download stuff (like most if not all MMORPGs) will still track the time when on launcher. This problem exists even now and I've heard of refund requests for such games being denied. I believe right now Steam has a list of executables, that are considered a game's executables, so perhaps it can also have a "type" for each executable and launchers should be excluded from calculations. Or maybe allow the trial time to start after X minutes/hours based on the time required for the initial download (which is very unreliable and probably would be abused by some devs/publishers).

[JamesF0790]

Slight problem. Valve didn't do this in a vacuum and they can't just do it themselves with other people's games. They didn't just decide "Let's turn this on for Dead Space. If it's an option that's great but they'd need to get developers to sign up for it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The developer set up the trial for their game which is basically like a free weekend but for only 90 minutes.

Valve and support both know about games that use their own launcher to download files and if you submit a manual ticket, they will grant a refund.

[Nx Machina]

The developer, publisher were the ones you decided they would be a trial for Dead Space Remaster.

[Simbiat]

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

Because they are the only ones who decide if a game has a trial, a demo, a free weekend, when it goes on sale, what size the discount is etc. They are the ones who have control of their store page.

[JamesF0790]

Because Valve can't just offer free trials to other people's games without them agreeing to it? And yes it is very different to the refund policy. The "default" of the refund policy is a game purchased. The default of the trial system is no purchase. Valve doesn't get money to pay for their servers from a trial and the game's creators don't get anything either.

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

Because refunds aren't for you to demo a game. The 2 hour period is in place so can make sure the game actually runs on your system and there are no major problems.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

Because Valve can't make decisions on other games. They support it, but its up to the game developer to choose to use it.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

They can use such an approach already, but it's their choice, not Valves.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

Because other dev/pubs don't wanna? I mean there's nothing stopping them

[Reaper]

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Yes, I understand that right now this was decided by EA. But... Why not use the same approach for all games? For devs/publishers it would not be that much different as using refund policy.

Because not every game is controlled by EA and Valve? There's literally hundreds of publishers on Steam and every single one would need to give permission to do this for their games.

[Mad Scientist]

Devs/Publishers may make demos, time limited demos, free weekends etc at their own will, Valve is not going to force them. 2 Hours within 2 Weeks for refunds, look up gameplay videos, livestreams, steam reviews, other website reviews before purchasing if you're worried if it looks good/fun or not.

[Tito Shivan]

FYI, Fun fact: Those 90 free minutes actually do count against your refund limits if you happen to buy the game.

Originally posted by Simbiat:

Why not use the same approach for all games?

The system is available for everyone. Devs only have to use it.

[Lar Dass]

Honestly im all for more games having this, especially more demanding ones and since a ton of games are getting released broken at launch its even more paramount to have this, the fact that achievements/progress/saves all count in the trial is amazing too as opposed to a standard demo (which isnt even updated to the games latest version so you could be getting even poor optimisation/bugs compared to the actual full game)

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Lar Dass:

Honestly im all for more games having this, especially more demanding ones and since a ton of games are getting released broken at launch its even more paramount to have this, the fact that achievements/progress/saves all count in the trial is amazing too as opposed to a standard demo (which isnt even updated to the games latest version so you could be getting even poor optimisation/bugs compared to the actual full game)

Then you need to only buy the games that have them