Steam has one often exploited Refund policy where any player can claim their money back for a game purchased within the last 14 days and played for less than two hours. (Selling a game that’s less than two hours long? Sucks for you.) But it seems that people who bought games with so-called “Advanced Access” were able to subvert the system. No longer.
Not to be confused with Early Access – where games are available for sale but are incomplete and customers know they are buying an unfinished product – Advanced Access is when a developer or publisher allows people who have pre-ordered a game to play it to play in advance of its official release. And it seems that Valve didn’t start the two-hour clock by the release date.
This means that in the few days of additional access that existed within the negative time bubble that Steam created, people could release a game on mainline and then still refund the game shortly after it went into general sale. Which is terribly cheeky.
In an April 24 post on Steam: Valve announced that these system-destroying shenanigans have been kyboshed.
Today we updated part of our refund policy for pre-purchased titles. This change affects titles that are in pre-sale and “Advanced access“. Game time purchased during the Advanced Access period will now count toward the Steam refund period. More information can be found here Steam refunds here.
Of course, all standard refund policies still apply. So if someone buys Advanced Access, plays the game for less than two hours, and decides they hate it with all their heart, they can ask for their money back before two weeks have passed.
And for the indie developers who Consciously create vignette games that are designed to run for less than two hours? Well, they’re all still just as fucked up.
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