In the world of PC gaming, Steam is known for its pretty generous refund policy, but there has been a slight change recently. If you regularly play Early Access releases, you will need to know about the new refund policy.
Just a minor tweak
In a recent post over on the Steam website, a few changes have come about regarding how the company offers refunds on what it deems to be “pre-purchased titles.” It’s only a small change, but going forward, the two-hour playtime allowance will now be counted on Early Access games.
Up until now, it’s been possible to play as much of an “advanced access” release as possible and still receive a refund (providing other criteria are met).
This is because the two-hour window was only counted once the game was fully released. It seems this policy update has been put in-place to close a potential loophole that allows people to play an Early Access game as much as possible and still be eligible for a refund.
The change to the Steam policy does not apply to beta testing, and the 14-day period for game’s pre-purchased “will not start until the release date.” It seems the main difference with this update, then, is you can only refund an Early Access game that’s not been played for more than two hours.
The original rule stated that the two-hours only began “on the game’s release date.” This is now no longer the case. More details about Steam’s refund policy can be found here.
Valve introduced Steam refunds back in 2015, signifying a leap forward in consumer rights when it comes to digital purchases in gaming.
