has closed a loophole in its refund policy that effectively allowed players to play a game before its official release date and get their money back. The company offers users the option to refund a game, no questions asked, as long as they haven’t played for more than two hours within 14 days. Previously, refund policies for games in Early Access or Advanced Access were far more lenient, but Valve has nipped this in the bud.
“If you purchase a title before the release date on Steam, the two-hour game time limit for refunds applies (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds only begins on the release date,” Valve says. as noted by . “For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, the entire game time will count toward the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title that is not playable before the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to the release of that title. The standard refund period of 14 days/two hours applies from the game release date.
Early access allows players to try out an incomplete version of a game. This is helpful for developers as they can collect player feedback and use it to improve their project before launching the marketing campaign before the official release. Supergiant famously used this strategy with great success (and might want to repeat this trick). But a game can stay in Early Access for years. Under the previous policy, players could invest many hours into an early access game and still request a refund from Steam.
Expanded access refers to playing a full version of a game before its actual debut. It’s quite common for publishers to sell a deluxe edition of a game that allows players to jump in a few days early. However, Steam allowed someone to beat a game in expanded access and get their money back before the standard version was available to everyone.
The time limit of two hours now applies to games in Early Access and Advanced Access. There’s also a new label for expanded access to make it clear when a game offers this.
However, there’s another major problem with the otherwise generous two-hour refund policy that Steam hasn’t fully resolved. It is for players who can earn credits playing very short games, typically indie titles. That still leaves the developer and publisher of the game.