@tomba_be: It could work that way, sure - sounds like a pretty good way to handle it. But in my experience, large companies don't always communicate with each other very well. Ultimately, though, as long as Valve isn't just kicking the rebates back to the devs, I'll be relatively calm.

I shouldn't be this impressed with the number of people Austin interviewed for this piece, but I am. Keep up the great work duder!

As for the story itself, I imagine Valve will add nuance to the policy once public exposure highlights the cracks. Consumers might lose a few initial benefits in the process, but I'd say it's better start out liberal with the refunds.

It's about time.

A long time coming.

People think everyone will take the piss and be refunding everything... not how it works. Android has had refunds for a long time and in reality people do not do that, people are generally very fair. If you buy a game and you like it, you're not going to refund it, 2 hours is basically a demo and I'm sure there will be other rules in place for games that are only 2 hours long.

I see this as pleasing the consumer, they'll buy with confidence and be less likely to wait for a sale as they wont fear not liking the game any more. We will not see an epidemic of developers making no money because people have decided to play the system.

On the other hand it means developers will have to make sure their games are more stable. If a game is launched broken, lots of people will be refunding it, that is exactly what this refund policy is for.

In fact, Christopher Floyd, COO of Indie Megabooth, told me that he believes that this is just a clarification of Valve's established policy. "This whole deal strikes me as them basically wanting some wording out there to explain their stance on refunds. In past experience, they refunded if you had a decent reason. This page looks like them hammering out what they define as 'decent reason.'"

Nope...this isnt a clarification of Valves established policy. When i asked for a refund for a certain game I was told by a Valve customer service that this was a one time only deal.

I think this is a move by Valve to stop them having problems with the return policy rules which are forced in European Union (consumer rights regarding the right to return purchases are much stronger in Europe than they are in USA). Also maybe this is also a response to Origins policy of refunding your purchase if you arent satisfied with your purchase.

In comparison Valve kinda looked bad with their no refunds policy except in extreme cases.

Also this policy should make developers of Early Access games a bit more careful when it comes to putting them up for sale. That 2 hour window will give buyers a chance to get a refund of their purchase if the game is totally broken or still at alpha stage.

I just used this feature to process a refund from LEGO Worlds. Glad I can get my money back.

@perryvandell: Man, compared to PHD research work, this has got to be like cocktails on the beach :D

"Half an hour game"... Sorry but don't call your product a game and sell it on steam, call it an experience and sell it wherever you can find. I'm so fed up with that kind of Indie Developers sorry >_<

I think the 2 hour mark and no question asked refund policy are mostly to combat the rising trend of lying and outright scamming "developers" on steam these days.

You buy a game, see for like 5 mins the raw graphics and stolen assets and horrible design ETC, you don't like it - BAM - refund. I don't see any problem in that.

Awesome! We need to see this type of policy across all digital game storefronts (especially Sony, who has the most egregious of customer support/policies).

I'd say that time limit should maybe an hour; that's long enough to get the gist of a game, see if it works, and probably not beat it (even shorter titles).

In past experience, they refunded if you had a decent reason.

My ass they did, i once bought a game the moment Steam updated it's sales page at full price and a 10% discount was added to it before the game even finished downloading. (what i mean is, this game was released and discounted the same day i bought it) I figured, hell i can take that loss but then the game didn't run...it displayed in the task manager (was there only way to close it) but there was nothing there. I think i put in three requests for different kinds of refunds only to be shot down on all of them for this game that didn't work that i paid more than what valve was asking for...i think that was a pretty decent reason for a refund.

What happens with a game that I've had for a month but that now seems abandoned?

Probably the same thing that happened to Stompingland, people were allowed a refund for a game that was taken off the steam store. This isn't a problem for the refund system, this is a problem with the Early Access system. I think a smarter solution there would be to allow everyone to play Early Access games free for two hours every time the game gets a new patch so people can sample the progress and determine if it's worth a purchase in it's current state.

This was pretty much inevitable considering the amount of pressure that the EU has been putting on them to offer refunds. They've been trying to dodge it for years, but it was going to catch up with them sooner or later.

@banicabolnica: Dismissing games as not being a game because it doesn't fulfill some arbitrary criteria is the lazieste form of criticism. Short games are of course games too.

@thejoker138: I'm sure Valve will be collecting/analyzing the data of refunds, and picking out the people that are consistently refunding products. If there is some kind of abuse of policy, they'll definitely notice it. The question then is what will they do when they notice it?

@briktal: I imagine, games that are 15 minutes in length will be special cases, and may not be refundable. It really depends on the the price of the game. For instance, you can play Please, don't touch anything and be done with it in less than 2 hours. Should that entitle people to get a refund?

I think anything that the developer knows will be, by design really short, should have a non-refundable option in place when publishing their small game. Customers should have to acknowledge that they're aware the product's sale is final, with a secondary check box when purchasing it. Simple enough solution. Anyone buying short games should know full well what they're getting into.

I can see absolutely no down sides to this. For developers making short experiences, if people don't like your game and finished it (or in Super Hexagon they played it for an hour) and thought it was trash, then they deserve every cent of their money back.

People that care about your game won't do that. If that means you make less money, that's just the reality of the market.

Thanks Austin. ;)

I have to wonder if a better way to go about this when it comes to the "games I just didn't like" refund, is to just push more devs to offer a free demo.

No money exchanged and returns necessary. It's just so much simpler.

But in the past Valve have been weary of forcing anything on devs, and instead dealing with all of the messy financial stuff themselves, and that's probably for the best for everyone involved.

---

Also, to people buying Early Access games that suck. Congrats on potentially being able to get your money back, but maybe think before you give money to all those shady ass people making a product that doesn't fully exist. Consumer protections shouldn't give you the "right" to be an idiot.

If people are very picky about what they play, then they should research it via Quick Looks, youtube Lets Plays, reviews, word of mouth, ect after the game is released. There is no excuse in this day and age for buying a game (or multiple games like you're suggesting) blind if you feel like your time and money are worth something. I don't buy games first day til I read and watch videos of it to see if it is what I want no matter how hype I maybe for it (Code Name STEAM is a great example of this.)

At some point, we need to be the smart consumers and not let the marketing hype get to us. Valve is just making it clear that they will get you refunds but making sure people just do not abuse it.

Either way, we win. I imagine it might be a result of Early Access and the amount of garbage that floods the storefront out of Greenlight - I imagine that both systems will see a grander restructurization, but that's a good way to handle the crock of shit out there.

@amyggen: I agree that I'm generalizing a bit but I hope you get my point.

I can only come up with two examples of short "things" (Dear Esther and Journey) and one of them is definitely a game compared to the other, that yes I agree it will be a shitty thing to do to complete Journey and then ask for a refund, but that's not a problem because steam is not selling that game.

But that's not the point. You can make 1h or 30mins the mark for a refund, the important thing for me is the ability to install the game, try to run it and then see if I like it. Maybe I have a shitty PC, maybe I don't know how to run it properly - I don't like how things are going, I return the game and get my money back. Nobody is losing at least.

I wonder if i can refund my "3 years old, yet still in Early Access and missing the main component of the game" copy of Interstellar Marines.

Really dig the content Austin is putting out. Have been looking for a good news source lately to supplement GB but now I do not have to go anywhere!

As a hr professional I have to say, GB makes really good hires imo.

Sunset Riders reference *swoons*

Step in the right direction. I never had a problem with games from Steam though.

Overall, I'd say that this is a very positive move, but Valve is definitely going to need to elaborate on certain points and make some refinements. I'm sure that most people will use the refund feature responsibly, but there's enough potential for abuse that Valve really needs to do something to address the concerns of developers.

Cool maybe now i will play gone home!

Maybe developers (or Valve) should put achievements in games that say "No More Refund". Once a player passes a certain point or amount of play they should know if they want to keep the game.

One aspect that Austin misses is that if you buy a game and it gets a big sale soon after, you can get a refund and rebuy while it's on sale. Granted, it would be nicer if they could just refund the difference, but it's a start.

Going down this road would essentially invalidate one of the major reasons publishers are moving to digital distribution in the first place. I don't see this happening anytime soon.

Do you mind explaining what you didnt like about it? I've been looking at it and it seems interesting...

Yeah, pretty much agree with you there. Doubt it'll ever happen on Steam tbh.

Does this mean I can get a refund for Company of Heroes 2?

This appears to be a necessary update to Valve's policies on Steam. But I can't help but think of so many different cases where it could be abused.

I rarely buy a game that I know I won't at least enjoy enough to warrant a summer sale purchase, but I do have a large library of games that I have not even touched due to time restraints or otherwise. Most of these games are definitely over that two-week period and so may not be permitted to a refund if I so desire. I hear a lot about over-buying during steam sales from various people, and I realize there are programs such as Steam Trading. However, as Valve states,

Does Steam Trading mean I can sell my used games?

No, only games that have been bought as a gift, and thus have never been played, can be traded. Once the Steam Gift is opened and added to your game library, you won’t be able to trade it again.

Could this potentially cause people to request a refund in said circumstance if it meets the criteria?

I'm curious to know if there are any plans (or known solutions) to buying a game and having it collect dust in a library (over the two week period) and being able to either replace that game or receive compensation for it.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out regardless.

Yeah, I wouldn't completely rule something like that out. But for the publisher it probably doesn't make much sense, always better to just sell games "new".

Apparently "There are more details below, but even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we’ll take a look." isn't true, because if you do fall outside of the rules they put forth, there's no way to actually ask for a refund.

@gamecode: The two week period seems like a reasonable amount of time. At a certain point, a developer (especially small indie devs with lower sales figures) needs to know that a sale is final so that they can spend the money made from it. Having some number of unplayed copies hanging over them eternally as potential refunds would be a nightmare.

@hobosunday said:

I would post

I've always thought that the premise of Early Access was "only buy this game if you're happy with it in its current state." I've had more instances of game companies at E3 saying "Look at this cool game idea we'll never show you again" than I have instances of being disappointed in an Early Access game I've bought, and I buy a lot of games.

but I'm tired of arguing about Early Access.

Yeah, I'd say that 1 week is fair too, 2 weeks is more than fair.

Overall this seems great. There are few games that I have avoided buying simply because I'm not sure how they will run on my aging PC, and games I regret buying since they ran at about 5 fps when I booted them up.

As others have suggested though, I think they might need to come up with some other solution for shorter games though or it might discourage creators from experimenting in that area. Maybe allow devs to submit that having an achievement for completing the game negates refunds or something.

I've been waiting for this for awhile! Valve did a good job finally adding this feature to their platform.

@chaser324: I agree. As others have mentioned, that gets into problems with digital distribution and developer's interests. Having a game that was on sale that I no longer play is not a huge issue considering it was on sale anyways. I imagine the best way to fix that would be to buy games as gifts, or now recently, unless you plan on playing it within those two weeks?

Wow that is a hell of a writeup... I'm glad you aren't doing the 2-3 personal sentences then copy/paste the news like every other site does! Keep it up! :D

Look who finally decided to comply with EU law.

I'd be in favor of a sort of digital restocking fee to solve for shorter games, etc. Like 90% of purchase price refunded if less than two hours played, especially if that entire "restocking fee" went straight to the developers instead of to Valve. So a bad $60 purchase will cost you $6 and a bad $1.99 purchase will cost you $0.20. And to avoid Valve eating CC fees, I'm fine if the refund went to your wallet by default.

Though I would guess that no money would be coming from Steam until the two week period is up regardless. As is I don't think money goes directly from sale of product into developer's bank account, I imagine you get bi-weekly or monthly checks from Valve reflecting your total sales over that period.

My only worry is that I probably take longer than 2 hours to troubleshoot games that aren't working. I guess I'd have to drop them a lot earlier when it occasionally happens.

For a refund, absolutely. As difficult as it might be, I sometimes wish there was an easier way to receive compensation or equal value trades for older games. That is not necessarily a problem that Valve must consider due to it being consumer error or frivolous spending.

As it so happens, this refund policy could help that specific case at the rare chance it occurs. It's just a matter of adhering to Valve's guidelines.

As far as short games go: make the refunds only available to purchases of $5 or more. That might cut down on people buying those small short games, playing them for a bit, then returning them.

Also, great article Austin! Glad you're on the team now!

@deathpooky: That's accurate. Pretty much every digital storefront only pays out on a monthly basis. Although, now that you bring it up, I am curious if Valve will adjust their payout schedule to actually freeze sales proceeds for the duration of the refund period. I don't know that they've explicitly stated that (not that they would do so publicly anyway since it's purely a developer/publisher concern), but it would make sense.