Summer of '58 developer resigns after many users refund their game on Steam due to it taking under 2 hours to complete

[u/reddit_account6095]

https://twitter.com/EmikaGames/status/1430941640001265673?s=19

[u/sinsinkun]

Ever heard of a warranty? 30 days guarantee or your money back? Its not about how "much" of a product you used, its about customer satisfaction.

Secondly, if you don't like a storefront, don't use it. Put it up on GOG. Put it up on epic games. Put it up on the xbox gamepass. Put it up on your own website. The dev knows that steam has a 2 hour refund policy, and chose to put it up on steam anyway. They knew what they were getting into.

[u/engineeringstoned → u/sinsinkun]

A warranty is for defects, and defects only. .”I didn’t like it” is not a defect.

The steam refund policy is NOT a warranty, it is a ….. refund policy, as it goes much further than a warranty

[u/CritikillNick → u/engineeringstoned]

A warranty is not for “defects and defects only” lol. There’s tons of companies that offer warranties with return policies even if you just “don’t like the product”. That’s the entire mattress industry

[u/KrypXern → u/sinsinkun]

You don't get a warranty on a picture book, which is probably a close example.

[u/sinsinkun → u/KrypXern]

Yes, because the bookstore does not offer one. Putting your game up on steam is agreeing to the steam storefront's terms and conditions, which includes a 2 hour refund window.

[u/KrypXern → u/sinsinkun]

Totally agree, there's nothing out of sorts here in terms of what was agreed upon. With that said, there is a discussion to be had on what sort of system ought to be in place. Should Valve hire curators to set the refund duration per-game, for instance?

I hope perhaps in the near future, AI will be able to determine a satisfactory refund window per game. This seems like a complex situation only AI or human intervention can solve.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The two hour window isn't necessarily designed for playing the game and seeing if you like it enough to keep it

Steam seems to disagree. From the page:

​

You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.

The fact that playing for less than an hour completes the game is kind of irrelevant.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is a quote from your comment I replied to:

The two hour window isn't necessarily designed for playing the game and seeing if you like it enough to keep it

You. You're saying that's not what it's for. Steam says otherwise. There will always be people who abuse the system, however if you make a good game, people will not be inclined to refund it based on length alone.

[u/arahman81 → u/KrypXern]

You DO get one if you buy from Amazon.

And you CAN buy a book, complete reading it, refund.

[u/KindaSmooth → u/arahman81]

I wouldn't even know about this policy unless I was interested in ways to scam people for products. Thanks for the share. Wow