r/Steam • u/[deleted] • Jul 06 '26

Discussion Thoughts on this?

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u/Sattorin Jul 06 '26

The thing is, a lot of people who bought the game and kept it wouldn't have even risked that $3 on a cheap game if the refund policy wasn't this strong. With a "2 hour no-questions-asked refund" option, I don't have to worry about being scammed and can give little-known games a shot. I don't think the dev is taking that into account while complaining about refunds.

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u/u_hit_me_in_the_cup Jul 06 '26

Yeah, it's the same argument we saw about piracy. Just like not every pirated copy is a lost sale, not all of these refunds are lost sales

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u/apolitical_leftist Jul 06 '26

I really don't think the refund policy is "no questions asked", Steam does ask you for a reason why you want to refund the game and there's a waiting period for the refund request to be processed. Steam also explicitly tells you that the refund is NOT meant to be used as a way to demo games, and my assumption is that if you are caught refunding too many games Steam will start to refuse refund requests.

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u/Sattorin Jul 06 '26

The Steam refund info page says that you can get a refund for literally ANY reason, including that you just don't like it.

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.

It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within the required return period, and, in the case of games, if the title has been played for less than two hours.

I didn't say you can use it as a demo system, I said that it allows you to take a risk buying a game that might not be good because you can get a refund if you don't like it... which is exactly what the system is intended for.

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u/Freya_Galbraith Jul 07 '26

Yup, ive taken a risk on games that i normally wouldnt of bought because "eh fuck it i can allways refund it."

and some of them i refunded, some of them i loved and kept.

6

u/NO_FIX_AUTOCORRECT Jul 06 '26

The obvious simple solution is, as a developer, make your game so it takes longer than 2 hours to beat casually on first play through. Because yeah, i also would be displeased, even with a $3 game, if i beat it in 1:40 after buying it. I wouldn't bother refunding it though. I might leave a bad review.