In the early days of Steam's platform, players could enjoy, or maybe not enjoy, an early access game for hours upon hours and still be able to get a refund as long as the game hadn’t yet launched. Now that changes, as Valve has rolled out a new refund policy to include early and advanced access titles.
Steam’s refund policy is pretty easy to understand, as it's been the same since the beginning of their refund policy. As long as you haven’t played any title for more than two hours and it hasn’t been more than 14 days since the purchase of said game, you receive a 100% refund with no questions asked. Now, for early access titles, there was a bit of an oversight or a loophole of sorts, as you could play as many hours as you wanted since it was in early access and still receive the no-questions-asked refund.
That all changes today, as the new policy will include early access and advanced access hours in the refund policy. If the game is in early access, you will now only have up to two hours or two weeks from the time you purchase the game to refund it, just as any other title on the platform.
The new policy is as follows,
“When you purchase a title on Steam prior to the release date, the two-hour playtime limit for refunds will apply (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds will not start until the release date. For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, any playtime will count against the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title which is not playable prior to the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title, and the standard 14-day/two-hour refund period will apply starting on the game’s release date.”
While this may seem like a bit of a downer, it’s to be expected, as playing hours and hours of a game that has yet to fully launch and getting a full refund is a bit backwards. Wondering how many hours you have put into Steam over the years? The latest Year in Review feature can show players not only what they have played the most, but how many total hours have been spent enjoying every game in the Library.
