I just had a refreshing experience with Steam that I wanted to share.

I bought two games yesterday, played one for ~ 2 hours and the other for 20 minutes, but neither was for me. I requested refunds for both, and to my surprise, they were approved quickly, with the funds set to return to my account within 24 hours.

In an age where so many companies prioritize profits over their customers, this felt fair and user-focused. It’s nice to see a platform that genuinely seems to care about its community and not just profits

So I know we recently found out steam doesn't facilitate passing deceased members accounts, but did you know 2 hours isn't for seeing if you like the game ?

I also raised a support ticket regarding this, I am not sure if I can post direct support ? but essentially I do spend a bit on games and I was asking how the metric is handled (since Jan this year I had purchased around 37 games and refunded 5 (mostly for issues like no servers in my region, not fun and one that was around the length of play)

Steam support said that based on that they said it doesn't look like I'm refunding to play but whenever you refund you must give a details response, and the only real reason they accept refunds is technical difficulties or hard to play (and things related to those things)

I sent this to my friends and most thought thats what the 2 hours were for so thought I'd share this so you know, also breaking this will basically put a lock on

I genuinely felt like this was the intended purpose, same with my friends but yea guess to many people abused the system or something

Whats your thoughts on this ?

Is it only a couple days? Or can you still have a chance if you buy a game that goes on sale a week later?

For those who don't know, Steam allows you to refund games you've bought if you've owned them for less than 2 weeks and played them for less than 2 hours. Now, owning them for less than 2 weeks is fair. If you're so busy you can't find any time to play a game in 2 weeks, you probably don't play games very often anyways. However, 2 hours is not enough time at all. Sure, some games you could absolutely find your opinion in 2 hours, like Portal. But for something like Civ VI, simply going through the tutorial can take a few hours. You won't even get the time to get into a proper game by the time your refund expires unless you're an experienced Civ player in which case you probably weren't gonna refund the game anyways. Or what if you buy an RPG like Persona 4 Golden? The game takes about 3 hours before you can get into the actual gameplay. Everything up to that point is just story.

I understand the play limit being there, as you can absolutely beat some games in less than two weeks. Hell, the first time I played Portal 1, I beat the whole game in less than a day. However, 2 hours is too short. I propose 5 hours instead. I can't think of a single game where it would take longer to figure out if you like it, and if there are any games that can be beaten in 5 hours, you either are already experienced with the game or its series (in which case you wouldn't need the refund), or it's such a short game that the price likely isn't much either way.

Alternatively, I had the thought that the play limit should be different from game to game, but given the number of games on Steam, it would have to be done by the developers and you just know some of them would abuse that system and set it to the minimum to ensure refunds weren't possible. Still, if they could find a way to make it work, it'd probably be the best option

This is for a few reasons.

1. They are guaranteed to see that money back at some point, since it can only be spent in the steam store

2. They don't have to deal with fees from the bank either, so they don't take a loss.

I've refunded 10 games in the last month. All with good reason, but it's allowed me to find some good games, and spend more of my money on steam than I usually would. I hope this stays, since it's been pretty good so far. I got warnings on my account a year back for refunding too many games back to the card I paid for them with.

Since this has gotten some traction, there needs to be a serious penalty for developers that abuse the refund window. Early H1Z1 had an in app download that conveniently took hours to load, and logged up 3 hours of playtime. No man's sky stuffs good content into the first two hours, and peters off into nothingness after. There are gameguru achievement spam games, that give you an achievement for playing for 2 hours and 1 minute.

Ive read a lot of times that some people could refund a game after more than 2 hours of playtime. I tried it with 2 games (they don’t run well) and it never worked 🤷

I have over 2 hours because I kept playing around with the settings to get the best result.

EDIT: Thanks guys for all the suggestions, i tried my luck. i explained my issue with the game but unfortunately no refund for me. I even mentioned that i would buy the Ninja Gaiden Master collection istead of the new remake which is having trouble to run smoothly.

I still bought the master collection and i am waiting for a patch or something for NG Black 2

Thanks for the help!!

I ALWAYS refund games because they are below my expectation, and the refund is accepted immediately, but my money doesn't get refunded until 1-2 days. Why can't they refund it immediately?

Hello,

I recently purchased five games, costing around 80$. However, I accidentally purchased them for myself instead of my friend, who they were meant for. I've refunded all of the games to my Steam Wallet with the intention of getting them for him (and I've stated as such in the refund reason), but would Steam bar me from refunding products because of this?

I bought a game in February and at that time, I was unaware of what their return policy said in regards to returning a game. That's my bad. I should probably read that stuff more often.

It says within 2 weeks (which I am WELL past, clearly) or 2 hours of gameplay (I'm at 55 minutes according to Steam), a game can be returned. Outside of that, the policy also states that exceptions MAY be made on a case by case basis.

I've tried a dozen times or so to return this game because it constantly freezes my computer solid while it's loading, forcing me to use the power button on my PC to restart my computer because the usual tricks to getting back to the desktop are useless.

The automated system on Steam basically auto declines my request every time, despite me writing out the long list of issues I've had.

Has anyone had any luck in this area? Any tips or tricks to help a lad out?

I won't say the name of the game or what the price was, but I could buy a brand new AAA title and have some Steam cash left over for something cheap and fun.

Hey, I've just read refund policy (https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/) and I think that information it's not clear enough.

I also read about "Before your eyes" case where a guy was given a refund after completing the game and writing a positive review.

Do you know how Steam abuse system for refunds works? I suppose that Steam could revoke that feature to him due to his behaviour.

Can they revoke this feature to you without notice?

I would appreciate any comment.

Does steam give you a refund if you have played it more than 2 hours? I wanna know since I play it 2.1 hours, does that make it non refundable?

I bought a game and played it for less than 2 hours, but I owned it for at least 19 days and the refund was still approved, which I'm very thankful of valve for, but am wondering if this is normal? I feel like a long time ago when I owned a game for a short time after 14 days it was denied quickly.

I'm so dissatisfied with Steam's refund policy. I bought a game in Christmas when there were sales, and I haven't been able to play it up until now that summer comes. I played 3 hours and the game crashed making it unable to keep playing past one screen.

I've tried everything, rebooting the PC, deleting my game file and starting anew, uninstalling and re-installing from Steam's page. Nothing works. I can't play the game because it breaks down.

I wanted to return it but they won't let me because it's been more than 14 days since I bought it and I played more than 2 hours. But I didn't even finish the prologue and the game malfunctions!

They won't let me refund it and I think it's just straight up unfair! I can't play the games right away as I buy them and I payed for a game that's broken!