If ever you needed another reason not to purchase or play games in early access, Valve has stepped forward to give you a huge one with the latest update to Steam’s refund agreement: It’s now going to count time played in early access against the refund timer, meaning that sinking more than two hours into an early access game will render it unrefundable.
Steam’s long-running refund policy allowed gamers to seek a refund on any game within in two weeks and under two hours. That’s not changing. It also allowed gamers to seek a refund on any game before its launch, which meant that if you bought a game in early access, played several dozen hours to test it, realized it was trash, and then requested a refund, then you’d get a refund, no questions asked.
But now, Steam will be treating “early access” titles the same way it treats launched games by making them subject to that same two-hour window. Here’s the exact text of the new policy:
“REFUNDS ON TITLES PURCHASED PRIOR TO RELEASE DATE – 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.”
As least it does sound as if you buy a game in early access and then don’t play two hours, you can still get your money back all the way through two weeks after the full launch.
Obviously, this is particularly painful for MMORPGs, since it’s not often that you can make a proper judgment on a game meant to last for years in just two hours. At while it might cut down on some forms of early access abuse from a tiny segment of gamers, it also makes early access games less attractive for legitimate players – and makes early access considerably easier to abuse from the studio perspective.
