Valve has revealed a major change to the way they handle refunds for Early Access games.
On their news page, they shared this update:
“Today we have updated a portion of our Refund Policy regarding pre-purchased titles. This change covers titles that are in pre-purchase and offer “Advanced Access”. Playtime acquired during the Advanced Access period will now count towards the Steam refund period. You can find our more information regarding Steam Refunds here.”
But that doesn’t really tell the whole story. So let’s jump into the actual Steam Refunds policy to check the actual change:
“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.”
We’ll give an actual example so that you can put this under consideration as well. Both Baldur’s Gate 3, multiple time GOTY award winner, and The Day Before, were on Early Access. If you bought Baldur’s Gate 3 on Early Access, it’s likely that you knew what you were getting into, and you wouldn’t be likely to have had it refunded.
But let’s say you decided to throw some money down for The Day Before, a title that created so much furor that the studio pulled it from Steam, and later offered refunds to players. How likely is it that you would have asked for a refund for this game, if you did get a chance to play it?
Under Valve’s new policy, whether the Early Access game you played was as shifty as The Day Before, or as brilliant as Baldur’s Gate 3, you would not be allowed to refund it, if you played it for more than two hours. While that seems to be a harsh precondition for refunds, it’s a reasonable policy.
Valve has given sufficient warnings about the nature of Early Access titles, and they money spent and refunded for those games are worth as much in real world value as fully published titles. So if you’re someone who does want to support early projects on Steam, it’s something you have to keep in mind. It’s not a free lunch for players for those games anymore.
