Valve updates its Steam refund policy, closing the Early Access loophole

Two-hour trial period for Early Access games starts as soon as you buy the game

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Published onApril 25, 2024

published onApril 25, 2024

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Steam had a pretty fair refund policy that allowed users to refund the games if they weren’t happy with them or if they had any issues.

However, some users found a way to exploit this, and Valve was forced to update its refund policy and put an end to this practice.

Valve updates its refund policy, cracking down on freeloaders

As you know, Steam has Early Access and Advanced Access offers that allow you to play games before the official release date.

The company has a policy that allows you to refund a game if you have played it for more than two hours after the release, but since games in Early Access and Advanced Access aren’t released, these limitations didn’t apply.

This allowed some users to play the games for far more than two hours and then request a refund. Valve caught on to this behavior and decided to put an end to it asArs Technica writes.

Valve has updated its refund policyand now the two-hour trial period will apply as soon as you purchase a game, and not once the game is released:

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.

It’s good to see that Valve has addressed this issue, but this means that some players will have to be more cautious when purchasing games that are in rough shape during the Early Access stage.

Speaking of Steam,Helldivers 2 is now available at 15% off, so go ahead and grab it.

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Valve updates its Steam refund policy, closing the Early Access loophole

Valve updates its refund policy, cracking down on freeloaders