![]() That way, they can make an informed decision about whether they want to commit to it. Some of those games can last more than 100 hours, so a player can play an hour and experience 1% of the game. You can play an hour of a massive expansive open-world RPG or similar and see if it appeals to you. For AAA games, this appears to be a good deal. Whatever the reason, a refund still needs to be issued within that two-hour timeframe. This becomes a useful stat against which developers can measure their relative success. Did you know that players from some countries are more prone to refund a game than others? It would be great to have official data, but after reaching out to some developer friends and reading several post mortems, the average refund rate seems to be around 5% and 10%. Plus, there are many other factors at play, too. Whether those reasons are fair or unfair is debatable – but this debate doesn't really matter because of Steam's policy. There are plenty of reasons that a player may want a refund on a game. They could end up trying out genres with which they haven't dabbled, or even experimental games.īut, again, that’s theory. We can also see some positive side effects, in that players will be more willing to try new products. They'll be for broken games, hardware issues, accidental purchases (more common than it seems), for example. So, if we assume that players are always honest, then all the refunds will be justified. And consider that when Steam introduced Steam Direct, it opened the floodgates to a whole host of games of questionable quality on the platform. However, I don’t want to be cynical here it’s too easy to blame players. "Getting noticed on Steam is more difficult with every passing day – there are more than 50,000 games on the platform right now." ![]() So if we summarize this situation as a balance of power, we have the players holding the upper hand, Steam never losing, and the developers at the mercy of the goodwill of their players. Especially for indie studios that are working to tight sales numbers to survive. However, that would depend on the number of refunds and the nature of those refunds. One could say that this automated system also benefits developers, who don't have to process refunds. It's easy to see who bears the risk here, without even taking into account the fact that Steam has more products in circulation than any developer. The developer, on the hand, directly loses a sale. In those cases, Steam retains that 20-30%, even if the player doesn’t use that wallet currency to purchase another game. If Steam isn't able to return the money through the original payment method, the refund will be added to the customer's Steam Wallet. For example, according to Clear Returns, returns cost UK retailers £60bn a year.īut that’s not all. This isn't the case with refund costs across the globe, however. There's no need for employees to process it, and transportation or repackaging expenses are nonexistent. For each refund, Valve simply loses its 20-30% revenue share (which will depend on the game’s sales). Although obvious, it's important to note that Steam’s return costs are minimal (as they are for any other retailer of digital goods). Steam's system mostly benefits players, but also Steam itself. Then, it’s up to the developer to decide whether or not a player should get their money back. After that, there is a 48-hour period during which a refund request can be processed by Google. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements maybe you bought a game by mistake maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it”.Ĭompare this with Android, where a full refund can be requested within two hours. In the words of Valve itself, “you can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam – for any reason. Consider that the reason behind a refund doesn’t matter here. The first is a pretty common condition of refund for both physical and digital stores around the world. You can check out all the information here. The refund has to be made within two weeks of purchase.It's a hands-off approach in which there are only two requirements that must be met in order to obtain a refund on a game: There's no need to interact with developers, publishers or even Valve employees. The new system is radically different: refunds are automatic and player-oriented.
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