Steam’s “refund for less than 2 hours of play” policy was originally intended to protect consumers. Now, independent developers have jumped out to complain that this system is being used by a large number of players as a tool to “play for free and then quit.” Zoroarts, the developer of the independent game “Paddle Paddle Paddle”, said that because the game took less than two hours, more than 55,000 players have refunded the game, with a refund rate as high as 21%. Some people even generously admitted in the Steam comments that “I have finished playing, so I refunded.”
The most annoying thing is that players still come to leave messages to show off!
Zoroarts published multiple screenshots of Steam reviews. One player even gave a positive review, saying that the game was very fun, but because he finished the game within two hours, he directly applied for a refund. There is more than one similar message. He reluctantly said that the current overall evaluation of the game still maintains 90% “extremely favorable”, but the number of refunds continues to rise, which makes him unable to help but call Valve, hoping to review Steam’s refund mechanism.
Short games are the biggest victims
Steam currently stipulates that as long as the purchase is less than 14 days and the play time does not exceed 2 hours, you can generally apply for a refund. The problem is that many plot-oriented, puzzle-solving or sketch-based independent games are originally designed to last only one to two hours. As long as players pass the game normally, they will be eligible for a refund, which means they can get their money back after fully experiencing the content. Many independent developers believe that the current system is unfair to short works.
Players also quarreled
After the incident was exposed, two factions of voices emerged in the community. Some people believe that abusing the refund system should not be done in the first place. Even if the rules allow it, it does not mean that refunding after playing the entire game is a reasonable behavior. However, some people believe that it is difficult for Valve to set different standards for different game lengths. The existing policies can at least protect the rights and interests of consumers. The real problem lies in the deliberate exploitation of loopholes by a few players.