this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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The steam 2 hour return window is the new defacto demo for all games.
It's entirely different, though.
I'm not going to pay to try a game and lean on a refund. I just won't play it at all.
Fair enough, I do it all the time and so do people in my friend group. There's a new game, it's on sale, I know I buy games on steam regularly, I buy the game, I try it, it doesn't work, it's not fun, something. I return it within the 2-hour window fairly regularly.
In fact, this steam two hour window has been part of game developer philosophy for a while, putting the good content first, so you don't get bored before the 2 hours expire. There's been a fair few reviews where people speculate this was just front-loaded so people don't return it
There are people who do; I'm not disputing that.
But it's a very small minority. You're cutting out like 90+% of a potential demo audience by demanding cash on the barrel head up front. It's objectively worse for the customer by a significant margin.
That's a good point. I agree with that. It adds friction.
It's the defacto demonstration of last resort, at that point somebody's just using it to escape from a bad purchase.
I send my refunds to my Steam wallet. Either I eventually get a "free" game that I like or I get to keep trying until I find a keeper.
As someone who has used the refund system a lot, you can exceed the 2 hours. I don't know if they look at my Steam account or just accept my reasoning for a refund but I know I've received a full refund for games that were well past that 2 hour mark.
If you accidentally go over 2 hours, though, then you're stuck with it.