Steam has added a new rule to its refund policy meaning the time you spend playing a game before release now counts toward its 2-hour playtime rule.
On April 24, Steam shared a brief post detailing an update about its Refund Policy. Before this update, the general rule was that users could request a refund for "nearly any purchase" for "any reason" so long as the game had been played for less than two hours. Following the changes, the period in which someone plays a game ahead of release now counts in this same two-hour window.
"Today we have updated a portion of our Refund Policy regarding pre-purchased titles," the post reads. "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."
- Steam now warns you if an early access game hasn't been updated in a long time, but outside obvious abandonware, it's not clear what actually counts as an update
- Steam doubles down on a 5-year-old rule to make it more visible: "Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game"
This means that if you pre-order a game and it offers a couple of days early access, the time you spend playing it before release now counts towards that refund window. The change probably won't affect many people as you're still getting the two-hour window, you can just decide if you like a game sooner than you would if you played it after release. The rest of Steam's refund policy stays the same.
This is just one of the changes Steam has made this year. In January, it was revealed that a new Steam policy will allow the "vast majority" of AI games to release - but it will require a two-stage disclosure from the developer to be allowed on the storefront. Following this, Steam's family plan was upgraded so that kids can ping their parents to pay for their shopping cart and other interesting new features.
Find out what we've got to look forward to this year with our upcoming PC games list.
