Ever purchase a game and thought soon after, "Wow, this sucks and I'm out 50 bucks"? Mercifully, Valve is working to make this a thing of the past, introducing 14-day refunds for Steam games bought online.
The rules and restrictions on the refund policy are extremely lenient, according the official site, which states: "You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam - for any reason."
Whether a problem with your PC, a mistaken purchase or you simply don't like the game, the folks at Valve don't care.
The one catch? Your play time on the title can't exceed two hours, though this doesn't appear to be too cut and dry either, since the site says, "even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look."
DLC falls under the same agreement, though some refunds for third-party DLC may not be eligible for a refund, especially if it "irreversibl[y] levels up a game character."
Steam is late to the party
Although this is a good step for Steam and its users, it should be noted that main competitors Origin and GOG have been boasting refund policies for some time now.
Origin, which is owned by Electronic Arts, offers a "great game guarantee" to refund a game for any reason within seven days of purchasing, or 24 hours of first launching. This applies to all EA games, and only certain third-party titles.
GOG, or Good Old Games, is a bit more stingy with its refunding, offering a 30-day "withdrawal right" for any purchase, as long as it hasn't been downloaded or launched yet. The only other way to get a refund is if your game breaks from internal bugs.
Even though Steam is behind the pack on game refunds, it seems to be offering the most comprehensive solution to the problem yet. Steam says all requests are accepted and should be sent through help.steampowered.com. Gamers rejoice!
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