Valve Closes Loophole in Steam Refund Policy for Early Access Games

Valve announced a small tweak to their refund policy, which closes a small loophole left open for Early Access and Advanced Access. When Valve started letting you play Steam games ahead of their release dates with its “Early Access” and “Advanced Access” programs, players found a way to abuse the system by playing for hours on end before requesting a refund.

UPDATE: The boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has pointed fans angered by today's account linking news directly at PlayStation. Valve has closed a loophole in its refund policy that let users play many hours of a game before its official release and still get their money back. This change comes after players that put more than two hours into pre-purchased or advanced access games will now be exempt from Steam's refund policy.

Steam's refund policy lets you request a refund for any game as long as it was purchased within the last 14 days, and if you've played it for less than two hours. The new terms effectively close a loophole that previously allowed gamers to request refunds after spending several hours or even days in a game. How to refund Steam games on the Steam desktop app: Launch the Steam desktop app, click on Help, then Steam Support, and follow the instructions provided.

Valve clearly wants to keep up with the growing trend of games charging extra money to let players in early. By closing this loophole, they are ensuring that players cannot take advantage of the system by playing a game extensively before deciding to request a refund.