Steam patches major refund exploit

As the cornucopia of game releases, Steam has taken a stance against gamers out-witting the platform to get refunds on games that they have played a considerable amount of time on.

The PC games hub allows players two hours of game time to solidify the sale before the window for a refund is closed, but savvy exploits have been worming around this period, and Steam is at its wit's end.

After observing the trend of early access releases, Steam executives have decided that enough is enough, and the loophole-serving free game time has now been worked into the fine print for refunds.

Steam changes its refund policy to include early access trials

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An abundance of games have been jumping on the bandwagon to provide free early access trials to players, often as a reward for pre-ordering the game.

EA FC (nee FIFA) and Call of Duty are just two of these games that offer hours of unbridled joy before the full game releases. Previously, the 10-hour trial or one-week early access wouldn't have counted toward Steam's two-hour refund time period.

Hypothetically speaking, one CoD player could sit on the early access week for seven days straight, giving them 238 hours (plus two more) of time to decide whether the title warrants a refund or not.

But Steam has now blocked this, as the platform took to a blog post to state, "Playtime acquired during the Advanced Access period will now count towards the Steam refund period."

Players will now have to be much more careful when diving into their next pre-purchased game, especially if the early access period isn't for the "full game".

For example, using Call of Duty again, its annual early access period only releases the Campaign, and not Multiplayer or Zombies. You could use your refund grace period by playing a story mode before the real action starts.

"I guess this proves [the] perspective that Early Access is considered the launch date and other people are buying the economy version for later access," one fan pointed out, which summarises the change rather equivocally.

Steam has already issued too many refunds for its own liking this year, with a range of titles like The Day Before flopping completely and being erased from the store altogether.