I wonder if this program will stay the same over time
Valve customer support, a service that’s pretty notorious among Steam users, is very very busy with refunds. How busy? Think roughly 50,000 a day.
According to a report from Gamesindustry.biz, Steam refund requests are now up to 49,199 per day, compared to 16,535 requests for all other issues. It’s hard to believe this system has been around since 2015, because outside of a number of developers (mostly who create two hour experiences) there haven’t been many complaints.
Curiously, studios are now starting to pivot this system into a selling point. Arkane’s Raphael Colantonio recently told people to “just play the game on Steam and refund it” rather than play an official demo (which they aren’t releasing), which is all sorts of shady. What if people don’t have the $60 to plunk down at the moment, or have an issue with their refund? Or they accidentally play over the two hour mark?
It’s just a weird system in all, mostly with the way studios have responded to it. But it’s Valve, so they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Steam currently handling 50,000 refund requests per day [Gamesindustry.biz]