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Buy a game you hate on Steam? Now you can finally get a refund – here’s how

Published Jun 2nd, 2015 3:12PM EDT
How to Get a Refund on Steam

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After years of pleading from consumers, Valve finally brought refunds to the Steam digital game store this week. In an update posted on its website on Tuesday, Valve outlined the rules for getting a refund on Steam, which looks to be surprisingly simple (and forgiving) for anyone unsatisfied with their purchase.

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Here’s the best part: you can get a refund for any reason at all. Maybe the game won’t run on your PC, maybe the game was released in a glitchy, unplayable state or maybe you just don’t like the game. In order to get your money back, all you have to do is make a request on https://help.steampowered.com/ within 14 days of purchasing a game that you’ve played for 2 hours or less.

Even if your purchase doesn’t fall within those parameters, Valve will still consider your refund request, but understandably, they’ll be on the lookout for abuse of the system. In other words, don’t play Skyrim for 55 hours, beat the main quest and then expect to get a full refund now that you’re done with it.

Interestingly, Valve also notes that it does not consider requesting a refund on a title you bought right before it went on sale to be abuse. If you buy The Witcher 3 today and it goes on sale this weekend, you might be able to get a refund and rebuy it at the cheaper price.

For more details on refunds, be sure to read the official Steam page for the program.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.