Steam insists No Man’s Sky is not getting special refund treatment

Valve has dismissed suggestions that it has relaxed the refund restrictions for the Steam version of No Man’s Sky.

Parts of the internet have over the weekend started to argue that Valve was being more lenient with the Hello Games title than it is with typical releases. This is based on plenty of anecdotal evidence that refunds are being granted for owners who have played the game for far longer than the suggested two hour play time limit, after which refunds will no longer be automatically granted.

However, a disclaimer has now been added to the game’s Steam store listing that states: The standard Steam refund policy applies to No Man’s Sky. There are no special exemptions available. Click here for more detail on the Steam refund policy.”

So what is happening? Well, Steam’s refund policy has always been pretty flexible. The two hours playtime and two weeks ownership is the automatic threshold under which refunds should always be granted (there are a few exemptions). Beyond that, buyers could theoretically be refunded for anything, as per the whim of whoever is assigned the refund request.

Indeed, Steam’s own T&Cs state: You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam – for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn’t like it.

It doesn’t matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours. There are more details below, but 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.”