Steam’s 2-hour refund rule faces fresh criticism: short indie games get hit hardest

Steam, Valve’s PC gaming platform, is catching heat again over its refund policy. Right now, players can get their money back within 14 days of purchase as long as they’ve played a game for less than two hours. The rule is drawing the same complaint it has before: for short indie games, that cutoff can work against the people making them.

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The latest case is Paddle Paddle Paddle by Mateo Covic, who also goes by Zoroarts. Covic says the game has been refunded 55,000 times, which puts it at a 21% refund rate, even though it holds a “Very Positive” rating on Steam. Some reviews say the quiet part out loud: players mention finishing it in under two hours, then refunding it.

If you keep up with indie releases, this one matters. Developers have been arguing for a while that Steam’s refund rules can turn a consumer safeguard into an easy way to play for free, and that shorter, well-reviewed games take the biggest hit.

Covic isn’t the only one saying it. Developers behind No Case Should Remain Unsolved, Summer of ’58, and Before Your Eyes have raised the same issue. Their argument is simple enough: short runtimes are often a deliberate creative decision, but if value gets judged mostly by hours played, games that pad things out look better than games that don’t. That creates pressure to drag projects past the two-hour mark.

Valve’s refund policy says refunds aren’t supposed to be a way to get free games, and it also says the company can reject abusive requests. Still, there’s barely any public visibility into how often that happens, whether repeat refunders face limits, or what the broader platform-wide numbers look like now.

A few possible fixes keep coming up, including store-page labels that clearly show expected playtime or stricter rules for games that are obviously short. So far, though, Valve hasn’t announced a formal policy change or given any recent official response.