15.04.2021

Indie developer plans to release title Refund This Game at price of $99.99 to highlight flaws in Steam’s refund policy

Some people have refunded the latest title by Goodbyeworld Games after finishing it in less than two hours. The studio’s designer is now pitching a special game called Refund This Game to draw attention to Steam’s refund policy.

Before Your Eyes

The story began a few days ago when Bela Messex, lead designer at Goodbyeworld Games, shared a tweet that went viral. It was about the studio’s short story-driven game Before Your Eyes (it now has 98% positive reviews on Steam).

One of the players finished it in just 1.5 hours, left a positive review, and refunded it. Messex wasn’t pleased with this move and called out the problem on Twitter: “I think there should be more short games. I think short games shouldn’t get refunded for delivering an amazing experience.”

Later on, this player apologized to the developer and promised to buy the game back. “I sincerely apologize for abusing what is clearly a broken system,” he wrote on Twitter.

Maxwell, who didn’t expect his message to blow up and draw so much attention, is now planning to release a project called Refund This Game. “2 hours of a black screen with only a timer counting down. In the last five seconds the screen starts flashing ‘quit and refund now,’” the announcement reads.

The whole idea is to highlight some flaws in Steam’s policy that allows users to refund games within the first two hours after launch. That’s why some gamers get their money for short titles back even if they loved the overall experience.

Maxwell has already submitted Refund This Game to Steam at a price of $99.99. Players will also be able to get an achievement if they quit the game within the last 5 seconds.

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