Steam Users abusing refund policy

[MrGuvernment]

This dude still made over $1,000,000 after the refunds. Any indie dev that releases a good game is still going to make bank even if there are trolls doing this.

Doesn't make it right though so Steam should adjust, as it could happen to any indie dev, as not all might be making $1million.

 

[uOpt]

I don't refund game because of the money.

On the rare occasion that I refund I want to send a signal that the game more than just sucked.

 

[Bankie]

Doesn't make it right though so Steam should adjust, as it could happen to any indie dev, as not all might be making $1million.

Meh, they can make a million on Steam or $10 on EGS. Purely up to the dev.

 

[are closed]

So how does someone grossing anywhere from a million to half a million dollars in sales revenue for a month's labor going out of business?

He made a game in a month, but maybe he was brainstorming on the idea over the period of five years. Living off credit cards, he accumulated a lot of debt and his way out was to make wealth off the game sales and pay off all his outstanding loans.

Unfortunately, there were just enough refunds and his plan did not work and he was still left with that one pesky credit card he did not have enough funds to cover.

 

[KillRoy X]

For the first time in over 20 years, I attempted my first refund to Steam. For Samson. Holy crap, not a good game. However I attempted to refund after 2 hours, and they simply declined. I'm making a point that I've never tried to refund, and this one is a doozy. Nope, they not budgeting. I'm annoyed.

 

[w35t]

For the first time in over 20 years, I attempted my first refund to Steam. For Samson. Holy crap, not a good game. However I attempted to refund after 2 hours, and they simply declined. I'm making a point that I've never tried to refund, and this one is a doozy. Nope, they not budgeting. I'm annoyed.

I had 3 hours in Doom DA and they allowed the refund.

 

[uOpt]

What are examples of games that are legitimately shorter than 2 hours?

 

[MrGuvernment]

Meh, they can make a million on Steam or $10 on EGS. Purely up to the dev.

So a dev who releases a small game, should get screwed because people refund after playing in less than 2 hours...

 

[Nobu]

So a dev who releases a small game, should get screwed because people refund after playing in less than 2 hours...

I would say no, but also these are the kinds of things you have to consider if you want to be profitable as an individual. There are other stores they could publish on (itch, gog, epic) and if it's a good game I am sure they would do well there as well.

The hard part is advertising/marketing. If you find the right audience on youtube, the algo will do the rest, regardless of what store you are on.

 

[sharknice]

What are examples of games that are legitimately shorter than 2 hours?

View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4698470/Jump_Duck/

Probably a good chunk of indie games. Steam has over 20,000 new games a year and most of them are small games made by a couple people. Most games are not AA or AAA with a big story.

A lot of games don't even have a real story or campaign mode. There are multiplayer games, and arena type single player games where you just play a 10 minute session and that is the entire game. You keep replaying those sessions as many times as you want.
I've played about10 matches of among us and I have less than 2 hours played on it.

The original Sonic and Mario games took around 2 hours to beat, and the majority of games from that 2D era. There are a lot of indie games on steam like this.

I'm pretty sure I beat most fighting games single player in under 2 hours, and I never played multiplayer on some of them.

 

[Bankie]

So a dev who releases a small game, should get screwed because people refund after playing in less than 2 hours...

If it's so bad then they have their choice of platforms to use. If Steam isn't profitable enough then this dev should just pull the game.

 

[sharknice]

If it's so bad then they have their choice of platforms to use. If Steam isn't profitable enough then this dev should just pull the game.

lol. 70% of games on Steam don't even sell enough copies to make their $100 listing fee back BEFORE refunds.

 

[Bankie]

The original Sonic and Mario games took around 2 hours to beat, and the majority of games from that 2D era. There are a lot of indie games on steam like this.

They might take 2 hours to beat for a player that's already spent multiple hours playing them. I beat SMB back in the 80s but I'm guessing it would take me more than 2 hours now (would probably take that long to remember the maze solution in the last castle). I've never played Sonic but I'm guessing that it's challenging enough that it would take me more than 2 hours.

Zoroarts continues to explain their reasoning, sharing their intent behind the scope of the game: "I planned a medium playtime of 3.5 hours for the full level, and the Level from the free Demo takes ~40 minutes to complete. so the game was planned to launch with ~4 hours of total Gameplay. There are tons of reviews with 5+ hours and even 20+ hours but the game was also played by a lot of speedrunners and just really good gamers who made it in 1-2 hours... Got many insulting comments with Make a Game longer than 2 hours."

This dude is just mad that there are a handful of gamers out there that were able to blow through his slop game. This is on him for not understanding that there are god-gamers/trolls out there - it doesn't help that he's being a snowflake about it. He could have avoided it by adding more levels (I see that there are more levels available in PAID DLC), more achievements, not saying anything, etc.

He even lists "High Frustration™ factor (rage-quitting is a feature, not a bug)" in his game's description. And here he is highly frustrated that people are blowing through his game and refunding it.

 

[Bankie]

lol. 70% of games on Steam don't even sell enough copies to make their $100 listing fee back BEFORE refunds.

And? He made over $1M AFTER refunds yet he's whinging. Anyone with any experience with the Internet and especially Gamer culture would know that the moment you cry is the moment that trolls pile on to make it worse.

 

[sharknice]

And? He made over $1M AFTER refunds yet he's whinging. Anyone with any experience with the Internet and especially Gamer culture would know that the moment you cry is the moment that trolls pile on to make it worse.

I was just answering your question. literally 10s of thousands of games don't make money and most developers know they aren't going to make any money and still put their game up on steam. They're not going to pull it from steam because of a change in refund policy.
Ones that do make money like this guy aren't going to pull their game from steam either, the only thing they will do is whine about it.

 

[Bankie]

I was just answering your question. literally 10s of thousands of games don't make money and most developers know they aren't going to make any money and still put their game up on steam. They're not going to pull it from steam because of a change in refund policy.
Ones that do make money like this guy aren't going to pull their game from steam either, the only thing they will do is whine about it.

I didn't really ask a question but I get what you're saying. I think we're on the same page.

 

[are closed]

Game developers are artists, and those tend to be sensitive kind. It is in their nature to be passionate about their work.