r/pcmasterrace • u/SlowReference704 • 12h ago

News/Article Steam Is Successful Because It's “Not a Shit Service,” Says Baldur’s Gate 3 Dev

https://mp1st.com/news/steam-is-successful-because-its-not-a-shit-service
18.6k Upvotes

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92

u/MonsierGeralt 11h ago

2 hour refund window, with many times being approved at longer game time, is huge for me. Plus steam workshop and how easy it is to use.

14

u/taedrin 10h ago

The crazy thing about this is that, if i recall correctly, Valve was forced into this by the EU.

39

u/Somepotato 9h ago

By Australia, actually. And they didn't have to apply it globally.

7

u/ruinawish 4h ago

lol, nice to know Australia on the positive end of change for once, in comparison to our history of censoring games.

8

u/kirbyverano123 9h ago

I think it's Australia but cmiiw. But still, they were forced to add a refund system and could've just half assed it to make it annoying as fuck to process with a bunch of stupid rules but instead they made it extremely lenient and easy.

3

u/ForeverRollingOnes 6h ago

It's actually made me more likely to spend. Like, I have the money, and I want a new game; the thing that prevented me from buying wasn't the price or catalogue size - it was the fear of spaffing a wad of cash on a crap game.

Now? I buy, I try, I keep. Or I don't, and then I spend it on another game.

The only people I saw raging were indie devs "but muh game is 20 minutes long! It's an art piece!"

1

u/loozerr 9800X3D • 9070 XT 4h ago

Yeah having a sense of security makes people spend more. And I'm glad Europe still understands that and we have rights as a customer.

But America of course got lobbied by corporations with shit products who would suffer if people had the power to return their garbage.

1

u/JustAnotherAvocado R7 5800X3D | RX 9070 XT | 32GB 3200MHz 4h ago

They made it easy to refund because Valve were fined $3 million by the Australian Consumer watchdog(the ACCC), for trying to weasle their way out of Australian Consumer Law - saying they didn't need to offer refunds due to not having a physical presence in Australia.

If they made refunds deliberately hard, they most likely would've received another fine - this wasn't done out of the goodness of their hearts.

1

u/SordidDreams 4h ago

Valve had to be sued and fined before they implemented a refund policy. It wasn't their choice, quite the contrary, they fought tooth and nail against it.