Steam's Two-Hour Refund Policy Forces Horror Developer Into 'Indefinite' Absence

Emika Games, the lone developer behind games like the recently-released Summer of ‘58, has decided to leave game development “for an indefinite time” after Steam’s two-hour refund policy resulted in a “huge number of returns” of their latest title.

Summer of 58, released last month, has been well-reviewed on Steam, with an overall “Very Positive” rating and loads of fans leaving nice comments, giving particular praise to its atmosphere and jump scares. But as a short experience—it can be completed in around 90 minutes—that’s left the game vulnerable to Steam’s blanket two-hour refund policy.

The policy, which lets any Steam user get a full refund on a game if they’ve played it for less than two hours, means well! And if you were only 90 minutes into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Crusader Kings III, it would be a perfectly fair and practical way of handling the matter.

For games that can be finished in under that time, though, it’s a huge problem. As we saw back in April, when Before Your Eyes ran into the same situation, the policy means that users can buy a good short game, enjoy it then still get a refund and nobody asks any questions, leaving the creators empty-handed.

That’s left Emika Games without the funds to continue work on their next game, From Day To Day, and as a result they’ve issued a statement saying they are “leaving game development for an indefinite time to collect [their] thoughts.”

Friends! Thank you for your support! I’m leaving game development for an indefinite time to collect my thoughts. The fact is that my game Summer of ‘58 does not reach 2 hours of playing time by Steam standards, in this regard, a huge number of returns on the game, even with positive reviews, and I do not earn anything to create a new game. Thank you very much for supporting me. I am very glad that you like my games, but since I have no conditions to do something new, I have to do something else. I will immediately answer everyone who asks about From Day To Day, this game will not see the light of day in the near future. See you later.

SOURCE: https://kotaku.com/steams-two-hour-refund-policy-forces-horror-developer-i-1847568067