Want to try a game before you buy? Valve’s new return policy doesn’t judge

Don’t think that hat matches your Sniper’s jacket in TF2? The Bioshock DLC didn’t live up to your expectations?

Well, fret not fellow impulse buyers, because as long as you’ve got a receipt, Valve says you can now return (almost) any content purchased through its Steam Store for a full refund with only a few strings attached.

The terms of the new return policy are about as loose as they can get. The first statute is that as long as you haven’t used the content for any longer than two hours in game, Valve will fully reimburse the cost of the item, game, or DLC if the initial request was made within two weeks of the original purchase.

“You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn’t like it,” said the updated statement released on the company’s website.

“It doesn’t matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within fourteen days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours.”

Other restrictions to the policy will include any DLC or in-game items that may have given your character an advantage in “leveling up,” though the company says these types of decisions will be left up to the discretion of the specialist handling your particular case.

Steam only guarantees refunds on in-game transaction items for Valve games. Other developers will be able to decide for themselves if they want to enable refunds of in-game items or not. Movies are ineligible for refunds, as well.

This service could be especially useful for gamers who preferred the try-before-you buy methods of yesteryear, where games could be rented from a store down the street for $1.99 a day before you committed to paying the full price.

Either way, it’s a great move for Valve, who continues to showcase that it remains dedicated to the happiness and well being of its ever-expanding userbase.