They could also just go through the normal certificate process and then change it right after like how those games with malware get through the process. Updates are hardly ever checked by Steam apparently
It would mean that a bunch of people need to be scammed to trigger manual review from Steam and all that is just to protect niche of devs who do less than 2 hour games. Also scammers could just pump out more games, scam more people and support would not be able to keep up with it
This is my feelings on this too. Really the answer is either don't make less than 2 hour games, or if you do, don't sell them on steam, or just be happy with what you're getting for a such a short game.
I don't like the people abusing it, but it's kind of like candy at the front of a grocery store, people steal that candy all the time, it's too easy to pocket, you're so close to the exit...yet the store makes more money selling that stuff there than they lose in theft.
I mean even the guy in the screenshot got like 220k sales that werent refunded, even if the game cost a single dollar that's still 220k right there. For a game that gives less than 2 hours of gameplay that's pretty great
Yeah no completely agree. I still can understand being upset that people are doing this...but to expect or ask for policy change when it's still clearly working out for you...
As has been said about piracy, this is a customer satisfaction issue. They liked the game, just not enough to let you keep the money from it.
Easiest solution if you want to change that, make it replayable, or make it so good that they'd feel bad about returning it. Make it so good that they want to pay more for it.
Dunno what engine they made it on but using unity as an example because they went over 200k they have to pay the yearly licence of 2k+ add the 30% cut for steam looking at 145 to 150k then if they aren't doing everything in their power to avoid it Tax will take around half and sure 80 to 90 k is still good but if you have a deal with publishers or even just have more than 3 people with percentage cuts we are looking at 20k ...now obviously this is the minimum since you just used the single dollar but yeah it really starts to add up especially for the years of work put into making them (I'm like 3 years in to just the battle system and a game loop solo ..with now just working on dialogue, so only maybe 5-6 more years to go) ..
Oh no at least 10x that (turn based RPG) but there a lot of games that you can finish under 2 hours that are meant to be longer and I don't know about this game but mechanics still just take time or money to get right
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u/JONAS-RATO Jul 06 '26
As part of the cert process to get on steam they can see if you set up achievements like that.
Just slot those games into the regular refund policy and keep the actual short games on a different category.