Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Steam is not giving out automatic refunds for No Man's Sky regardless of the amount of time played.
It was reported earlier on reddit that some players have been able to secure a refund for the controversial space sim game, claiming they had over eight hours of gameplay on the title after they got a refund. Several others in the same thread have also reported refunds as well, some with over 30+ hours on their game.
However, it should be noted that Steam has not granted it's player base automatic refunds - meaning it's up to Valve as to whether or not you will get your money back for No Man's Sky, if you have passed the 14 day/2 hour no questions asked refund period.
Basically, the standard 2 week, 2 hour limit is not a hard limit for refunds. It is the limit for automatic refunds, requests after the 2 week, two hour limit go through review, so someone at Valve is basically deciding whether or not your refund is being processed. This explains why some players have reported requesting refunds over six times before it goes through.
It should be noted that Amazon is offering refunds for the game on a "case by case basis" as well, while Sony has been difficult with refunding the game at this time.
Steam has only offered automatic refunds regardless of time owned or played in extreme circumstances - Journey of the Light, which was embroiled in a possible scam with the game by developer Lord Kres, and Warner Bros. Interactive offered full refunds as well for Batman: Arkham Knight with Valve's permission.
It is worth remembering that Valve has in the past said that they are keeping an eye out for what they consider abuse of the system. When they launched it, they said the following on that topic:
Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games. If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you. We do not consider it abuse to request a refund on a title that was purchased just before a sale and then immediately rebuying that title for the sale price.
No Man's Sky has suffered from a tumultuous launch, including several major bug issues for the PC version of the game, (which has since received two patches to fix those problems) confirmed stagnating PC sales, and conflicting information regarding game featured promised by Hello Games director Sean Murray. Our official review of the PlayStation 4 version of No Man's Sky (written by myself) was fairly positive, while several members of the TechRaptor staff have expressed both disappointment and enjoyment of the game, despite the controversy.
What are your thoughts on this? Will you try to get a refund for No Man's Sky? Leave your comments below.
