Steam’s two-hour return policy forces horror developer into “indefinite” absence

Emika Games, the only developer behind games like the recently released Summer of 58, has decided to leave game development “indefinitely” after Steam’s two-hour refund policy resulted in a “large number of returns” from its latest title.

Summer of 58, released last month, has been well reviewed on Steam, with an overall rating of “Very Positive” and a lot of fans who leave good comments, especially praising its atmosphere and its steps. But as a brief experience (it can be completed in about 90 minutes), the match no longer remains vulnerable to Steam’s two-hour global refund policy.

The policy, which allows any Steam user to get a full refund of a game if they’ve played it for less than two hours, means fine. And if you only spent 90 minutes Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Crusader Kings III, would be a perfectly fair and practical way of dealing with the matter.

However, for games that can be finished right now, it’s a huge problem. As we saw in April, When Before your eyes he found himself in the same situation, the policy means that users can buy a good short game, enjoy it and get a refund and no one asks any questions, leaving the creators empty-handed.

This has left Emika Games without funds to continue working on its next game, From day to dayand, as a result, they have issued a statement saying that “they leave the development of the game for an indefinite time to collect [their] thoughts ”.

Friends! Thank you for your support! I leave the development of the game for an indefinite time to gather my thoughts. The fact is that my game Summer of ’58 does not reach two hours of play by Steam standards, in this sense, there are a large number of game returns, even with positive reviews, and I do not win anything to create a new game. Thank you so much for supporting me. I’m so glad you like my games, but since I don’t have the conditions to do something new, I have to do something else. I will immediately answer everyone who asks about Day by Day, this game will not see the light of day in the near future. I’ll see you later.

Not all games have to be long. A short, The 90-minute experience is sometimes exactly what you need after a hard day’s work, and continues to suck that the creators of such games are aware of this policy.