Sony has finally updated the process to request PlayStation Store refunds, letting you make refund requests directly from your transaction history without having to go through a chatbot or customer service rep. It's a step in the right direction, but the policy remains thoroughly restrictive in comparison to something like Steam's take on refunds.
PlayStation's support page on refunds confirms that you can now simply make a refund request through your account's transaction history page. Self-service refunds are a big step up from the manual refund requests you had to make before, but PlayStation's refund policy hasn't actually changed.
You still only have two weeks to request a refund, and you cannot request a refund if you've downloaded the game. Yes, even if you notice you've, say, accidentally bought a PS4 version of a PS5 game, you're still officially barred from getting a refund if the download has gone through. The support page notes that "you may have additional rights under applicable local law, such as if your content is faulty," but as far as the company's own policy goes, this is it.
It's in contrast to Steam's refund policy, which players often laud as an example to platform holders everywhere. Steam also puts a two-week time limit on its refunds, but you can make a refund request even with up to two hours of gameplay under your belt. Find that a game wasn't what you thought? It struggles on your hardware? You just didn't like it? Get a refund, no questions asked.
Steam's refund policy has often been problematic for developers of short games, but there's no denying it's the friendliest option in town for consumers. Of course, this take on refunds didn't exactly come from the goodness of Valve's heart – the policy appeared amid a lawsuit from the Australian government that ultimately cost the publisher several million dollars.
There are some isolated cases of PlayStation breaking with its standard refund policy, as with the Last of Us Part 2 upgrade and the un-release of Concord, and players occasionally report successfully convincing customer service reps to issue refunds that don't quite meet the official policy requirements. But in a world where a much more reasonable refund policy does exist, I think it's fair to hope for more from Sony.
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