PlayStation Needs to Change its Store Refund Policy

I guess I’m a PC gamer now.

I love my PS5. I like the controller, the UI, and how fast the SSD is. What I like more than any of those things are the exclusives Sony has consistently cranked out on all the PlayStation consoles over the years. What I don’t like, however, is the PlayStation store refund policy.

There are two criteria for refunding games on the storefront. You cannot have downloaded the game and it had to have been purchased within fourteen days or less. I have no issue with the fourteen days or less bullet point. That is totally fair in my book. Why should you be able to refund a game that you purchased months ago? No, what I do have an issue with is the “content has not been downloaded” part.

I have to ask one simple question: why is this a rule? I know they’re probably worried about people putting the game on an SSD or something and then getting it for free but wouldn’t it be tied to their account in the first place? So, the person in question couldn’t use it anyways?  I guess my question is who buys a game, doesn’t download and doesn’t play it, and then requests a refund? I’m willing to bet that very few people do that.

I’m upset about this policy because I was in the mood to try something new and so I bought Rise of the Ronin. I had watched a few videos about it and read a few reviews so don’t even say I didn’t do my research about the game in question because yes, I sure did. I downloaded the game, as you do, and started playing it. I didn’t even make it out of the prologue. I could tell that I wasn’t going to like the rest of the game if I wasn’t enjoying what little I had already played.

I didn’t even try to get a refund because I have had experience with the PlayStation store “support” in the past. You see, I have a problem. I tend to buy games I already own on new platforms. About half a year ago, I bought the original Resident Evil 4 on my PlayStation. I downloaded and booted it up and after about twenty minutes decided that I shouldn’t have bought that game yet again.

I uninstalled the game and opened up PlayStation support to request a refund. They asked (a computer asked, let’s be real here) if I had downloaded it and, not wanting to lie, I said yes. The bot informed me that I was ineligible for a refund, closed the chat down, and, if memory serves, gave me a set amount of time to wait before I could contact them again. This really pissed me off if you must know. Nobody, and I mean nobody, hangs up on me. I, however, did not press the issue despite my anger. I had only spent twenty dollars on the game after all and I knew it would get me nowhere arguing with Sony, who apparently needed that money more than me, about it.

Some of you may point out that Sony is well within its rights to have such a policy and I don’t have to use their products if I don’t like it. That is a good argument and I may have to follow that advice. Sony is entitled to such a policy no matter how bullheaded and pig ignorant it may be. Why do I know that it is bullheaded? Well, because Steam (Valve’s PC storefront) has a much better refund policy that I have used on several occasions.

You see, Steam’s refund policy is that you cannot have played the game in question for more than two hours and it had to have been purchased within the past fourteen days (much like PlayStation’s policy). Doesn’t matter if you downloaded it or not, they only care if you played the game for no more than two hours. Both Epic and Microsoft have similar policies for their stores as well. Heck, Microsoft even switched my Xbox Live membership from one account to another after I stupidly renewed it for the wrong account. I don’t think Sony would have been so kind based off of what I’ve seen of their customer service.

I’m getting a little off track here but my point is this: there have been times when I bought a game on Steam and then I didn’t like it after I had played it. I simply put in a refund request with Steam, filled out the reason why I wanted a refund, and the money was refunded within a day or two. No questions asked. See, look how simple that is? Now, why can’t Sony have a similar policy?

Some of you might be saying that Sony wouldn’t make money that way. Sorry, but I’m going to have to call bullshit on that one. I’ve probably requested and gotten a refund from Steam about half a dozen times and they’re still in business. That’s because I have nearly two hundred other games that I have bought from them that more than made up for the lost business from those half a dozen games. Sony can afford to adopt such a policy.

I recently upgraded my computer’s graphics card to a 4070. I tell you this because that card coupled with the generous refund policies from Steam and Epic (along with free cloud saves and online multiplayer, among other things) have made me a PC gamer. I never thought I would say that because I have always preferred playing on a console hooked up to a TV. Despite that history, however, my PC is quickly becoming my gaming platform of choice.

I recently bought the game Dave the Diver on Steam while it was on sale. Not long after that, I saw that it was also coming to PS5 soon. I almost (I have a problem, remember) bought it again on my PS5 but I stopped myself just in time after I had remembered the PlayStation store’s terrible refund policy. All I can say about that is I hope the money Sony got from me for Resident Evil 4 and Rise of the Ronin is worth all that lost revenue from what were once future sales.

Thanks for reading. Do you think Sony should change its store refund policy? You already know my opinion on the matter. Let me hear yours down below!

p.s. I started playing Dave the Diver (remember, I was looking for something new to try out) and I’m enjoying it very much. Maybe there’ll be a review about it here on the site soon enough.