The PlayStation Store’s refund policy has been updated for easier refunds

One of the things that makes Steam such a nice place to buy games is its very generous refund policy. If you’ve bought a game, given it a bit of a while and not enjoyed it at all, you can request a full refund – provided you do so within fourteen days and haven’t played said game for more than two hours. If the game is a broken mess, you can get a refund outside of those terms. It’s really quite consumer friendly, and a far cry from the sort of refund policies you’d find on PlayStation.

Thankfully that’s changing, and Sony’s refund policy is about to get a little better. It’s still not perfect, but at least players can now request refunds on pre-orders. In Sony’s new policy, as long as you’ve not started downloading your pre-order, you can cancel it for a refund. For other games, the same holds true as long as it’s within the first 14 days of purchase.

That would be handy in case, for example, your kid used your Dualshock controller tethered to a PC (but somehow, still magically connected to the PS4 – which is a thing that can happen), and somehow manages the exact inputs to buy a copy of FIFA 18. In the past, all you’d be able to do in that case is try get a refund through a support ticket, and seethe forever more as your request is denied. Now, as long as you don’t actually download the game (maybe turn automatic downloads off?), you’ll be able to get a refund. If the game is straight up broken, you should be able to get a refund without question, Says the new policy:

“You can cancel a digital content purchase within 14 days from the date of purchase and receive a refund to your PSN wallet, provided that you have not started downloading or streaming it.

Digital content that you have started downloading or streaming, and in-game consumables that have been delivered, are not eligible for a refund unless the content is faulty.

You can cancel your purchase of a season pass within 14 days from the date of purchase and receive a refund to your PSN wallet, provided that you have not started downloading or streaming any digital content (e.g. game add-ons) included in the season pass.“

Subscription services – like PlayStation Plus and Spotify purchased through the PS4 – can be cancelled within 14 days of purchase, even if you’ve started using them, though the refund may be pro-rated depending on how long you’ve used said service.

For what it’s worth, the Xbox refund policy is like Steam’s. Through the self-service system you can request an instant refund on a digital game as long as it’s within fourteen days of purchase and you’ve not sunk more than two hours into playing it.

Last Updated: April 2, 2019