Steam users want Microsoft Flight Simulator refund timer extension

[Shawn Knight]

Facepalm: One has to think that this was a mere oversight on the part of Valve and / or Microsoft. With any luck, a fix will be coming down the pipeline soon in the form of a corrected or extended refund period.

The latest release in the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator series is finally available but Steam gamers are already experiencing some turbulence.

Several early reviewers are blasting Microsoft and Valve for an issue related to Steam’s refund policy. Per the policy, Valve will refund a game purchase for any reason so long as the title has been played for less than two hours.

As early adopters are finding out, the initial download for the game from Steam is around 500MB. After that, you are tossed into an installer to download the remaining 90GB or so of game data. The problem is that Steam’s two-hour timer starts ticking once the launcher opens, meaning you’re on the clock from the moment you start downloading content directly from Microsoft.

5 hours played, 28 gigs left pic.twitter.com/AzoDbTgjGL

— Mightyy (@WorstSombra) August 18, 2020

Depending on your connection speed, it could easily take more than two hours to download 90GB+ of game data and install it. In some cases, users are reporting that by the time they’re actually able to play, they’ve already logged well beyond the two hours of trial time, putting them squarely outside the window of eligibility for a refund.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86423-steam-users-want-microsoft-flight-simulator-refund-timer.html

 

[StrikerRocket]

With my 600 KBytes/s (yes, you read well, 600 KiloBytes/s) D/L speed, I wonder how long it would take me to D/L this...

 

[ColdSoup]

With my 600 KBytes/s (yes, you read well, 600 KiloBytes/s) D/L speed, I wonder how long it would take me to D/L this...

Roughly 358 hours. So almost 15 days straight.

 

[m4a4]

The 2hr limit was never a strict rule. As long as you have a good (or known) excuse past that "guideline", you're good.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Get the torrent instead.... if you like it, then buy the game...

 

[Lexii]

Why is this game being singled out, almost all new big budget games that release now are between 60-100GB.

 

[dudusmaximus]

Why is this game being singled out, almost all new big budget games that release now are between 60-100GB.

Because other games you download everything through steam so the refund timer doesn't start until you're already playing the game. This game has a separate launcher that downloads the files outside of steam so steam see's the launcher running and downloading the game as starting that 2 hour play window.

 

[psycros]

Because other games you download everything through steam so the refund timer doesn't start until you're already playing the game. This game has a separate launcher that downloads the files outside of steam so steam see's the launcher running and downloading the game as starting that 2 hour play window.

A ton of games require their own launchers for updating. Anything recent from EA, Activision, Bethesda..the list goes on. Steam's 2-hour refund policy has been ridiculous for a long time and needs to be changed.

 

[Uncle Al]

Yep, I appreciate so many reviews here and on Steam so I'll be holding off before investing a nickle into this thing. It will also give Microsoft an opportunity to lower the price, which I am always interested in!

 

[Lionvibez]

Lmao so everyone with fast connections were ok and anyone with slow internet got screwed well done MS/Valve.

With my 600 KBytes/s (yes, you read well, 600 KiloBytes/s) D/L speed, I wonder how long it would take me to D/L this...

Download Time Calculator - Calculate Download time

downloadtimecalculator.com

The download is roughly 15mins on 1Gbps connection.

I could go on a 2 week vacation and be back before it was done at 600 KB/sec ouch.

 

[Evernessince]

Lmao so everyone with fast connections were ok and anyone with slow internet got screwed well done MS/Valve.

Download Time Calculator - Calculate Download time

downloadtimecalculator.com

The download is roughly 15mins on 1Gbps connection.

I could go on a 2 week vacation and be back before it was done at 600 KB/sec ouch.

The fact that microsoft decided to have in launcher / in-game updates instead of just using steam's automated update system says to me they wanted to control the experience. If that's resulting in people being past the 2 hour refund then clearly Microsoft is to blame here. I don't see any good reason why those updates couldn't have been done through steam.

 

[ColdSoup]

Lmao so everyone with fast connections were ok and anyone with slow internet got screwed well done MS/Valve.

Reality check: Slow speed / low bandwidth causes problems for online gaming already. If you can't even download the game reasonably, you probably can't participate in a server reliably either, which hurts the experience for other gamers.

 

[James Hall]

With my 600 KBytes/s (yes, you read well, 600 KiloBytes/s) D/L speed, I wonder how long it would take me to D/L this...

Well, it's better than dial-up... barely.

 

[James Hall]

Get the torrent instead.... if you like it, then buy the game...

Given the streaming nature of the sim, I'm guessing you'll probably be stuck with the lowest possible crappy default textures being unable to connect to the servers.

 

[Lexii]

Because other games you download everything through steam so the refund timer doesn't start until you're already playing the game. This game has a separate launcher that downloads the files outside of steam so steam see's the launcher running and downloading the game as starting that 2 hour play window.

well, ok but thats weak. Because who is buying a super sim like MS flight sim, not already knowing what exactly they are getting. it sounds like people who like to demo games have the sniffles.

 

[Bamda]

I must be a fricken genius! I got Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Game Pass for PC for $1! I purchased some steaks and ribs with the savings. LOL

 

[BigBoomBoom]

A ton of games require their own launchers for updating. Anything recent from EA, Activision, Bethesda..the list goes on. Steam's 2-hour refund policy has been ridiculous for a long time and needs to be changed.

Not to defend Steam but other games update doesn't download 90GB. I believe the most I have seen was around 30GB. Cue update, not full game, on launcher.

 

[ColdSoup]

I must be a fricken genius! I got Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Game Pass for PC for $1! I purchased some steaks and ribs with the savings. LOL

I like all of this. Steak and ribs included.

 

[0dium]

Get the torrent instead.... if you like it, then buy the game...

That's what I do since demos are not popular anymore

 

[toooooot]

With my 600 KBytes/s (yes, you read well, 600 KiloBytes/s) D/L speed, I wonder how long it would take me to D/L this...

May starlink save your soul.

 

[kimo1]

It's a known scam to bypass refunding. Usually used by games that are intentionally designed to be ****, zero effort. In that case custom downloader is paired with limited download speed to make sure that the customer is illegible for refund. Valve knows very well about this scam. The absurdly short refund window exists for the purpose.
But FS2020 is not a bad game? And only now this scam is covered in media. I presume the scammers will downplay the issue just enough to not do any changes globally.

 

[Draconian]

I thought Valve required games to use Steam for installing and updating.

A ton of games require their own launchers for updating. Anything recent from EA, Activision, Bethesda..the list goes on.

Battlefield 5 updates through Steam. Unfortunately, it starts Origin as soon as you launch the game and you have to use Origin's friends list for inviting friends to your party.

Valve needs to make it a requirement that games use the STEAM FRIENDS LIST for inviting people.

 

[Shadowboxer]

My experience, I went to download the game and found I couldn’t switch the game music whilst the it downloaded the 94GB update, I wanted to watch Netflix so I canned it to stop the music. I then get prompted to give feedback on my installation, so I click on that prompt and it gives me an error message saying something about feedback form being broken.

Well done MS. What a load of tosh. Fortunately I had it on game pass so I didn’t waste any money.

 

[Raytrace3D]

If no one else on my network were to use my internet, it would take over 26 hours to download the game.

 

[amoeba00]

Looks like Valve is aware and the full download time won't affect refund status:
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-says-...flight-simulator-wont-affect-refund-requests/