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Epic Games Store matches Steam on refund policy

Buyers can demand refunds if they've had a game for no more than 14 days and not registered more than two hours of play

Epic Games Store matches Steam on refund policy
Epic, the company behind the Epic Games Store, is responsible for the wildly popular Fortnite
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Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite that last month launched its own Epic Games Store to challenge Valve Software's dominant Steam platform, has moved to match Steam's refund policy.

Now, disgruntled PC gamers will be able to file for a refund on a game bought in the currently somewhat threadbare Epic Games Store as long as they haven't racked up more than two hours of game play, and do so within 14 days of purchase.

This matches Steam's own refund policies, which were implemented following pressure from consumer rights organisations that had argued that PC games downloads lagged behind physical downloads when it came to consumer rights.

A more serious challenge to Steam, however, is Epic Games' commission policy. It is demanding just a 12 per cent cut of the in-store retail price against Steam's own industry standard 30 per cent.

Both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store also take a 30 per cent cut. Apps and games featuring in-app purchases are also obliged to hand over 30 per cent to Apple, Google or Valve Software, depending on the platform.

While the rise of Steam helped PC games distributors to cut both risks and costs, as well as helping small and new companies to market, the 30 per cent cut is now being seen as increasingly onerous.

Major publishers have set-up their own distribution platforms, with Activision-Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Bethesda and UbiSoft all going their own way to a greater or lesser extent. 

Epic, though, has gone further in setting itself up as a full-scale rival to Steam, opening up its platform to third-party games developers and publishers.

Valve pre-empted the December launch of the Epic Games Store by offering a compromise to major games publishers. It re-asserted its basic 30 per cent commission, but will drop the rate to 25 per cent on sales in excess of $10 million, and to 20 per cent on sales of over $50 million on Steam.

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