Cyberpunk 2077: Steam refunds apparently approved even after a long period of play

Update from December 16, 2020, 4:20 p.m.: In the course of an investor conference, Michal Nowakowski from CD Projekt Red made it clear: With regard to reimbursements from Cyberpunk 2077, sales platforms such as Sony or Microsoft make no exceptions.

No special refund scheme for cyberpunk

Accordingly, in the case of the new role-playing game by the Witcher makers, the same regulations apply as for all other developers or publishers. So there is no guarantee that you will get your money back on the relevant platforms. Nowakowski specifically describes:

Anyone who bought a game on the Playstation Network or the Microsoft Store can ask for a refund. This must be subject to certain regulations, usually with regard to duration, use and so on. […] Our procedure with Microsoft and Sony is no different to any other title that is available in the respective stores. I want to make that clear because there have been obvious misunderstandings on the subject.

Said “misunderstandings” regarding Sony’s and Microsoft’s return policy towards Cyberpunk 2077 can be traced back to Projekt Red’s own statements on the subject on CD. You can read more about this in our original message below.

In the meantime, Cyberpunk 2077 players on Sony’s Playstation consoles (via GamingBolt ) reported that their return attempts were partially rejected. The main reason for this may have been that these efforts did not meet Sony’s guidelines. This of course causes displeasure among players who are already disappointed with the current state of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles.

Original message: Cyberpunk 2077 is currently hotly debated everywhere. Many gamers mainly complain about bugs and performance problems that are still there despite Update 1.04. For this reason, the developers of CD Projekt Red apologized in an official statement and already announced an updated roadmap, starting with the next patch 1.05.

They also promised the console gamers, in particular, to help them with possible refund attempts. You can contact CD Projekt until December 21st at helpmerefund@cdprojektred.com if your refund did not work.

Microsoft also refers to the help of CD Projekt in a statement to the tomshardware website :

Please follow the steps on our Xbox Refund page to request a refund for Xbox games. For any further questions about cyberpunk, please contact CD Projekt Red

If you’re lucky, you don’t have to go that extra mile and get your money back.

As some users have already reported on Reddit, there is already a certain amount of goodwill with the reimbursement system from Sony, Microsoft and Steam. For example, user Jimmyban reports on Reddit that he got his money back on Cyberpunk on Steam after about eight hours of gaming and two refund attempts:

Is a Steam Refund guaranteed?

No, there is no guaranteed refund after the general deadline. Normally, Steam only guarantees refunds if the game “receives a refund request within the given return period and has not been played for more than two hours”.

However, Steam also states on the official information page about refunds:

You can submit a request even if you do not meet the requirements mentioned and we will review it

Specifically, this means that your request for a refund will not be checked automatically, but manually by an employee. He probably has a certain leeway in which he can move and grant you a refund out of goodwill despite the expiry of the deadline. This goodwill on the part of Steam has already been granted with other games such as Wolcen, as a user on Reddit reports.

What about the EU right of withdrawal?

Anyone living in a member state of the EU is entitled to the so-called EU right of withdrawal, which guarantees a withdrawal without giving reasons within 14 days. However, this assumes that the purchased product has not yet been used. Steam writes about this:

European law generally provides a right to withdraw from software purchases. However, this right of withdrawal can be excluded for packaged software that has been opened and for digitally provided content once it has been made available to the end user, and this right is usually also excluded in such cases.

When you complete a transaction on Steam, the following applies: The statutory EU right of withdrawal ends 14 days after purchase or at the moment you download the content and services for the first time (whichever is earlier entry).

Basically, Steam’s return policy offers you more freedom than the EU guidelines.

What you can do if your game does not start at all has also been summarized in a separate article:

Request a refund: How to get your money back

Let’s summarize again: If you want to return Cyberpunk on Steam, you can do the following:

• Log in to Steam with the account on which you bought Cyberpunk 2077
• Navigated to https://help.steampowered.com/de/
• Click on Cyberpunk 2077, select the item »technical problems« and your corresponding problem.
• Click on “I want to request a refund”

Now all you have to do is wait for the answer from Steam Support. If you have played Cyberpunk 2077 for less than two hours, the refund will be granted automatically. If this is not the case, your application will be checked manually and you can hope for goodwill. A refund is then not guaranteed.

If your refund is rejected, you can contact CD Projekt at helpmerefund@cdprojektred.com until December 21st and describe your case. Alternatively, you can wait for the next patches and bug fixes to see whether they improve the technical situation of your game.