Valve issued an update to its game refund policy on April 23, classifying that time spent in “Advanced Access”—or pre-purchase gameplay—will now count toward total time playing the title, closing a loophole players have been abusing for years.
The short policy update came into effect today and was announced via a Steam blog post. “Playtime acquired during the Advanced Access period will now count towards the Steam refund period,” the statement read. This addition is likely in response to players preordering titles for early access, and then refunding before the game is actually released.