As the financial year ends, Sony has been making major changes to the PlayStation Store and how it sells digital games. First, it was revealed that retailers would no longer be selling digital codes for games, and now, Sony has updated the PlayStation Store's refund policy.

The support pages for the PlayStation Store in several regions have been updated to tell users how to request a refund on games and DLC they've purchased. Buyers now have 14 days to request a refund on "Full games, downloadable content, themes, avatars and season passes." However, they will only be eligible for a refund if they haven't started to download or stream the content (unless the content is faulty). When Anthem was causing PS4s to crash, Sony offered refunds to players on these grounds.

For pre-ordered content, pre-orders more than 14 days before release can be refunded up to any time up until the release date and pre-orders with less than 14 days until release can request a refund up to 14 days after purchase. Sony has also clarified that there is no refund policy for PSN ID name changes. "You cannot cancel or obtain a refund for your purchase of a change of Online ID," wrote the company.

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While some welcome any policy change that allows them to get their money back, others are baffled by Sony's new PlayStation Store refund system. Other policies, such as the Steam refund policy, allow people to ask for a refund if they've played less than two hours of the game. This is the same refund policy adopted by the Epic Games Store, a Steam rival. While this policy can (and has) been abused, it does allow players to figure out if a game is or isn't for them.

Many would also argue that some games may not be faulty but they may have major bugs and technical issues that make that game difficult to play. Fallout 76 had serious technical issues when it launched in November 2018, arguably enough to ask for a refund, but not to the point where it was crashing consoles. Under the PlayStation Store refund policy, players may not be eligible for a refund.

The updated policy has led to heavy criticism on social media. Some have said that without the PlayStation Store policy covering people who have downloaded or played the game for a small amount of time, it isn't a refund policy at all. Many others have called for Sony to update it and be more in-line with Steam and the Epic Games Store. Sony has yet to respond to these comments.

Source: PlayStation Support