Tuesday, May 16th 2023
Play Before You Pay: Steam Allows 90-Minute Gameplay Before Purchasing a Game
For gamers that ended up buying massively hyped games and found them to be quite disappointing, Valve is there to help. Valve's Steam will now allow gamers to play games for free for up to 90 minutes before forcing them to either pay to continue playing or end the game there. Starting with the new Dead Space Remake, gamers will be able to enjoy the first 90 minutes of gameplay without committing any funds towards the purchase of the game. Given that today's AAA titles can cost 59.99+ USD, this is an excellent choice for gamers wanting to try out the game before purchasing to finish the gameplay.
The new measure is already available to gamers on Steam, as the Dead Space Remake is the first to kick off the wave of 90-minute trials. Previously available for 59.99 USD, the game is on a 20% discount until May 29 and can be had for 47.99. We need to find out if more games will support this policy of free trials or if Steam will force some titles to do the same. Valve's older measures, such as refunds, are still in place; however, refunds require less than two hours of the game being played, so a refund can be valid.
Sources:
Steam, via HardwareLuxx
The new measure is already available to gamers on Steam, as the Dead Space Remake is the first to kick off the wave of 90-minute trials. Previously available for 59.99 USD, the game is on a 20% discount until May 29 and can be had for 47.99. We need to find out if more games will support this policy of free trials or if Steam will force some titles to do the same. Valve's older measures, such as refunds, are still in place; however, refunds require less than two hours of the game being played, so a refund can be valid.
83 Comments on Play Before You Pay: Steam Allows 90-Minute Gameplay Before Purchasing a Game
this is nice though too, 90 mins and no paying up front. will be awesome to test on rigs and such too. this is neat imo
24 hours and people could just binge it and be done with it, so i am not sure what your logic is here
the overwhelming majority of games can be entirely finished with well under 24 hours of gameplay
I know sweats finish games (single player) in under 8 hours. I'd do it personally if weekend lol
Steam/Valve honestly does not want to bother with this crap so they just throw out an arbitrary number and call it a day.
But I guess 1,5 hours + 2 hours after buying is not bad to check something out.
also wasnt dead space remake that game with technical issues that arnt fixed to this day?
But it would be so much better if companies made single-level demos. I remember back when nearly every game used to have those.
I know at that point pirating would by far be the better option but still, it could probably be done.
There are many games on steam that you can play on the weekend for free, that is 48 hours.
Anyway, 90 minutes is better than nothing.
I played the demo for MONTHS then a friend said to me "You know a full game exists right?" EA absolutely deserved my money for that game.
I tried out the borderland series 2 years ago because i thought they were terrible, tried them out, liked them and bought all of them. But this new way from steam, if the game doesn't require alot of space to download yea I'm for it.
Additionally a gamer doesn't have to be concerned about too many returns on purchased games which Steam has a policy to deny refunds if they think you are abusing the refund policy and who in the hell knows what Steam considers abuse. How many returns over what period of time would Steam consider abuse?
you get 100% if your money back but they still have to pay the bank transfer fees.
PS: There aren't any news of those 90 minutes counting for the 120 minutes limit for refund, right?
If you disagree, that is not an invitation to pirate it, it means DO NOT USE. Plain and simple.
On a more relaxed note, you'd be hard pressed to have the control of a playable character in The Last of Us: Part One.