Summary
- Steam refunds normally require
- Ubisoft banned all Linux and Steam Deck users from For Honor online, triggering refund challenges and legal claims.
- The lone refund isn’t a precedent but casts doubt on the Steam Deck ‘Playable’ badge and Valve’s clarity.
Steam’s refund policy is pretty strict, but fair. To get a refund, you must request it within 14 days of purchase and have under two hours of playtime. If either condition isn’t met, Valve will often reject the refund request, except in special circumstances.
After Ubisoft banned all Linux players from playing For Honor online, players began to wonder if Valve would count that as a ‘special circumstance’. And while people were initially met with failure, one person managed to score a refund to their Steam wallet after four attempts, despite purchasing the game back in 2025.
Valve’s For Honor refund hints that banning Linux players may have its consequences
We’ll have to see how things shake out in the future
Over on the Linux Gaming subreddit, a user has posted about getting a refund for their For Honor purchase. This is after they tried four times and were initially rejected because they purchased the game back in 2025, thus making them ineligible for a refund.
They argued that, at the time of purchase, For Honor was marked as “Playable” for Steam Deck. After Ubisoft banned all Linux and Steam Deck users from playing online due to fears of cheating, that was no longer true, and the original poster argued it violated the EU Digital Content Directive.
After being rejected four times (twice by a bot, twice by a human agent, and all due to the fact that the user purchased the game in 2025), they stopped chasing a refund and asked a simple question. When Steam says a game is playable on Steam Deck, is that a guarantee that it will stay that way, or is it just at the point of sale? Valve didn’t respond to the question, but it did offer a refund of their For Honor purchase as Steam credit, which the user agreed to.
This exchange raises several questions: does the “Playable on Steam Deck” badge actually promise continued support after launch? If a developer knowingly and willingly bans an entire operating system from their game and no wrongdoing happened, are players entitled to a refund? And, as one Redditor pointed out in the comments, if a developer deems Linux ‘too niche to support,’ does that also mean they should have no problem refunding them?
This one refund is by no means a precedent for things going forward, but it is an interesting insight into how Valve handles these situations. We’ll have to see if this makes Valve rethink its Steam Deck playability rating and what, exactly, that badge of honor promises to the consumer.
Related
Ubisoft banning Steam Deck users from For Honor reveals how expendable Linux gamers are
It’ll continue to be a problem if Linux doesn’t take off soon.