
Valve doesn't distribute sales revenue to developers until the end of the calendar month after the sales have been made, meaning devs don't see money from January's sales until the end of February. When you buy a game on Steam, the money doesn't go straight to the developer. How does the financial side of refunds work for Valve and the developer? If you've requested a number of refunds recently, or your refunds falls outside of the 14-day/two-hour window, it won't be automatically approved and will instead be manually reviewed by a Valve employee.

How much of the refund process is automated?Īccording to Valve, any refund made within 14 days of purchase for a game with less than two hours of playtime will be automatically approved.
