I'm still upset with them: A couple of years ago, Linux support for Rust (the game) was discontinued and the publisher said that all Linux users would get a refund on Steam, regardless of play time. I tried several times but all my attempts at getting a refund were rejected.

Not much you can do - if the machines decide you don't get a refund, well, then you don't. I haven't bought anything on Steam since.

In Australia, take it to the ACCC. If the machine says no, then the ACCC goes to the machine’s owner and scares the living daylights out of them.

Only if there's the possibility of a massive fine involved. The ACCC receive FAR too many reports to action any more than a tiny percentage of them. More often than not they respond saying they can't confirm or deny any violation, but you should try mediation.

The threat of the ACCC is usually enough for international companies to provide the refund, in my experience. Link them to the Repair, Replace, Refund page[0] and you're good.

0. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees...

Seperately from anything else, damn but is that a turn of phrase.

Wouldn't that be more the publisher's fault?

Hard to tell. It's Steam that refuses the refund, no idea how the decision is made. Apparently others managed to eventually get the refund by trying again and again; maybe I gave up too soon.

Weird, it was the same for Rocket League and I was refunded without any issues. Steam has always been very nice to me regarding refunds.

I recall some minor controversy as there are story games with less than two hours of gameplay and everyone was refunding them.

There is a minor genre of YouTube content with people speed-running longer games (e.g. Fallout, Skyrim) to fit into the two hour Steam-return window.

Ironically because speed-running requires a lot of practice this often means purchasing two copies of the game - the first to practice with, and the second to be (potentially) refunded!

The problem I've now noticed is that there are many games with ~2hrs of filler before real content (which may only be worth 1-2hrs) begins...

eh, it’s not the end of the world if games just have to provide more than 2 hours gameplay. Steam is targeted at longer form entertainment. Just extend the story out with some puzzles or challenges that send the gameplay over 2 hours.

As another poster mentioned, some have done just that - added "filler" to a game to inflate it over the 2 hour bar, which is disappointing.

There should be some sliding scale where you can make a great 2 hour or less game without the risk of infinite refunding (perhaps the game could be marked with a "half-way" point, etc, though that would involve the shop actually playing it).

I know this happened a lot with Sonic Forces.

I remember when the latest DOOM title added a rootkit for anticheat. I had like 4-5h of playtime but still got a refund when I gave the reason "I didn't buy a rootkit". Not in Australia either.

Also, before then, Valve had a "one-time exception" to "no refunds" that you could use.

I bought 2 copies of a game advertising co-op to play with a friend, only to discover it's local-only. (Steam didn't have separate "local/remote play/online co-op" labels yet) I opened a ticket and they refunded me as a "one time exception".