For more than a decade, Valve has only offered refunds in circumstances for downloadable games purchased on Steam. That ends today, as Valve has announced a new refund policy that applies to every game on the service.

"Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it," the policy reads. "It doesn't matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within 14 days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours." What's more, games that fall outside that 14 day/two play-hour range can still be submitted for a refund request, and Valve says it will "take a look."

DLC can be refunded in the same manner as long as that DLC has not been "consumed, modified, or transferred"—so third-party DLC that "irreversibly levels up a game character" won't be eligible, for instance. Valve will also be offering a 48-hour refund window on non-consumable in-game purchases for games it develops, and it will enable third-party developers to offer similar refunds on their in-game purchases.

Pre-ordered games can be refunded at any time before release (as well as after release, under the same terms as others games). Funds placed in a Steam Wallet can be refunded within 14 days of purchase. Movies and gifts are not refundable. Refunds will be issued within a week of the request via Steam Wallet or the original payment method.

While this new policy may sound like a great way to get a short demo of full Steam games risk free, Valve says it reserves the right to stop giving refunds to users it thinks are taking undue advantage of the system. "Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games," the company writes. "If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you."

Returning a title just before a sale and then purchasing it at the new, lower price is explicitly allowed by Valve's rules, though, meaning that the new refund policy amounts to a de facto two-week price guarantee on Steam purchases (assuming you don't play those games too much immediately after purchase). Users banned for cheating lose the right to request a refund, however.

The new policy brings Steam more in line with some other downloadable game distribution services. EA started offering a seven-day refund window for games it published on its Origin service nearly two years ago . GOG offers a 30-day money back guarantee if a purchased game doesn't work on the user's hardware for some reason, and Android games can be refunded within a short 15-minute window after purchase. UPlay offers no refunds on downloadable products at all , though.