No Man's Sky has proven--as expected--to be a divisive game for a number of reasons. There have been reports of refunds being available through Steam even when you wouldn't expect them to be, and now the service has stated it isn't making special exceptions for the game.

A Reddit post recently began making the rounds advising No Man's Sky players on how to obtain a refund through Steam when they're no longer eligible for one--namely, after they've played for more than two hours. There were claims that players had successfully received refunds through Amazon despite buying physical copies; through PSN even after playing the game; and through Steam after playing for dozens of hours. All three of those cases defy established rules.

It's difficult to verify whether any of those instances are true, but it's clear that there has been an inordinate amount of discussion surrounding refunds on No Man's Sky. Seemingly in response to that, its Steam page now carries a message about refunds that we haven't seen before. "The standard Steam refund policy applies to No Man's Sky," it reads. "There are no special exemptions available. Click here for more detail on the Steam refund policy."

The linked page describes the standard refund policy, which has been in place for just over a year. Generally speaking, you're only eligible for a refund within 14 days of making a purchase and if you've played no more than two hours. This affords prospective buyers the chance to try out a game on their computer to see how it runs, among other things.

It's been a policy welcomed by many. Some developers and fans have taken issue with it due to the fact that it allows someone to buy a game that can be played in under two hours, complete it, and then return it for a complete refund. That's not what the refund system is intended to allow, and Valve has long said it will stop offering refunds to those who abuse the system in order to get free games.

Valve does say that exceptions can be made, stating, "[E]ven if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we'll take a look." Based on the new message on No Man's Sky's store page, though, it appears those exceptions are not anything specific to the game.

There has been controversy surrounding No Man's Sky since shortly before its release, when someone obtained an early copy of the game. Some of the issues--including the relatively short amount of time it took that person to finish the game--were resolved in a day one patch, but other complaints have emerged. Some of these are technical in nature, with the PC version in particular suffering from a variety of problems despite a delay. Other complaints center around what are perceived as broken promises, with the game not living up to what Hello Games suggested it would be over the past few years. This includes issues with multiplayer (or lackthereof, despite being billed as a single-player game) and discovery names being erased.

For its part, Hello Games has promised to deliver additional content once it's sorted out the technical issues. For more, check out GameSpot's review, as well as the recent Lobby segment where we talk about whether we're still enjoying it in the video above.