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Microsoft tries out refunds for digital Xbox, Windows games

An update lets some gamers get their money back within 14 days and two hours of playtime if they don't like a game.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
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Microsoft's Xbox One: Try a game, any game.

Sarah Tew/CNET

There's nothing worse than buying a game, especially a $60 one, only to find it's not what you expected. (See: No Man's Sky.)

For PC gamers, the digital download platform Steam already offers a refund window in which you can "return" a digital game. Now, a similar system is coming to Microsoft's Xbox One and to games purchased through Microsoft's Windows app store.

Microsoft's new plan, currently being rolled out to some members of its Insider programs (who are essentially public beta testers), allows for refunds of games within 14 days of purchase, as long as the game has been played for less than two hours. Add-on downloadable content, aka DLC, is not eligible.

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Reddit/gaymerRaver

The new feature came to light when screenshots of the Insider program update were posted to Reddit on Wednesday. Microsoft later confirmed the limited rollout.

"We're always looking for new ways to improve the customer experience and regularly release new features into the Insider Program to encourage and foster fan feedback, which helps us test and refine features before they reach general availability," Microsoft said. "Earlier today, we enabled self-serve refund pilot testing for digital content via the Xbox and Windows Insider Programs and this testing is presently limited to select Insider members."

There's no word on when the refund policy may expand to all Xbox and Windows gamers.