Indeed, I just received an email from Steam with the only response I was expecting, but I had to at least try:
“On this occasion, we are unable to refund this purchase to your PayPal. The playtime for one of the included products exceeds 2 hours (the maximum allowed by our Refund Policy).”
The first day’s download was already counted as playtime, and I didn’t see the game’s introduction until after 5 hours…
In my country, we have two sayings that perfectly describe this situation: “Lies have very short legs” and “Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow.” I remember MSFS 2020—it was a disaster, and many people fell into the trap. History has repeated itself, and this time it’s even worse, if that’s possible. That old excuse about server issues in the early days no longer holds water.
The game itself is a collection of problems of various kinds, some of them truly significant. I’ve gone back to MSFS 2020 in recent days, and I’m genuinely surprised that it not only looks better but also performs much better, with most of the aircraft I use being properly polished. It’s not just that MSFS 2024 doesn’t feel like a new product—it doesn’t even qualify as an update.
In the short term, these situations primarily hurt users, but in the end, companies pay the price sooner or later. This isn’t the first company in the industry to fall because of such dishonest practices…