http://kotaku.com/no-steam-isnt-offering-special-exemptions-for-no-mans-1785908935
Thankfully, I didn't buy this game. Apparently it's just total garbage. But I do have a strong opinion on these refund policies, especially that if you play it for 50 hours you are a thief if you return it.
Well, bullshit.
I've only returned one game, one that people here might even like. Diablo 3
Many here will disagree, but I thought that game fucking sucked. But I played it for a ton of hours. I don't know how many, but a lot.
"If you hated it, why did you play it so much?". The whole thing with Diablo - kinda like No Man's Sky, is that it was supposed to have ultimate re-play value. The only way to find out if this is true is to... play it. Unlike the latest Doom (loved it) I didn't buy the game to go through once, enjoy the experience, and then pack it up. No, you buy games like these with the HOPE that it will provide a recurring, deep experience.
And for me at least, Diablo 3 was just clicking a button to kill things over and over. The levels weren't noticeably diferent between playthroughs. The different character types were ok, but not truly interesting. It was more... "Heres a way to pointlessly waste your life with no real varation" sort of replay. Maybe the levels had some random generation to them, but if so it was so minor that I didn't really notice.
I never played Diablo 2. I heard it was amazing. Was I the wrong audience? I have no idea. I just know that after I finished Diable 3, I thought it was a total waste of my time. I rarely feel like that with games. So I yelled at them till I got a refund. If the play sucks, then the replay sucks. And if all that sucks, then it's not what I was trying to buy. But I at least figured that out over a weekend.
On that note, I probably would have returned Mass Effect 3 with the original ending. I heard it blew so I only played it years later when I could get a used copy for $5. It still pissed me off. But the rest was totally worth $5.
So I feel for the poor souls burning hours into No Man's Sky just to find out that the experience has no light at the end of the tunnel. That it is pointlessly clicking a button forever hoping for some catharsis that never comes. And I want them all to get refunds, because that's the only way publishers will be forced to make games worth playing.