Valve Company toughened terms and conditions for returning games in your Steam digital store. For this purpose, the concept “expanded access“To avoid confusion with “early access”, although they are subject to the same refund rule.
“Advanced Access” is not a unique development model for the game, but simply an opportunity to play the game before it is fully released on Steam. For example, deluxe editions of games often include the ability to start playing a few days before release.
It is likely that this was a response to cases where, after playing for several days and beating the game, users returned it, since there was no official release yet. Similar cases happen periodically with a variety of projects: Starfield, Hogwarts Legacy, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and others. Now you can play for only 2 hours, even if the release did not take place, after which a refund will not be possible.
