How to Refund a Game on PS5 – Explained

Refunding digital games on consoles has always been a bit of a tedious process, and while there have been efforts made to reduce the restrictions, it’s still not as good as Steam. This is the same case with the PS5, which offers refunds for digital purchases as well, but there are multiple factors to keep in mind. Here is how you can refund a game on the PS5.

PS5 Games Refunding Criteria

To refund any game on the PS5, you first need to check if the purchase you want to refund is actually eligible for a refund. Here is a handy checklist provided by PlayStation:

Essentially, if you downloaded a game you are planning on refunding, then PlayStation will not reward you with a refund, unlike Steam, where you can play a game for a maximum of two hours before refunding. Additionally, the game or DLC has to be refunded within 14 days of purchase. These are the two major conditions that need to be fulfilled. We highly recommend disabling automatic downloads on the PS5 because once the download is initiated, you are ineligible for the refund.

There are some exceptions where a refund could be offered to players if a game is in an incredibly poor state at launch like Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS4. In other cases, the publisher can decide to take the game off the platform entirely, and offer automatic refunds like the recent first-party title, Concord. However, this is still very rare.

Refunding a Game on the PS5

If you meet the criteria above, you are elligable for a full refund for any game or DLC. To initate the refund process, follow the steps below.

• Head over to the following link on a web browser. This process can’t be done through the console interface, and a browser is necessary.
• Select the PS Store & Refunds tile, followed by PlayStation Store refunds

• This will create a “Live chat” prompt at the bottom, and allow players to chat with an agent or bot to get through the rest of the refund process.

They’ll ask why you want to refund the title, and only provide a refund if you meet the criteria.

Can You Refund Pre-orders?

If you have pre-order a title through the PS Store, you can request a refund as well. There are two scenarios for this, as per PlayStation:

• Pre-order purchases made more than 14 days before the release date: For this type of pre-order purchase, you can request a refund at any time up until the release date of the content.
• Pre-order purchases made fewer than 14 days before the release date: For this type of pre-order purchase, you can request a refund up to 14 days* after the date of purchase.

PS5 Refund Timline

If the refund process is successful, it takes around 30 to 60 days to receive the refund. However, in most cases, it doesn’t take more than two weeks. Refunds are issued to the payment method used to make the purchase, but if that isn’t available, for whatever reason, the amount is credited to PlayStation Store wallet.

That’s all there is to refunding a game on the PS5. It’s still nowhere as user-friendly as Steam, because a lot of players have automatic downloads enabled, which renders the refund feature useless. We hope that Sony continues to listen to feedback, and improve the process in future updates.