Steam Refunds Slash $200 Indie “This Game Costs 200

An 18-year-old developer nearly turned a bargain-bin idea into a nine-figure payday—at least on paper—after launching a Steam game priced at $200. Michael Major’s “This Game Costs 200 Dollars” attracted thousands of full-price buyers, but Steam’s two-hour refund policy crushed the revenue once most purchasers requested refunds.

Steam’s $200 experiment lands close to $1.3 million

Michael Major released “This Game Costs 200 Dollars” on Steam in January, aiming to generate at least a sale at that unusually high price point. Using Valve’s own sales metrics, the game reportedly sold to 6,717 customers.

At full price ($200), that purchase volume would have meant about $1.3 million in gross sales.
Major said he “almost died” when he saw the earnings counter showing $1.38 million.
Despite the high buy count, only 10 people ended up keeping the game in their digital libraries.

Refunds flip the outcome from “million” to a few thousand

The turning point was Steam’s refund system: players can request a refund as long as they have fewer than two hours of playtime. In Major’s case, refunds were widespread—far beyond what would be expected from genuine play.

6,707 buyers filed refund requests.
After the refund wave, Major’s take-home total was reportedly reduced to about $2,045.
That figure is roughly ten times the game’s $200 price.

Major’s reaction and suspicions about why people paid

Major has questioned how so many users paid $200 for a game they largely did not keep. He stated that many buyers appeared to come from China and suggested a few possible explanations.

He believes some buyers may have been seeking Steam points earned through clicks.
He also speculated that some purchases could be money laundering or attempts to hide other fraudulent activity.

How the $200 launch follows an earlier hit attempt

This was not Major’s first attempt at Steam. He previously released “This Game Costs 10 Dollars,” which drew attention as his initial launch. The $200 version raised the same concept to an extreme price level—pushing the strategy to its limit before running directly into Steam’s refund rules.

Major’s first game was priced at $10.
The follow-up, released in January, was priced at $200.
The $200 concept attracted thousands of purchases, but refunds ultimately prevented the expected revenue.