Who owes you a refund depends on who sold it
The store that took your money is the party with the obligation. That sounds obvious and it is routinely forgotten, because the thing that failed carries a publisher's name and the launcher is where the error appeared. Neither the publisher nor the launcher has any relationship with a purchase made elsewhere.
So the first question when something goes wrong is not "what is the policy for this game" but "which company charged my card". Everything else follows from that, including how long you have and what evidence helps.
Official stores publish a policy and mostly follow it
Platform storefronts operate published refund rules with stated conditions, commonly framed around how long ago you bought and how much you played. They are administered largely automatically, which makes them predictable — the request either meets the stated conditions or it does not, and arguing rarely changes the answer.
The practical consequence is that a purchase made on the platform itself carries a refund route that a third-party key does not. When people say a launcher's own price is worth a premium, this is usually the premium they mean.
Key resellers and marketplaces are a different conversation
An official reseller generally offers a refund window on an unredeemed key, and once a key has been revealed to you, many treat it as delivered. That is not unreasonable — the code is the goods, and a revealed code cannot be taken back — but it does mean the window is often shorter than buyers expect and closes the moment the code is shown.
On a marketplace the counterparty is an individual seller and the platform runs a dispute process rather than issuing a refund itself. Outcomes depend on evidence and on the seller's standing. Some marketplaces sell an optional buyer protection at checkout that changes this materially; whether that is worth its price is worth deciding before the purchase rather than after.
In both cases the practical currency is evidence: the order confirmation, the code, the exact error text, and the timestamps. A dispute with those attached is decided quickly; one described in prose is not.
Statutory rights, and the box you clicked
Consumers buying online in the EU and UK have a statutory withdrawal period for distance purchases. Digital content is treated specially: where you agree to immediate delivery and acknowledge that you lose the withdrawal right by doing so, that right can be validly waived — and the trader is also required to confirm that consent to you afterwards on a durable medium. Every digital storefront asks for the acknowledgement, which is why the checkbox exists; not all of them handle the confirmation as carefully.
What is not waived is your right to goods that conform to the contract. A key that never worked, or that was revoked, is not a change of mind — it is a product that failed, and consumer law addresses that separately from withdrawal.
Rules differ by country and this is a guide rather than legal advice. If a purchase is large enough to matter, your national consumer body will state the position for your jurisdiction more authoritatively than any store will.
Chargebacks are a last resort with consequences
A chargeback reverses the payment through your bank rather than through the store. It works, and it is a legitimate tool when a seller will not engage. It is also the step that ends the relationship: platforms routinely suspend accounts that charge back, including accounts holding games bought legitimately over years.
Use the store's process first and give it a reasonable chance. Keep the correspondence. If you do escalate to the bank, understand that you may be closing the account you bought from, and make sure nothing you still want lives inside it.
What to do in the first hour
Stop trying the code. Screenshot the error exactly as it appears. Find the order confirmation. Open a ticket with the store that charged you, quoting both, and state plainly what you want — replacement or refund.
Do it the same day. Nearly every route available to you is time-limited, and the difference between a straightforward refund and a lost cause is usually measured in days rather than in the strength of the argument.
When terms say "all sales final"
A line in a store's terms saying digital purchases are non-refundable describes that store's policy. It does not override consumer law where consumer law applies, and in the EU and UK a trader cannot contract out of the statutory protections that cover goods which are faulty or not as described.
The distinction that matters is between changing your mind and receiving something that failed. A blanket "no refunds" line is generally enforceable against the first and much weaker against the second, because a key that never activated is not a purchase you regret — it is one that did not deliver what was sold.
In practice most stores resolve genuine failures without needing any of this said out loud, because it is cheaper than the alternative. Where one does not, saying plainly that the product did not work and that you are asking for a remedy on that basis tends to move a ticket further than a general complaint about the policy.