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Have you ever stumbled upon an Early Access game on Steam that caught your eye, only to discover it was glitchy and seemingly abandoned? This issue has been a common discussion among PC gamers for quite some time, and now Valve is introducing a new feature aimed at addressing it. They will display a warning on the Steam pages of Early Access titles, informing potential buyers of the duration since the last game update.
SteamDB revealed that the updated warning is located within the prominent blue Early Access area. This section not only shares the developers' reasons for the game being in Early Access instead of a full release, but it also conveys an estimate of when the game is expected to be completed. A new addition to this feature is a line of orange text that indicates how many months or years have passed since the last update, accompanied by a disclaimer stating that the timeline provided by developers may be outdated.
However, it remains uncertain what qualifies as a significant enough update to reset this countdown or how long the gap between updates must be for it to trigger. Notably, the open-world survival game Project Zomboid has been in Early Access for over ten years and does not show the new warning because it continues to receive regular updates, with the latest one released in January.
The primary objective of this new warning is to highlight games in Early Access that may have been essentially abandoned. For instance, Unsung Story, a highly-publicized Kickstarter project intended to be the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics, carries a label indicating it has been stagnant for four years. Previously, Steam users had to delve into the reviews section to find out if a game was still in active development.
This feature is part of Valve's ongoing efforts to assist users in navigating the extensive library on Steam, which saw the release of 19,000 new games in 2024 alone. As more titles, including popular games like Hyper Light Breaker and Hades 2, opt for Early Access, this warning is a timely update. It comes shortly after Valve also began enforcing stricter regulations on developers who fail to deliver promised DLC and battle pass content.
SteamDB revealed that the updated warning is located within the prominent blue Early Access area. This section not only shares the developers' reasons for the game being in Early Access instead of a full release, but it also conveys an estimate of when the game is expected to be completed. A new addition to this feature is a line of orange text that indicates how many months or years have passed since the last update, accompanied by a disclaimer stating that the timeline provided by developers may be outdated.
However, it remains uncertain what qualifies as a significant enough update to reset this countdown or how long the gap between updates must be for it to trigger. Notably, the open-world survival game Project Zomboid has been in Early Access for over ten years and does not show the new warning because it continues to receive regular updates, with the latest one released in January.
The primary objective of this new warning is to highlight games in Early Access that may have been essentially abandoned. For instance, Unsung Story, a highly-publicized Kickstarter project intended to be the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics, carries a label indicating it has been stagnant for four years. Previously, Steam users had to delve into the reviews section to find out if a game was still in active development.
This feature is part of Valve's ongoing efforts to assist users in navigating the extensive library on Steam, which saw the release of 19,000 new games in 2024 alone. As more titles, including popular games like Hyper Light Breaker and Hades 2, opt for Early Access, this warning is a timely update. It comes shortly after Valve also began enforcing stricter regulations on developers who fail to deliver promised DLC and battle pass content.