Valve is introducing a new feature on Steam that will inform users if a game in Early Access hasn’t received an update in over a year. This update was first noticed by SteamDB, which highlighted that a new warning message will now appear prominently at the top of the Early Access developer Q&A section, clearly indicating when the game was last updated.
In addition to this, Valve has enhanced its Steamworks platform to provide more information about this new change. According to Valve’s statement, “If more than 12 months – or a year – have passed since the developers last updated their game and posted an ‘update’ type event to inform players, Steam will insert a notification on the store page. This notice will sit just above the Developer Questionnaire, alerting players that the game hasn’t seen updates for a while.”
This alert will trigger under these conditions:
– It’s been more than 12 months since the developers assigned a new build to the ‘default’ branch in Steamworks.
– It’s been more than 12 months since the developers shared an ‘update’ type event with players, which includes Major Updates, Regular Updates, or even Patch Notes.
From the beginning, Early Access has sometimes included games that developers have unfortunately abandoned, leaving players without updates or improvements. This new move by Valve aims to increase transparency for consumers who are considering investing their time and money in these unfinished projects.
