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Valve has introduced a new feature on Steam that alerts users if an Early Access game hasn’t been updated in over a year. This initiative, picked up by SteamDB, takes the form of a warning prominently displayed at the top of a game’s Early Access developer Q&A section, informing potential buyers of the last time the game received an update.
Valve has further elaborated on this change on Steamworks, outlining how it affects games on the platform. According to Valve, “Should it be the case that more than twelve months have passed since developers last updated their game and communicated it through an ‘update’ type event, Steam will notify players on the game’s store page. This notice will appear just above the Developer Questionnaire, cluing players in on the game’s lack of recent updates.”
The criteria for this notification to appear include either surpassing a 12-month period without any new build being assigned to the game’s ‘default’ branch in Steamworks or the absence of any ‘update’ type event being posted by developers, which covers all update categories—Major Update, Regular Update, or Patch Notes.
Since its inception, Early Access has seen its share of projects where development has stalled indefinitely, leaving players in the dark. With this update, Valve is taking steps to ensure transparency and help gamers make more informed purchasing decisions.
