Steam Introduces Warnings for Outdated Early Access Titles

Valve is making a significant update to how Early Access games are presented on Steam by alerting players if a game hasn’t received any updates in over a year. This change, spotted by SteamDB, shows a clear warning at the top of the Early Access developer Q&A section, helping users easily see when the game last had any development activity.

The details of this update have also been included in Steamworks. Valve explained, “If it’s been over a year since a game has seen an update or if developers haven’t posted any ‘update’ type events about it, a note will be added right above the Developer Questionnaire on the game’s store page. This will inform players that the game hasn’t seen any updates for a while.”

The notice appears under two conditions: when it’s been over 12 months since a new build was applied to the game’s ‘default’ branch on Steamworks or when developers have not posted any type of ‘update’ event—be it a Major Update, Regular Update, or Patch Notes.

For quite some time, Early Access has had its share of games abandoned by their developers, leaving players in the dark. This new feature aims to offer more transparency and help gamers make informed decisions before diving into Early Access titles.