Valve has introduced a handy new feature for those interested in Steam Early Access games. If a game hasn’t received updates in over a year, shoppers will now be clearly informed. This update was initially noticed by SteamDB, which pointed out a prominent warning message that shows up in the Early Access developer Q&A section. It’s designed to alert potential buyers about when the game was last updated.
The folks at Valve have also revamped Steamworks to include details about this adjustment. Here’s how they laid it out: “If over a year has passed since developers have refreshed their game or rolled out an event update to inform players, Steam will flag this on the store page. This notice will appear just above the Developer Questionnaire, letting players know about the absence of recent updates,” Valve explained.
This warning will be triggered under two conditions: either it’s been more than 12 months since a build was deployed to the ‘default’ branch in Steamworks, or it’s been over a year since an update event, like a Major Update, Regular Update, or Patch Notes, has been posted by the developer.
The move addresses a longstanding issue with Early Access, where some titles have been left by the wayside by their developers. So now, players have one more tool in their kit to make informed decisions when exploring Early Access offerings.
