Steam’s New Warning System Flags Inactive Early Access Games

Summary

Valve now warns players about inactive games in Early Access to prevent purchasing abandoned projects.
Games with over a year of inactivity receive a warning, with 20+ months labeled as high risk.
Developers must update store pages regularly to avoid warnings and mislead players.

Valve now lets you know which games are worth investing in when they’re at the alpha or beta stages on Steam. A newly introduced heads-up will now appear in the Early Access section of the IPs that haven’t received updates in a long time.

The feature, which was first spotted by SteamDB, displays a warning for games that haven’t dropped an update in over a year. Below the notification is a section for developers to comment on the game’s current status. This notice helps you make more informed decisions, preventing you from accidentally purchasing a dead project.

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Steam’s Early Access Needs Transparency

Early Access has been an environment of uncertainty, the sticking point being the exploitation after abandoned projects remain available for sale for the unsuspecting gamers. Valve now addresses the issue in a quest to sanitize the platform into the go-to place it has been for indie developers seeking feedback and funding.

Some famous examples include Deadside, which took four years, and Neon Echo, which remained listed on Steam despite an earlier cancelation by the devs.

The new warning only notifies you about inactivity, but it does not necessarily mean that a game is abandoned. Just a crucial heads-up before you commit your hard-earned cash to a stagnated project.

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How Does the Steam Inactive Early Access Games Alert Work?

Valve has not provided the exact threshold, but the warning appears after a year of inactivity. Games not updated for 20+ months are categorized as high risk and highly discouraged.

The main store listing seems to be the metric here. So, don’t be surprised when a game that has only updated private branches gets flagged as inactive.

The new feature challenges game developers to regularly update their store pages to keep players informed and avoid fagging. They must push upgrades for both the beta branch and the main listing and ensure they mention it in the Early Access section.

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Hopefully, now game development will be properly documented, and devs will utilize the new feature to improve communication with players. For players, the update brings the more powerful awareness handy when working with the beta versions.

Whether this will solve the Early Access problem remains to be seen. Valve will also need to clarify what happens to active projects that normally take years to develop. What about devs pushing minor updates to manipulate the warning timer without making tangible progress in the project?