Steam Introduces Alerts for Early Access Games Lacking Updates for One Year

Valve has implemented a new feature for those exploring Steam Early Access titles, making it clear if a game hasn’t seen an update in over a year.

This new alert system was noticed by SteamDB, presenting itself as a warning at the top of the Early Access developer Q&A. It informs gamers about when the project last received updates.

Further details about this change have been highlighted in Steamworks by Valve themselves.

Valve stated, “If more than 12 months have passed since a game’s developers have updated it and posted an ‘update’ type event to notify players, Steam will display a note on the store page, just above the Developer Questionnaire. This lets players know the game hasn’t been updated in quite a while.”

The alert triggers under the following circumstances:

1. It’s been over 12 months since a new build was added to the ‘default’ branch in Steamworks.
2. It’s been over 12 months since an ‘update’ type event was shared by the developer, including Major Updates, Regular Updates, or Patch Notes.

Early Access has long been a platform where some games, unfortunately, end up abandoned by their creators. Now, with this transparent system, gamers have a clearer sight of a game’s development activity.