Steam Warns About Abandoned Early Access Games

Have you ever stumbled upon an Early Access game on Steam that seemed promising but ended up a dud? It’s an all-too-common experience for PC gamers. Now, Valve is rolling out a new tool to tackle this very issue. A fresh warning will soon greet prospective buyers, highlighting the time elapsed since the game’s last update.

Spotting Neglected Projects

SteamDB revealed this update earlier today. The warning now appears inside the prominent blue Early Access box. This section typically includes developers’ reasons for the game’s incomplete state and expected release timeline. Now, a string of orange text also highlights the months or years since the last update appeared. A disclaimer adds, “The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date.”

What remains unclear is what constitutes a significant update. Additionally, how long it takes between updates for this orange alert to activate remains ambiguous. Games like Project Zomboid, which receive regular updates despite a lengthy Early Access period, don’t display the new warning. Its latest update, for example, dropped this past January.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Primarily, this new alert seems tailored for uncovering when Early Access games have been effectively shelved. Take Unsung Story, a notorious Kickstarter initiative once lauded as a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s been tagged as abandoned for four years now. Before this, users had to venture into the reviews to learn if a project was in limbo.

Navigating Steam’s massive game library, with 19,000 titles dropped in 2024 alone, can be dizzying. This latest warning aims to smooth that process, especially important as more games, even major ones like Hyper Light Breaker and Hades 2, embrace Early Access. This feature follows Valve’s recent effort to curb false promises of DLC that never surface.