Steam will now inform players of potentially "abandoned" early access games
Steam will now warn players before purchasing an early access game if it hasn't been updated in a while.
The details:
As spotted by SteamDB, the warning now appears on the store pages of early access games that haven't been updated in over a year. "Note: The last update made by the developers was over 14 months ago," the message reads. "The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date."
While some early access games have been successful, such as DayZ, Rust, Hades, and ARK: Survival Evolved, many others never see a full release for a variety of reasons and remain unfinished forever. Given that Steam's refund policy remains unchanged for canceled early access games, it appears that this is Valve's attempt to keep disappointed players from purchasing and playing titles that may never be finished.
Valve has yet to publicly announce the feature on its blog, but it's possible that the change is related to the company's ongoing efforts to better protect customers. In November, the platform announced new Season Pass policies requiring developers to ensure that one piece of notable content is immediately available upon purchase, as well as accurate release dates and descriptions for future DLC. If developers fail to do so, Valve states that it reserves the right to issue refunds and prohibit the sale of the passes at any time.
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