Steam Introduces Alerts for Dormant Early Access Titles

Valve has introduced a new system on Steam that informs users when a game in Early Access hasn’t seen an update for over a year. This update was first noticed by SteamDB, revealing a warning message that sits prominently at the top of the Early Access developer Q&A section to indicate the last time the game in question received an update.

Additionally, Valve has provided more information about this update through Steamworks. According to their explanation, “If a game hasn’t been updated by its developers for more than 12 months, and there’s been no ‘update’ type event shared with players about it, Steam will display a notification on the store page. This notification will appear right above the Developer Questionnaire to inform gamers of the stagnation.”

The notice will show up if either of the following conditions are met:

1. It’s been over a year since a build was allocated to the ‘default’ branch in Steamworks.
2. It’s been more than a year since the developers communicated via an ‘update’ event, whether as a Major Update, Regular Update, or through Patch Notes.

Since its inception, the Early Access platform has had its share of games that were seemingly deserted by their developers, leaving players without the promised updates or improvements.