Early Access games are very common on Steam, as typically smaller developers seek to let the public in on their game before its finally complete, as a means to earn income, gain hype and get critical feedback from early adopters. Sadly as many of us PC gamers know though, not all Early Access titles are equal, as some sit abandoned for months or years. Valve seems to have noticed the same, as Early Access titles that have not had updates for a long time will now have a note attached informing players of how long the game has sat unattended.
This move will likely benefit Steam in the long run, as Early Access games that get abandoned are probably key targets for player refund requests. It’s a shame that games can be abandoned, but that is the risk that is chanced when purchasing a game in early access. The addition of these warnings will put a further barrier in place to avoid confusion on how active a games development may actually be when purchasing it.
If you’re curious, an example of this can be seen on the Steam page for the game Heartbound, where the Steam note under the Early Access warning reads “Note: The last update made by the developers was over 13 months ago. The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date.” This notice is consistent across games that have gone without updates in a long time, with only the month amount changing. Also, it’s worth noting in this Heartbound example that the developers of the game are issuing developer updates on Steam and have not abandoned the game, this was just a demonstration of how the note appears.
What do you think of Steam’s new Early Access warning system? What are some of your favourite supported Early Access titles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned to GameLuster for more breaking news and gaming updates.
