Steam Introduces Warnings for Early Access Titles with No Updates in a Year

Valve has introduced a new feature for Steam Early Access titles, ensuring users are informed if a game hasn’t received an update in over a year.

This change was highlighted by SteamDB, surfacing as a notification on the game’s Early Access developer Q&A section. It provides a clear timestamp of when the last update happened, keeping players in the loop.

In addition, Valve has revamped Steamworks to include details on this new feature.

Valve explained, “Should a game go more than 12 months without an update or an ‘update’ event notifying players about changes, Steam will display a note directly above the Developer Questionnaire. This note alerts players that the game hasn’t been updated in some time.”

This notification shows up under two conditions:

– It’s been over a year since a game received a build update in the ‘default’ branch on Steamworks.
– The developer hasn’t posted an ‘update’ event—such as a Major Update, Regular Update, or Patch Notes—in over 12 months to inform players.

Since Early Access launched, several games have unfortunately been left behind by their developers, stalling progress and leaving players without updates.