Steam’s early access program certainly has its merits and drawbacks, yet many find it appealing. The opportunity to participate in a project from its inception, observe its growth, and lend support to developers whose aspirations may surpass their initial funding is quite intriguing. However, a significant drawback exists: not all games reach completion. Some remain stuck in an alpha phase, with their creators mysteriously disappearing, leaving them forever unfinished.
This presents a genuine concern. Additionally, there has been little on Steam to prevent unsuspecting newcomers from purchasing these abandoned titles. Unless a game has accumulated enough negative feedback to raise red flags, it has often been possible for players to acquire a stagnant early access game, mistakenly believing it is still under active development.
The phrase “up to now” is particularly relevant as Valve has made an effort to address this issue. As noted by SteamDB, early access titles that haven’t received updates for an extended period will now feature a highlighted notice at the top of their ‘Early Access Game’ section on the store page. This note indicates how long it has been since the last update and warns that “The information and timeline described by the developers here may no longer be up to date.” This new measure appears to activate after approximately 12 months; currently, the warning can only be found on games that have gone without updates for 13 months or more. Notably, this alert is missing from titles like Kerbal Space Program 2, suggesting that the implementation might not be uniform across all early access offerings.
On the page for the long-fallow early access game Cavern Kings, one can observe its status, which explicitly mentions that the last update occurred a staggering eight years ago.
While this information is undoubtedly informative, there is room for improvement in the system. Take Heartbound, for example; it received a patch to its beta branch just four days prior, indicating that development is still very active. However, someone casually reviewing its information might be discouraged by the notation stating that its last update was “over 13 months ago.” This discrepancy suggests that Steam might need to reconsider what qualifies as an ‘update,’ as many individuals may interpret the current warning misleadingly.
Maxthon
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