Steam now warns when Early Access games are defunct or abandoned

In recent months, Valve has been making moves to ensure more transparency on Steam. The latest move? Introducing a new warning on product pages for Early Access games that haven’t received updates in a long time. It was spotted by SteamDB in a Bluesky post:

The warning appears on Early Access games that haven’t been updated in more than a year. This makes it easier to know whether an Early Access game still intends to release or if it’s been abandoned.

Early Access is meant for studios and developers who want to give pre-release access to gamers who can’t wait and are willing to pay to play in advance. It’s one way for smaller publishers and developers to help fund development while building up a player base.

In exchange, Early Access games are making an implicit promise that the game will be actively developed and completed at some point. High-profile examples of successful Early Access games include Subnautica, Kerbal Space Program, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

But, of course, you have the black sheep. Developers who don’t take it seriously, who don’t respect their players, and abuse Early Access to make a quick buck. Or developers who couldn’t finish development for whatever reasons, like running out of funding. These games will never be finished — and you don’t want to inadvertently buy into a dead game that has no hope of ever reaching completion, do you? That’s what Steam’s new warning is trying to prevent. If an Early Access game hasn’t been updated in over a year, it’s likely done and should be ignored.

Detailed update information on a game can be found on its Steam page under Show update history. You can then see exactly when the developer last updated the game.

Further reading: Hidden Steam features you shouldn’t overlook