Valve Warns Millions Of Steam Users About Abandoned Games – Forbes
Steam’s new warning puts customers first.The concept of Early Access games on Steam can be mutually beneficial for both developers and players. It functions as a way for creators to fund development of their indie game, while receiving valuable and ongoing feedback from that game’s community. Plus, it instills early adopters of that game with a sense of pride and ownership as they watch something they’re invested in grow from a rough demo to a polished product.But not every Early Access game on Steam is a success story, and Valve just implemented a welcome warning that proves it continues to put customers first.As spotted by SteamDB, Valve has implemented an important warning on the Steam Store pages of early access games that appear to be abandoned – or at the very least, neglected. Specifically, this seems to get triggered by games that haven’t received meaningful development updates during the prior 12 months.The warning is displayed under the Early Access Game banner, and reads: “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.”One such example can be seen on Pirate Software’s Heartbound:A warning to potential purchasers. Heartbound first launched into Steam early access back in 2018, but early coverage of the game happened as early as January 2017, when IGN’s David Jagneaux suggested it could be “the next Undertale.” Updates happened frequently for several years, with the developer often posting monthly videos in addition to new content and bug fixes. However, after December 2023, the update page fell silent for more than a year (I don’t count the silly April Fool’s Day post).But there have been two updates posted in 2025, so why is the warning still displayed? The answer is that Steam doesn’t recognize a non-game content update such as a video from the developer’s YouTube channel. Nor does it recognize patches made to an early access game’s beta branch. It only appears to acknowledge content sent to the game’s stable branch.That last part may seem unfair, as I can imagine a developer wanting to test something out in a beta branch to iron out rough edges before unleashing it upon significantly more people.Still, the warning serves as a valuable addition to the Steam store. It’s a way to encourage caution before financially committing to an early access title. This represents yet another in a long string of features – like disclosing a game’s kernel-level anti-cheat, and a fair refund policy – showing that Valve genuinely cares about its customers and the overall user experience.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:So, how can you be a power user?Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.
