Steam’s Early Access has enabled several fantastic success stories, while other games remain forever stuck in development. An update could gradually improve this situation.
Steam’s Early Access enables wonderful success stories: Small studios let their fans play during development for a fee, collect feedback, polish, refine, and, thanks to this funding, can ultimately release a fantastic full version… or the games languish in Early Access for what feels like an eternity and only reach 1.0 after ten years.
Until now, you had to dig through the FAQs of the respective developers on Steam to hopefully find a hint as to how long the game would remain in Early Access. A new, handy little Steam feature should make this easier in the future.
Steam gets a new notification feature
In a developer blog, Valve introduces the new feature: In the future, developers will be able to specify exactly how long their game will be in Early Access. As soon as they use this feature, the data will be displayed in bold letters at the top of the Early Access banner:
Valve gives studios a lot of freedom in how specifically they want to limit their time frame. Devs can specify a specific release date, or alternatively the month, quarter, or year – basically the same as regular release dates outside of Early Access.
Important: Until further notice, developers are also free to choose whether they want to use the feature at all. Valve even warns against setting a full release period too lightly, as this always carries the risk of disappointing your own community with delays. Whether the new feature catches on therefore depends entirely on the studios.
Ideally, the new date will not only provide greater visibility on the Steam store page, but also in the release calendar: In 2025, Valve introduced personal Steam calendars that list upcoming games based on player preferences. With the new early access feature, the dates when early access games move to full release can also be circled.
The early access feature has already been rolled out and can be used by all manufacturers in the future. Let’s see if it changes anything.
