Steam has recently rolled out a new change that informs buyers if that shiny new game they’re about to pick up has actually been abandoned by its developers.
The new feature was noticed by SteamDB, now store pages for Early Access games which have gone at least a year or so without an update will have a warning added in the Early Access box.
When Steam first started releasing “Early Access” titles, the intention was to help indie developers make money to continue development. However as the years have shown, some Early Access games get lost in “EA Hell” (Not to be confused with “EA” Hell) and are seemingly abandoned by their developers.
In the time since, consumers have grown accustomed to paying for Early Access titles, and while there have been some great success stories there’s a substantial amount of abandonware and shovelware out there.
Now buyers on Steam will be able to make more informed decisions about buying a game and what expectations they have for it to be finished.