14 DAY TRIAL // Steam's Early Access FAQ now warns that some of the games may never be finished, and that the release date is left to the discretion of the developer.
Steam is growing more and more, and some members of the community are being quite vocal about the need for Valve to start curating the content in some way. It used to be that you could go through the list of the latest releases and find something of interest, but now many people feel that it's simply a waste of time.
As more indie developers put out tiny games on Valve's worldwide distribution platform, many gamers feel that the noise to content ratio is slowly starting to grow, especially in light of some really bad-quality titles that have been launched on Steam in recent months.
In addition to this, the Early Access feature allows developers to start selling their games before they are actually finished, and in many cases even before some core features are implemented, leaving many disappointed in the drawn-out development cycles of some of the titles.
The situation is somewhat similar to the way users were disgruntled over projects backed through Kickstarter not meeting their expectations, and in some cases failing to deliver entirely.
In addition to this, Steam's Greenlight initiative put the power into the community's hands by allowing gamers to decide which indie titles should be published on Steam, and it's now delivering around 75 new games every two weeks.
The global statistics point out that there is no need for alarm, as the majority of titles on both Kickstarter and Early Steam Access are doing fine, but still Valve decided that updating the Early Access FAQ with a fair warning would be the best way to go about this.
As such, now Valve warns consumers that some titles may not ever see completion, and that purchases of in-development software is at the customer's discretion. Additionally, the FAQ also states that, while some developers have a concrete deadline in mind for their projects, others aim to get a better sense for it as the development process progresses, and as such it's entirely up to the developers when and how they update and release their creations.
"You should be aware that some teams will be unable to 'finish' their game. So you should only buy an Early Access game if you are excited about playing it in its current state," the most revealing section of the FAQ reads.
"The changes to the FAQ are intended to help set customer expectations of what may or may not happen over the course of development of an Early Access game. We frequently iterate on Steam features as we gather feedback and find areas for improvement."
"In this case, it became apparent that further clarification would help customers evaluate their potential purchase of Early Access titles. We think of Steam, Early Access, and game development as services that grow and evolve best with the involvement of customers and the community," shares Doug Lombardi, Valve's marketing director, in regards to the update to the Steam Early Access FAQ.