- Valve has acknowledged significant delays in Steam game approval, extending review times from a typical 3-5 business days to up to 12.
- The backlog has caused numerous indie developers, including those behind Food Devils and Cubic Earth, to miss their planned launch dates.
- Valve has implemented new guidelines and checklists for developers, emphasizing basic functionality and build quality to streamline the review process.
Valve, the operator of the world’s largest digital game distribution platform, Steam, has officially acknowledged significant delays in its game approval process. The company confirmed a “significant increase in submissions for store and page review in recent months,” causing typical review times to extend from 3-5 business days to as long as 12.
Developers Face Launch Date Misses
Numerous indie game developers have publicly voiced their frustrations over these extended approval times, which have led to missed launch dates. Affected titles include Studio Daimon’s upcoming game, Food Devils, as well as Wheel Make It and Cubic Earth. For instance, Structmira, the developer of Cubic Earth, reported losing momentum and facing player complaints on their Steam Community page after their application went unanswered for up to 20 days. The game’s trailer garnered over 60,000 views on YouTube and accumulated more than 6,000 wishlists.
Valve’s Response and New Requirements
In response to the backlog, Valve issued a Steamworks update aimed at helping developers navigate the preview process. The company attributed much of the delay to the necessity of re-reviewing games. The update introduces new checklists and requirements designed to improve the quality of initial submissions.
Key Changes to the Review Process:
- Game Testing: Developers are now required to run their game through Steam for at least five minutes to ensure correct functionality within the platform’s environment. Valve noted that some submitted builds had never been played through Steam.
- Redistributables: Confirmation of common redistributables required by the game.
- Features: Verification of cloud saves and achievements functionality.
- Visuals: A minimum of five gameplay screenshots must be added to the store page.
While Valve did not explicitly state the cause of the recent surge in low-quality submissions, many in the industry speculate that it is linked to a proliferation of games created using artificial intelligence tools. These tools enable rapid game creation, leading to an influx of what some term “AI slop” games on Steam. A Valve developer previously acknowledged a “slop problem” but stated the company’s reluctance to “be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use.”
The updated guidelines from Valve appear to be directed not only at experienced developers but also at newer creators who may lack a fundamental understanding of game development best practices. Concurrently, Itch.io announced that it had deleted “a couple terabytes of AI slop” from its storefront to combat the wave of low-quality games online.
Valve stated that while this is a “great starting point,” more changes are anticipated for the build review process.
For indie developers, this necessitates more meticulous preparation of their projects for Steam submission, strict adherence to the new guidelines, and planning launches with extended review times in mind. These delays can negatively impact marketing campaigns and initial sales momentum. For players, it may mean shifts in the release schedules of anticipated indie titles, but in the long term, it should contribute to an overall improvement in the quality of games available on the Steam platform.
As an indie dev who’s been through the Steam approval process a few times, these delays are definitely a pain. My last submission for ‘Galactic Drift’ took closer to 10 days, and that was before these new guidelines. The five-minute play-through requirement is smart, honestly – I’ve seen some truly broken builds make it through. What I find helpful is making sure all your store assets are finalized and proofread before submission; sometimes issues there cause delays. The communication could be better, but hopefully, this streamlines things in the long run.