Steam has started warning about abandoned games in early access
The SteamDB service noticed a new feature on the Steam store. On the pages of early access games, you can now see a warning if a project hasn't received updates for a long time.
In a special message, Steam indicates how much time has passed since the release of the last patch. For example, on the page for the cooperative horror game Escape the Backrooms, it states that the developers haven’t updated the game for over 12 months, while the action-platformer Cavern Kings is marked as having gone more than eight years without updates.
Warning on the Cavern Kings page
However, as discovered by The Verge, the feature does not work perfectly. Specifically, on the page for the role-playing adventure Heartbound, players are warned of no updates for 13 months, whereas in reality, the latest patch for the title was released less than a week ago.
It’s unclear how much time needs to pass after a patch release before Steam starts warning players. In any case, now users have a better chance to see whether developers are still working on a game or have abandoned it.