Valve Tightens Its Early Access Rules

Steven Bogos

The Taco Man
Jan 17, 2013
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Valve Tightens Its Early Access Rules


Valve acknowledges the recent Early Access abuse, and has put down some ground rules to clarify its proper use.

So Steam's Early Access program has had some reasons [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130679-DayZ-Alpha-Sells-172K-in-Its-First-Day]. Valve has acknowledged the problem, and has tightened its guidelines on what clarifies as "Early Access."

First up, developers must clearly advertise if their game is "Early Access," even if it is being sold on outlets other than Steam, such as Green Man Gaming. Prices must be uniform across all platforms, and developers must launch on other platforms at the same time that they launch on Steam. Pretty simple.

Next, it gets a bit tricky. Developers are no longer allowed to make "specific promises about future events." Valve clarifies: "There is no way you can know exactly when the game will be finished, that the game will be finished, or that planned future additions will definitely happen. Do not ask your customers to bet on the future of your game."

"Customers should be buying your game based on its current state, not on promises of a future that may or may not be realized."

Finally, while not technically rules, Valve released a set of "guidelines" for developers thinking about going Early Access. To summarize:

Don't launch in Early Access if you can't afford to develop with very few or no sales.
Make sure you set expectations properly everywhere you talk about your game.
Don't launch in Early Access without a playable game.
Don't launch in Early Access if you are done with development.

Source: Giant Bomb [http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/steam-updates-early-access-rules-guidelines-for-de/1100-5101/]

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Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Do not ask your customers to bet on the future of your game.
Isn't that more or less contrary to, well....everything? I mean, Steam even advertises these games by saying you can follow their development and such.
 

NuclearKangaroo

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Feb 7, 2014
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Zachary Amaranth said:
Do not ask your customers to bet on the future of your game.
Isn't that more or less contrary to, well....everything? I mean, Steam even advertises these games by saying you can follow their development and such.
i think they meant

"your game must already be worth money"


personally, i think its not enough, guaranteed refunds would truthly force devs to work on their games, theyll think twice before abandoning development
 

Gizmo1990

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Oct 19, 2010
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I am glad they are trying to do something about this (finaly) but I would be happy if they simply had a filter on the main page that would allow me to remove early access and indi games from appearing. You can already do it with dlc so I don't imagine it would be difficult.
 

Glaice

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Mar 18, 2013
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It is about time they did something about this, despite late on bringing this up.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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Zachary Amaranth said:
Do not ask your customers to bet on the future of your game.
Isn't that more or less contrary to, well....everything? I mean, Steam even advertises these games by saying you can follow their development and such.
It might have meant something when Early Access first launched, but since so many devs have been abusing the system to make a cheap buck at the expense of consumers, it looks like the guideline has been changed.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Soviet Heavy said:
It might have meant something when Early Access first launched, but since so many devs have been abusing the system to make a cheap buck at the expense of consumers, it looks like the guideline has been changed.
The listing for consumers has not, though, which is kind of my point. The whole pitch is that we're buying into the dev cycle.
 

War_Dyn27

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Jan 22, 2014
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Gizmo1990 said:
I am glad they are trying to do something about this (finaly) but I would be happy if they simply had a filter on the main page that would allow me to remove early access and indi games from appearing. You can already do it with dlc so I don't imagine it would be difficult.
Im pretty sure the Discovery update added that already. Click the little 'customise' button next to each field on the steam page to control what type of game you see.
 

ThePS1Fan

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Dec 22, 2011
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This isn't amazing. but its a start. Now the question becomes will Valve actually enforce these rules? Valve hasn't shown much desire to curate Steam before and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
 

Aerosteam

Get out while you still can
Sep 22, 2011
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The problem won't be fixed until the dev is required to give a full refund if development fails, but I'm satisfied with the way it's handled now.
 

War_Dyn27

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Jan 22, 2014
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Aerosteam said:
The problem won't be fixed until the dev is required to give a full refund if development fails, but I'm satisfied with the way it's handled now.
The problem with that is that the entire point of Early Access is to help smaller companies fund a game. Its kinda hard to get a refund, when the expectation is that they are spending the money on the game
 

Aerosteam

Get out while you still can
Sep 22, 2011
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War_Dyn27 said:
Aerosteam said:
The problem won't be fixed until the dev is required to give a full refund if development fails, but I'm satisfied with the way it's handled now.
The problem with that is that the entire point of Early Access is to help smaller companies fund a game. Its kinda hard to get a refund, when the expectation is that they are spending the money on the game
Yeah, I guess you're right.

Well, some sort of compensation should be given, or at the very, very least, an explanation on what happened instead of just abandoning ship like what we've seen before.
 

ryukage_sama

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Mar 12, 2009
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I suppose these guidelines would give Valve an established cause for removing games that receive complaints. This will all come down to adherence and enforcement.
 

Metadigital

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May 5, 2014
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Oh, is Steam reacting to the fact that only 25% of early access games have ever seen full release?

Don't launch in Early Access if you are done with development.
Nope.
 

black_knight1337

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Mar 1, 2011
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While it's good that Valve are doing something, it all comes down to whether or not they are actually going to enforce anything. And if it's anything like the confidentiality agreement required to view these rules and guidelines, it's rather pointless.

It's also kind of funny that on one hand they are saying not to make any promises on the future and on the other they ask developers to talk about the future.