Steamthe leading platform of gaming On computers, he decided to take two measures to significantly improve the experience of the millions of users who use it every day. Both of them touch “delicate” arguments in the videogame panorama: the advertising and the products in early access.
As for the first element, Valve, the owner of Steam, has decided to fight the ads in game. Very common practice in games for mobile devices, it consists in the appearance of screen advertising banners that force users to wait a few seconds before they disappear or that can be closed by pressing the “X” always well hidden. The company’s move indicates the clear intent of wanting to distance themselves from this kind of ads, which were starting to spread more and more among the games on Steam.
Early access, however, are a real “scourge“Of the platform. They are games released before the “version 1.0”, a way that developers have to raise more funds to be allocated to the product and to be able to interact with the community and have direct feedback. There is no shortage of happy examples of Early Access, just think of that masterpiece of Baldur’s Gate 3but there is also an endless list of games that have not received updates for a long time.
To meet the increasingly pressing requests of users, therefore, Valve has decided to insert a small but important update: from now on, when the page of an early access game will open in the virtual shop, to possible buyers will be reported there date of the last update and, if this has happened more than 12 months First, the risks of paying for an abandoned product or which progress are no longer respecting the dates publicly widespread by the developers will also be listed.
An important step of the company, this, which hopefully can
order in the actual jungle of games that risk remaining forever in early access and that, for this reason, could provide misleading information on the times of release of the updates.