Steam game reviews can take 12 business days, and one horror developer has delayed its launch again
Valve says its reviews of game builds for Steam are currently taking up to 12 business days. The company has added new pre-release checks that ask developers to test their games through Steam and confirm that promised features are ready before submitting a build.
The company usually aims to test a build within three to five days, according to its November 3 update. Valve says it has seen a significant increase in submissions for both store pages and builds, while having to review games again accounts for much of the delay.
For players watching an upcoming game, a longer review queue can leave developers with less room to deal with a problem before launch. Valve has not said that every game will take 12 business days, and a build review is separate from the user reviews players post after release.
Image: Valve
One game moves its launch again
The developer of No Visitors Allowed says its release build has been awaiting review since October 21. In a November 4 update, the developer said the psychological horror game was moving to November 20 to allow more time for approval; its Steam product listing now also shows that date.
The developer had previously moved the planned release from November 13 to November 16. The new date remains a plan rather than a guarantee: the developer says additional changes could be requested during review.
No Visitors Allowed is one game whose developer has postponed its release while waiting for review. Image: Second Guess
Developers must run their game through Steam before review
One new checklist item requires at least five minutes of playtime through Steam. Valve says a game that runs when a developer opens its executable directly may still have problems with launch options or missing content when a customer installs it through Steam.
Playtime from any user counts, as long as it falls within the past seven days, or since the latest build when that upload was more than seven days ago. Valve notes that recorded playtime can take a few minutes to appear on the checklist after a game closes.
Developers must also specify any common redistributables their game needs, such as DirectX or Visual C++, or indicate that none are required. Steam can install supported redistributables automatically, but the correct dependencies still need to be selected.
Cloud saves, achievements and screenshots get extra checks
For games advertising Steam Cloud, a member of the developer’s partner group must write a save file to the service. Valve says this helps check the save path, and Steam will flag if cloud sync is still in developer mode rather than available to players.
The checklist will also flag incomplete achievement setups, such as missing names or icons. Store screenshots can now be categorised as gameplay, menus, concept art or cinematics; at least five must be labelled as gameplay.
Valve says the extra checks are intended to help games pass on their first review, and more changes are planned. Its update does not attribute the backlog to any particular type of submission.
