{"id":462467,"date":"2026-02-08T21:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:25:10","slug":"steam-now-lets-developers-display-the-exact-date-of-when-their-game-leaves-early-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462467\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam now lets developers display the exact date of when their game leaves Early Access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Steam is adding a little more transparency when it comes to <a class=\"link \" data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/gaming\/early-access-is-the-latest-place-where-steam-is-restricting-games-with-mature-themes-190806818.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Early Access;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Early Access<\/a> games. Announced in a <a class=\"link \" data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/news\/group\/4145017\/view\/500597484211404992?l=english\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:blog post;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">blog post<\/a>, Steam introduced a new feature for game developers to add the exact date of when their game would leave Early Access and see a version 1.0 launch. According to Steam, this feature stems from developers who requested a way to display an official launch date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While games still in Early Access give eager players a way to experience the early stages of a title and contribute towards the development, <a class=\"link \" data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/108600\/Project_Zomboid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:some games;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">some games<\/a> have been stalled in this phase for years. With this new feature, players can see a precise launch date displayed on the game&#8217;s store page just underneath the Early Access Game note. However, game devs can choose a specific date or a more vague timeframe, including displaying only the year of the expected release.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"This new feature lets game devs choose to display when their game leaves Early Access.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"449\" height=\"285\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8c5c9cd6f84dd6c48aac421b5434192b.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This new feature lets game devs choose to display when their game leaves Early Access.<\/p>\n<p>(Steam)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the blog post, Steam noted that this feature was optional for developers, adding, &#8220;just because this feature exists, does not mean you should or must use it.&#8221; Steam also said that game devs should only offer their player base a concrete date if there&#8217;s a &#8220;very high degree of confidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steam is adding a little more transparency when it comes to Early Access games. Announced in a blog&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,47839,7569,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-462467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-game-developers","11":"tag-steam","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}