Featured Image Credit: Valve
Steam users are rejoicing at a new feature being rolled in that’ll change the way early-access games appear on the storefront.
For the longest time now Steam has been an excellent space for large and small-scale developers to share their in-progress titles, allowing players to jump into and sample what’s there before providing feedback.
There are plenty of early-access titles available now and, while they’re mostly playable, I'm always left with one question... When’s it coming out?
Well, this new feature will help you out with out.
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Steam has added a new feature that’ll inform you when a game will be leaving early-access, which is useful for a number of reasons.
The main one is you will, of course, know when a game will be fully-released. So if you’ve enjoyed playing the beta version you’ll know how long to wait until you can dive into the full thing!
But there's another reason why this is a game-changer.
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Another use for this feature though is preparing for games where your progress won’t carry over.
It’s very rare nowadays but some early-access titles require players to restart when the full game comes out, or at least they suggest restarting so you can re-experience the game as it was originally intended.
Whether you’ve got unfinished business you want to resolve, or want to avoid investing hours and hours into something you won’t be able to play soon, it’s a handy feature on all accounts.
This all banks on the developer being honest about the release date though, as it can now be specified down to the exact date when a project will leave early-access.
That doesn’t mean a dev can’t be vague though, as they could always say their game is leaving early-access in “2026” without going into specifics.
Nevertheless it’s still a worthwhile feature to have and great for the developers too, as being able to tell your players when they’ll be getting more content is a good way of drumming up support for launch day.
It might not seem like much, but Valve cooked by finally giving us this, especially as it was a highly-requested feature from the majority of Steam users.
The new early-access Steam feature is available right now for developers to use and players to see, and hopefully more changes and additions are on the way as we move through 2026.
