Valve now requires developers to launch their game through the Steam client and run it for at least five minutes before submitting it for review, as part of several new additions to Steam's pre-release checklist. It doesn't have to be the developer playing, since anyone's playtime counts, as long...

Apparently, Valve keeps getting builds that were never run through Steam at all, which is how games end up with broken launch options or missing depots.

  • zlatan24@lemmy.caEnglish
    231·
    3 days ago

    Honestly surprised this wasn’t already a rule. The number of times I’ve bought something on day one and the first thing I see is a launcher error or a missing DLL is kind of absurd for a store that takes 30%.

    The Steam Deck Verified stuff makes it worse, because people trust that badge. If a patch breaks the game on Deck and the badge stays up for weeks, that’s on Valve too, not just the dev. Five minutes of a human launching the actual depot would catch most of the dumb ones: wrong launch option, wrong exe, Linux script pointing at nothing.

    • DillDough@lemmy.zipEnglish
      12·
      3 days ago

      I agree with you but also Steam has the easiest refund process in the entire industry. I’ve had old EA games become fully unplayable because of them switching origin to EAapp and had no way to even ask for assistance let alone get a refund. With Steam you just have to get past the bot and you’ll be fine once you can explain the situation to an actual employee.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, maybe Valve should have a QA staff that needs to at least run each game to make sure it can get into a game before putting it up for sale.