Valve has warned developers that a Steam build review can now take up to 12 business days, against the usual three to five. The company is dealing with a surge in game submissions, and it has added a longer pre-release checklist that every game must pass before launch. Some small studios have already missed the launch dates they announced. Here is what changed, who is affected and why it matters for players.
What Valve changed in the Steam build review
In a Steamworks announcement on 3 November, Valve said that review times have grown and that many delays come from games being sent back and reviewed a second time. The Verge reported that Valve now asks developers to allow up to 12 business days for a review. Valve’s review process documentation explains that both the store page and the game build must pass a check before a title can be released.
To cut down on repeat reviews, Valve set out a stricter checklist. According to The Verge and Oyun Günlüğü, developers now need to:
- Run the game through Steam for at least five minutes, and do it again if the latest build was uploaded more than seven days ago.
- List any common redistributables Steam should install, such as DirectX, Visual C++, .NET or XNA, or confirm that none are needed.
- Fix incomplete achievement setups, such as missing names, missing icons or duplicate names.
- For games that support Steam Cloud, write a test save to Steam Cloud to prove the save path works.
- Categorise screenshots. Store pages can now show menus, concept art and cinematics, but at least five screenshots must be tagged as gameplay.
- Confirm the supported languages and provide any multiplayer servers or test credentials the reviewers need.
- Test the build on a PC that is not used for development.
The checklist in plain terms
Most items on the list are basic quality checks. A game that crashes on a clean PC, claims cloud saves it does not have, or lists languages it does not support creates problems for players and leads to refunds. Valve’s message is that a build which passes the first time is the fastest route to the store.
Indie games are already missing launch dates
A second Verge report found studios that had been caught out. Food Devils, from Studio Daimon, was submitted on 12 October but was still “awaiting approval” on the day of its planned 3 November Early Access launch, according to a post from game director Alfred Kamon. In October, publisher 2 Left Thumbs said Wheel Make It had missed its planned launch “by nearly two weeks” because of the wait for a build review. Both studios had announced their dates publicly, which is a real problem on Steam, where wishlist notifications and launch-day visibility matter a lot to small teams.
Volume is the main pressure. The Verge cited data from the How to Market a Game newsletter showing that October’s Steam Next Fest had 7,240 games, up 65.2 percent on the June edition. Kamon suspects that low-effort AI games are clogging the queue: “We can only assume it’s because Steam’s review queue is clogged up by AI slop,” he said.
Part of a wider wave
Steam is not the only platform under pressure. The Verge also reported that itch.io said the number of game pages created per day had doubled in two months. The next day, the platform said it had “Just deleted a couple terabytes of ai slop”.
Nexus Mods went a different way. As VGC reported, it ruled out a full ban on AI-generated mods and instead made AI disclosure mandatory, with a 60-day grace period for existing mods that runs until 2 January 2027. Moderation will rely largely on manual review and user reports, and Nexus is adding content controls that let users choose how much AI content they see. “AI-generated mods are welcome on our platform provided that they meet certain criteria regarding permissions, transparency, presentation, and conduct,” the site’s announcement said.
Why it matters
For players, the change should mean fewer broken launches and fewer store pages that promise features a game does not have. For developers, especially small and first-time studios, the advice is simple: submit early, work through the checklist before you hit submit, and do not lock in a public launch date until the build has been approved. Valve says more improvements to the build review process are on the way.
For more on the business side of games, see our recent report on Nagoshi Studio’s dissolution and Gang of Dragon and our PC gaming news section. GoPlays11 tracks these platform changes week by week.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Steam build review take now?
Valve says developers should allow up to 12 business days, up from the usual three to five.
Why is Steam review slower?
Submissions have surged, and many delays come from builds that fail the first time and have to be reviewed again.
Is AI behind the backlog?
Valve has not said so. It points to a big rise in submissions and to builds that have to be reviewed again. Some developers suspect a flood of low-effort AI games is part of the cause.