Here’s a feature I didn’t know Steam needed until it revealed it: Valve has just added functionality that lets developers of games in early access to list a 1.0 release date. Early access stints can stretch pretty far these days, and while developers are often fairly reliable at sharing estimations for when those stints will end, they can often be buried in Kickstarter pages, blog posts, or the final frames of trailers. Now, a quick glance at a game’s Steam page may be all you need to find out when 1.0 is arriving.
For a lot of games, the plan is simple – launch in Steam Early Access, spend a year or so tinkering with the game and enacting community feedback, grow your following and reputation, and hit 1.0 in a showering of confetti and a nice spike on SteamDB. However, some games go longer – much longer. Palworld is approaching its second anniversary of launching in early access, with version 1.0 supposedly coming later this year. Horror game Phasmophobia will also fully release in 2026 after more than five years in early access. Good old Project Zomboid has been at it since 2013, for crying out loud, and there’s no 1.0 in sight at the moment.
I’m absolutely not saying that long periods in early access are bad, but when games are wrapped up in those very long cycles, it can be hard to get a sense of when the ‘finished’ article will actually be ready.
This new Steam feature gives developers the ability to set a concrete date or approximate window of when they’re targeting a 1.0 launch for their early access game. If a developer chooses to add this to a Steam page, it’ll show a message in the dedicated early access explainer box that simply reads as “leaving early access” on the given date or window. The 1.0 date will also link up with users’ Steam Personal Calendar function.
“Occasionally, developers with a game in early access would ask us proactively if there was any official place to display a planned 1.0 date,” Valve says in an announcement post. “They wanted existing and potential players to know about their plans. Many studios were already sharing their 1.0 dates in other places – within the text description on the store page, via Steam Event news posts, on social media, in their forums, and so on.
“Last year we introduced the Steam Personal Calendar, and realized one valuable kind of ‘release’ was missing from the UI: upcoming transitions from Early Access to 1.0. With an official 1.0 date display, we could give those transitions an official display in Personal Calendar, and help address the developer requests around formally showcasing the planned 1.0 release.”
While this is a nice way to make those 1.0 announcements more visible, that doesn’t mean developers should feel pressure to set dates and windows before they’re ready to. “Just because this feature exists, does not mean you should or must use it,” Valve warns. “It makes sense to use this date display only if you are already communicating directly with your players about a planned date for your 1.0 release, when you have a very high degree of confidence.”
I’ve had a scout around to see if any developers are already using this functionality, but haven’t seen a 1.0 launch date message in the wild yet. However, it’s live in Steamworks now, so expect to see them gradually start to pop up on store pages – and maybe in your calendar too.
