It’s still not exactly clear what updates are substantial enough to reset the counter and how long it takes between updates for it to appear. Open-world survival zombie sim Project Zomboid has been in Early Access on Steam for over a decade and doesn’t show the new warning because it still receives regular updates. Its last one was in January.

It's not a universally applied system yet, but Steam will now tell players if an Early Access game hasn't been updated in over a year.

When you click on an early access game on Steam, you might see a new note that could give an idea whether its developer has already abandoned the project. As SteamDB first reported, Steam has started adding notes on games' official pages if they haven't been updated in a while.

Early Access titles on Steam that have not been updated for months will now warn players that development on the game is uncertain, and tell them exactly how long ago the last update was.

Steam early access games that haven't been updated in a long while will now be more prominently labelled as such,

Valve is introducing a feature that will give users insight into which game available in Steam Early Access is rarely updated by developers.

Steam now shows when Early Access games were last updated. The update appears if a game goes 12 months without an update. This feature helps you avoid wasting money on dead games. Early access games are a great way to test titles in development,

Valve now warns players about inactive games in Early Access to prevent purchasing abandoned projects. Games with over a year of inactivity receive a warning, with 20+ months labeled as high risk. Developers must update store pages regularly to avoid warnings and mislead players.