Steam Labels “Advanced Access” Games & Amends Refund Policy

The trend by game publishers to grant early access to users who pre-purchase a certain version of a game has received an official label from Valve, now called “Advanced Access”, and Steam’s refund policy has been amended in consideration of advanced access titles.

Advanced Access is now an opt-in game publisher feature on Steam that will show users a label on corresponding versions of a title in the store.

Along with the new feature, Valve has amended Steam’s refund policy. Before the changes, it seems users could refund a game any time before a title’s official release, regardless of playtime — meaning Advanced Access titles had some (likely unintentional) extra cushion for users to refund.

The policy previously noted in rules about pre-ordered titles that, “The standard 14-day/two-hour refund period also applies, starting on the game’s release date.” The policy now states that only the 14-day refund period starts on a game’s release, and specifically includes Early and Advanced Access playtime in the two-hour refund window.

There’s been some controversy around the change, given recent concerns about day-one patches substantially changing games after reviewers have had their time with them. Concerns like publishers adding controversial DRM and microtransactions post-release.

I’m not sure if such an incident has happened with an “Advanced Access” title so far, but the concern carries some weight in what many gamers consider an increasingly anti-consumer space. Still, Steam’s refund policy is relatively generous as these things go. It seems it’s up to the user whether they want to take the risk of playing in Advanced Access — for better or for worse.

Incidentally, Liam Dawe of Gaming on Linux pointed out that the “Learn more about Advanced Access” link on TopSpin directs users to Steam’s Early Access support page instead of its new Advanced Access one. A little on the nose, eh? Remember when beta testing was free?

Even More Xbox Handheld Rumors

Microsoft sent out a poll in late April asking users a handful of questions about handhelds, sparking talk of a potential Xbox handheld yet again.

The survey, Windows Central reports, seemed to gauge respondents’ interest in handheld consoles and ask handheld PC owners questions like what motivated them to buy the device.

Given Windows Central Managing Editor Jez Corden’s comments in March that Xbox handheld prototypes do exist, the survey is a promising indication that Microsoft has an interest in bringing the product to market.

Though the survey was the only new indication of an Xbox handheld from Microsoft last month, The Verge’s Tom Warren also penned an interesting article about how “The future of the Xbox looks a lot like a PC,” which garnered a lot of attention in the handheld community.

That Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of Gaming, told Polygon he wants the Epic Games Store and other video game platforms like Itch.io on Xbox in late March is central to Warren’s article, where he calls the Steam Deck “the biggest threat to Xbox consoles and Windows-based PC gaming ever.”

That certainly seems to be Spencer’s thoughts, as he also lamented about the stagnant console market to Polygon, attributing the troubles to “more gamers moving to PC and handheld options.”

In Other News…

SteamOS 3.5.19 Stable Released

A very small SteamOS update, 3.5.19 “Grey Park Seagull” was released in late April.

Aside from general “stability and security improvements”, the update fixed a bug where games “that open and close audio devices quickly” would have no sound output.

Suyu Discord Shut Down, Project Now ‘Frozen’

Following a DMCA that saw Suyu’s Discord shut down in April, the notable Yuzu fork is effectively dead.

The Suyu takedown was interesting in that it wasn’t just tied to a DMCA, but a Discord representative told The Verge its shutdown was related to a court order. That court order was part of the Yuzu case, and The Verge noted the order specifies that it applies specifically to the defendants — the Yuzu team. It seems a generous interpretation to apply it to a separate team using open-source code, but who can say that an abundance of caution from Discord here is unexpected?

Following the shutdown, Suyu moved to a self-hosted chat, in the same vein as its Git following a DMCA takedown in March.

However, Suyu now appears dead in the water as, following the Discord shutdown, a group of developers publically announced their departure from the project, claiming the source code to be “radioactive” due to the illegal use of the Switch SDK by the Yuzu team and complaining of toxic leadership on the Suyu project. Suyu leadership initially insisted the project lives on, but announced a “freeze” the next day on its chat.

Suyu source code is still available from the project website, and the project freeze announcement says support is still available.

Though another Yuzu fork, Sudachi, was similarly shuttered by Discord, its developer told The Verge that work continues.

Fallout 4 Steam Deck Verified

Following the release of the very well-received Fallout TV show, Bethesda has released its “next-gen update” for Fallout 4, and gone and made it Steam Deck verified as part of the deal.

However, verification efforts seem to have mostly consisted of removing the game’s launcher, which also removed all graphics options from the game. Rather antithetical to the open nature people love about the Steam Deck. Some players even reported the game running worse on Steam Deck after the update, prompting some renewed discussion about the value — or at least validity — of the Steam Deck verified program with such a low bar.

It’s nice to see Bethesda wanted that green check, at least.

What Are We Playing?

Star Wars: The Old Republic

My hankering for some MMO action last month didn’t see me land on ESO completely — although I’m really impressed with the game on the Steam Deck. Instead, I fell back into SWTOR, an old comfort game of mine.

I have to admit, I haven’t pushed myself to play this one on Steam Deck yet – probably due to my familiarity with it using a keyboard. The game doesn’t natively support controller play like ESO, but I’ve seen others on Reddit mention the touchscreen makes it very (casually) playable. It’s actually labeled playable by the Steam Deck verified program, too, which is… interesting.

Maybe it’s just a good reason to push Steam Input to its limit? I’ll have to experiment.