Revamping Steam's Review Policies: Unleashing a Community-led Transformation

Highlights

Some Steam users want Valve to allow reviews on early access games like Starfield and Remnant 2.

The proposal gained traction on Reddit.

It is unclear if Valve will change its policies, but as the full release of Starfield approaches, the player count on Steam is expected to increase.

Some Steam users have taken to social media to urge Valve to reconsider its policy on allowing users to review games during early access or prerelease. They specifically mentioned Starfield and Remnant 2 as examples. If Valve were to heed this suggestion, it would give Steam users who have early access to certain titles the potential to influence the sales of those games.

This proposal gained traction as Starfield entered its early access phase for users who had already purchased the game at certain tiers on PC and Xbox Series X/S. Generally, early reviews for Starfield have been positive, with the consensus being that fans of games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 will enjoy Bethesda's newest IP. However, some Steam users are still voicing their concerns over this process and have taken to social media to express them.

User-generated Steam reviews for Starfield will become available on September 6 when the game is fully released.

Two threads on the r/Steam subreddit recently proposed the idea of allowing Steam reviews for games in early access or pre-launch. These threads highlighted the popularity of Starfield on Steam, despite the game not being fully released yet. The game has garnered over 222k concurrent players, indicating its high demand. However, the Steam review page remains inactive, allowing only curator reviews until September 6.

Redditors on r/Steam discussed the possible reasons why Valve currently doesn't allow user reviews on early access games. One theory suggested that it is to prevent negative impacts on sales and Steam rankings prior to release. However, some users suggested a compromise where reviews could be allowed from players who have pre-purchased a game in early access, with appropriate tags indicating the timing of the review. Furthermore, there were arguments for clearer definitions and guidelines regarding the use of "early access," considering games like Baldur's Gate 3 remained in Steam's early access program for three years before their recent full release.

Valve's future policies, whether they will be altered or maintained, are yet to be determined. However, as the highly anticipated full version of Starfield is about to launch, it is anticipated that the number of players on the Steam platform will increase in the upcoming days.