Valve: Steam approval delays due to re-reviews; new release checks added

Valve publicly stated that it is currently taking up to 12 business days, rather than the typical three to five, to approve game submissions to Steam due to an unprecedented backlog. This delay is primarily driven by a surge in re-reviews of games rejected for missing key quality assurance steps.

To address this, Valve has updated its release checklist with tighter requirements for developers. Key updates include a rule that games must be run through the Steam platform for at least five minutes to ensure users perform basic installation and play checks correctly. Many rejected submissions failed because they bypassed Steam directly.

Additional changes require developers to explicitly state any required common redistributables like DirectX or Visual C++, and mandate specific reporting on achievement readiness and cloud save detection. Valve emphasized that these measures aim to reduce re-review cycles and help reviewers identify issues faster. While Valve did not explicitly attribute the low-quality submissions to AI, the context suggests a link to the recent influx of AI-assisted and cloned games facing a similar issue.