Valve expands its rules for Early Access games on Steam

Games are not like Thanksgiving turkeys. Playing an unfinished game is probably not going to hurt you. You can’t say the same about an uncooked holiday bird.

Valve, however, recognizes that giving people the opportunity to play incomplete games is a risky endeavor, and it’s updating its rules (again) for developers to ensure a good experience for everyone involved (as Giant Bomb first spotted). Valve runs the Steam digital-distribution service for PC games, which has a portal dedicated to “Early Access” games that are still in development. This has enabled big hits like DayZ, Rust, and Kerbal Space Program to generate revenue and experiment with features while their studios continue working on them. But some games have fallen apart after accepting money, and Valve wants to make sure every customer is aware of the potential for things to go wrong with Early Access.