Tech

Steam Updates Date Formats and Upcoming Release Listings

We keep talking about Steam and it’s already a couple of times this week. But it is that the Valve game store, when it does not celebrate something, applies a change that is interesting to know, because it is not only about the most popular PC gaming platform: everything it does has its echo in the competition sooner than afternoon.

Thus, the milestone of 30 million simultaneous users announced at the beginning of the week was followed by a much less promising update, such as the increase in recommended prices that, surely, we will begin to suffer shortly. With nuances, as discussed in the news, although given the situation that half the world is going through, it is not that it is a surprise either.

And this “date formats and lists of upcoming releases”… is it positive or negative? Well, it’s not to be scared, but… Just kidding: it’s positive. It is a change that refers to the Restatement of game release datesand it is that although developers cannot be forced to set release dates that may not end up being met, picturesque messages are plenty.

In other words, developers won’t have to set a date for the launch of their games, but they won’t be able to leave whatever message they want, which often only serves to create confusion among users. Either you put a date on it, or you leave the help “coming soon”. eye the change not targeting early access games, but all games in general.

steam

“To make it easier for customers to explore upcoming releases, we are standardizing the format of future dates,” they explain on the Steam forums. A standardization that will also serve to clarify the launch dates regardless of where the user is or the language they use: “For example, the date 8/5/2023: is it May 8 or August 5? It depends on where you live!” they add.

New date format options include:

  • The exact date: «Aug 24. 2023».
  • The month and year: “August 2023.”
  • The quarter of the year: «3.ᵉʳ quarter of 2023».
  • The year: “2023”.
  • No specific date: “Coming soon”.

With the exception of “coming soon”, the date formats shown are for both developers and users, although the former will still be able to hide the exact dates from the latter if they wish, showing only the approximate ones. The details are given in the Steam article linked above, which is generally being well received.

In any case, it is enough to be waiting for the launch of a game, which may or may not be delayed because that’s the way things are, let alone pre-purchase, so that the publishers are making you dizzy with incomprehensible messages at times. So or date, or soon and that each one decides whether to invest their money in it, or not to do so.

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