Valve have another Steam store update incoming, with seemingly proper built-in support for a Season Pass along with new guidance for developers.
Initially spotted by SteamDB developer Pavel Djundik on Bluesky pointing out a new Steamworks page for Season Passes. Valve note on this page that Season Pass store pages will be listing all of the DLC included, along with their release dates. If developers aren't ready to clearly tell you when each DLC will be released then developers "shouldn't offer a Season Pass on Steam".
Valve said they will only offer Season Passes to developers "in a few rare cases with partners with which we have a well-established relationship and that have a proven track record on Steam".
The new guidelines include:
When a Season Pass is made available for purchase on Steam, it must include the following information:
- A complete list of all DLC included in the Pass. (i.e. listing each of the four DLCs included in a Pass).
- A basic description of the content that’s included in each DLC. For example, the first content release might be “The Glitterlands Expansion – New area to explore, two new weapons, and new enemies.” It’s not required for the DLC to have a final name at the launch of the Season Pass. The information about the content in the DLC doesn’t need to be detailed (simply “new weapons” or “two new weapons” is acceptable, they don’t have to list the exact weapons).
- Expected release date for each DLC. Quarter and Year (i.e. January to March 2025) or Season/Year is acceptable. Of course, a date that’s more precise is also fine (i.e. June, 2025 or June 1st, 2025).
A Season Pass must include at least one released DLC when it is made available for purchase*
*with the exception of Season Passes included in a Pre-Purchase of a deluxe edition.
If developers need to delay an included DLC they get a one-time release date delay by up to three months. If they need longer, they need to contact Valve directly. However, if a DLC in a Season Pass is cancelled, gamers will be "offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC".
Not a big surprise to see, since it's a much-used feature by plenty of bigger developers. Just like with Advanced Access being a thing, Valve continue moving with what developers are doing. By making it an actual dedicated feature, Valve can ensure some quality-control there for gamers by holding developers to account on repeated delays and cancellations.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: pbThe idea is good but some of it doesn't seem enforceable, I'm sure they will be adjusting these requirements.
What isn't enforceable? The only things they're enforcing is release date and promised content, both of which are very easily enforceable.
Quoting: CalebQ42Quoting: pbThe idea is good but some of it doesn't seem enforceable, I'm sure they will be adjusting these requirements.
What isn't enforceable? The only things they're enforcing is release date and promised content, both of which are very easily enforceable.
If you say so. We'll see.
Quoting: pbThe idea is good but some of it doesn't seem enforceable, I'm sure they will be adjusting these requirements.
That is presumably why they are only doing it with selected partners with a proven track record. This is likely going to work more as a friendly agreement than a set of hard rules.
Quoting: eldakingI think you parsed that bit wrong. As far as I can tell, what they're saying is they'll relax some requirements in terms of how specified the DLC are, only with selected partners with a proven track record. So if they know you well enough to be pretty sure you'll deliver something decent with that season pass, maybe they'll let you get away with being a bit fluffy in how you describe it.Quoting: pbThe idea is good but some of it doesn't seem enforceable, I'm sure they will be adjusting these requirements.
That is presumably why they are only doing it with selected partners with a proven track record. This is likely going to work more as a friendly agreement than a set of hard rules.
I think it's fairly enforceable. I suppose if a developer didn't want to abide by the requirements, they could do a season pass thing without using the new season pass feature, and maybe call it something else. But if Steam has a feature for setting up season's pass things, then it should be pretty easy to flag when someone uses it so it goes by someone's in tray to do a quick once-over.
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