Steam Approval Backlogs Stalling Indie Launches
AI-generated image · US National Wire · Based on a photo by MoreThanTech (CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Valve acknowledges review delays as a surge in submissions, including AI-generated content, disrupts developer release schedules.
Indie game developers are reporting significant delays in Steam's approval process, leading several to miss planned launch dates, as first reported by The Verge. Studio Daimon submitted a build for its title *Food Devils* on October 12th but remained awaiting approval by November 3rd. Game director Alfred Kamon noted that urgent tickets regarding the missed release date were ignored.
Other developers have faced similar bottlenecks. Publisher 2 Left Thumbs reported missing the planned launch of *Wheel Make It* by nearly two weeks due to build review wait times, noting a failure triggered by a single menu option that was inaccessible via controller.
While Valve typically states that store presence reviews take 3-5 business days, the company recently acknowledged it is "running a little behind" due to a "significant increase in submissions" and is now taking up to 12 business days. Valve attributed much of the delay to the need to re-review games.
Data from How to Market a Game indicates a sharp rise in volume, noting that October's Steam Next Fest featured 7,240 games—a 65.2 percent increase over the June event. Additionally, a Reddit user found that 49.9 percent of games released since Valve implemented AI disclosure requirements in 2024 now carry such a label. Both 2 Left Thumbs and Kamon suspect the queue is clogged by "AI slop."
In response, Valve has updated its developer release checklist, now requiring games to be run through Steam for at least five minutes, and promised further improvements to the build review process. The issue extends beyond Steam; the platform Itch.io reported that daily game page creation doubled over two months, leading the site to delete "a couple terabytes of ai slop."