You shouldn’t pre-order gamesbut anyway, people do it all the time. More and more people have taken to pre-ordering DLC ​​as well, paying up front for content that won’t be delivered for months or even years, if ever. Valve is now cracking down on all of this with stricter rules for companies selling everything from DLC packs to season passes.

Steam will now demand more transparency around the Season Pass and DLC content, including details on what’s included and planned release dates. Anything that ends up being delayed could then potentially qualify for a partial refund. “By offering a Season Pass, you are promising future content,” read the new guidelines for development partners. “As part of the Season Pass launch process, you will be asked to commit to a release schedule for each Season Pass content release. This release schedule is a commitment to customers and Steam.

Steam adds that while game development is complex and difficult, with sometimes necessary and understandable delays, companies will only be able to reschedule the DLC and Season Pass release schedule once. “If you are not prepared to clearly communicate what content is included in each DLC AND when each DLC will be ready to launch, you should not offer a Season Pass on Steam,” the company writes.

Additionally, Season Passes are expected to include at least one piece of content already available at launch, unless it is a new game. Even if there are no customer complaints in a given case, Steam reserves the right to automatically refund players for any potential violations of the new rules. And if a DLC is canceled outright, players will receive the “unreleased DLC value” refunded to their accounts instead of relying on in-game currency or any other compensation promised by the companies.

It looks like the sections of the Steam store pages below the buy button that list all the microtransactions included in a game are about to get even more chaotic to look at, but at least it will hopefully entice businesses to be more conservative about what they promise. and invoice.

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