Valve Admits It’s Running Behind on Steam Game Approvals, Leaving Indie Devs Waiting Weeks
A new kind of Steam problem is frustrating indie developers: finished games are missing their own release dates because Valve can’t keep up with approving them. Several developers have publicly described their games sitting in review limbo for up to 20 days, far beyond Valve’s listed window of three to five business days, and the company has now confirmed the backlog is real.
Indie Developers Describe Weeks of Silence
Over the past week, developers behind Food Devils, Wheel Make It, and Cubic Earth have gone public about their builds sitting unanswered in Valve’s review queue. Cubic Earth developer structmira told PC Gamer over email that the wait has started to cost the game real momentum. Its launch trailer had already pulled in more than 60,000 YouTube views and over 6,000 wishlists before the Steam store page got stuck on “coming soon,” and the delay is now bringing player complaints the developer can’t do anything about.
Food Devils is one of several indie games publicly stuck waiting on Steam approval this past week.
Valve Confirms It’s Running Behind
Valve addressed the backlog directly in a Steamworks update aimed at developers, admitting that build reviews are currently taking roughly double the normal turnaround. The company pinned much of the slowdown on having to send builds back for a second look rather than clearing them the first time through.
“We’re running a little behind right now and taking up to 12 business days.”
Valve, Steamworks update
A New Checklist Aims to Stop Repeat Rejections
Rather than just apologizing, Valve’s update ships a checklist meant to help developers pass review on the first attempt instead of triggering a second round. The most basic requirement is to actually run the finished build through Steam itself for at least five minutes, since Valve says it sometimes receives submissions that work fine when launched directly but break when installed and launched the way a real customer would. Developers are also asked to confirm that common redistributables are properly bundled, that cloud saves and achievements function correctly, and that the store page includes at least five screenshots showing real gameplay rather than marketing art.
Wheel Make It is another title whose developer has publicly described a weeks-long wait for Steam review.
The AI Submission Surge Looming Over the Update
Valve didn’t say why the backlog has built up now, after years of steadily rising Steam releases, but the timing lines up with a surge in low-effort, AI-generated submissions that the company has already publicly acknowledged flooding the platform around Steam Next Fest. Valve has said it won’t start dictating which development tools creators are allowed to use, so instead of filtering submissions by how they were made, it’s tightening the baseline requirements every game has to clear, which should also cut down on the repeat rejections driving up wait times for everyone, AI-assisted or not.
Valve says more changes to the build review process are still coming, calling today’s update only a starting point. For developers like structmira, that’s small comfort while their finished games sit waiting for Valve to get through the queue.
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