In a Steamworks developer announcement on November 3, Valve acknowledged that submissions of store pages and builds have risen sharply in recent months and that reviews are "a bit behind." Turnaround has grown from the usual 3-5 business days to up to 12 business days.
By the time the notice went out, some games had already missed their launch dates. A Kotaku report the same day listed several cases. Food Devils, from nine-person Italian studio Studio Daimon, was submitted on October 12 and scheduled for a November 3 release, but was still in the queue. The studio filed a support ticket on October 24 and got a reply on the 26th about a sexual-content issue, then heard nothing new for several days. Studio head Alfred Kamon said the team needs sales revenue before the end of the year. Ashen Legacy was submitted on October 15 and only cleared on November 1, days before its planned November 6 launch. Early Access title Cubic Earth has no firm release date at all because of the delay.
Developers suspect AI; Valve doesn't address it
Developers are pointing at a wave of new games built with generative AI. The theory has some numbers behind it, but no proof of causation.
Citing a report from launchrivals.com and posts in the Reddit r/Steam community, Kotaku said roughly 4,000 games were released on Steam in October, with close to 50% disclosing the use of generative AI. By mid-October, the number of new games in 2026 had already passed the 2025 full-year total, with two and a half months still to go. PC Gamer reported that October's Steam Next Fest featured more than 8,000 demos.
All of these are third-party figures. Valve has not published its actual submission volume, and its announcement doesn't mention generative AI at all. Valve's past position is that it doesn't want to be the gatekeeper deciding which tools developers may use. Valve employee Marc Wilkinson responded only with:
"We are fully aware of the situation."
There is currently no way to verify how much of the increase in submissions comes from AI projects. The share of games that disclose AI use is also not the same as the share of submissions, and the voluntary checkbox developers tick may not match their actual usage.
The new rules target rework
Valve's explanation for the delays is that most of the time goes to repeated reviews of the same builds, so this change adjusts the release checklist to cut down on rework caused by basic functional problems. According to The Verge, the new requirements include:
- Developers must actually run the game through Steam for at least 5 minutes;
- Confirm that achievements are ready;
- Confirm the game needs any common runtime libraries that Steam installs, such as DirectX and Visual C++.
Valve wrote in the announcement: "Believe it or not, sometimes we review builds that have not ever been played through Steam." It explained that a game working fine when the executable is launched directly doesn't mean it will work for players who install it through Steam.
The 5-minute rule also hints at Valve's current approach: it is raising the self-check bar for submitters rather than filtering by how content was made. The announcement says more build-review improvements are in the works, with no details or timing given.
Chinese teams need to rework their schedules
Steam is a main overseas distribution channel for many independent teams in China, so the most direct impact falls on release dates. Steamworks documentation previously recommended submitting at least 7 business days ahead; with a 12-day ceiling, teams need to leave an extra week, and if a first submission is rejected, the time spent re-queuing comes on top.
November's calendar is already crowded, with GTA 6 launching in two weeks. Teams that have announced a release date would be wise to plan marketing spend and discount campaigns around the worst case. Running through the new checklist before submitting can also save a round of rework.
Sources: Valve Steamworks developer announcement, Kotaku, CocoLoop, The Verge; the AI-disclosure share and release counts are third-party figures, and Valve has not published submission volume.