{
  "id": 18002088,
  "title": "Indie games are missing launch dates because Steam is backed up",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/03/indie-games-are-missing-launch-dates-because-steam-is-backed-up",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-03T18:14:50.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Verge",
    "slug": "the-verge",
    "url": "https://www.theverge.com/games/1025596/valve-steam-indie-games-missing-launch-dates"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Indie game developers are experiencing delays in getting their games approved for release on Steam, leading to missed planned launch dates. Studio Daimon, behind the upcoming title Food Devils, planned to release the game in early access today but is still awaiting approval. The game director, Alfred Kamon, stated that they don't know when Steam will provide the final approval, expressing concern about potentially missing the release date due to the long wait. Another example is the missed launch of Wheel Make It by nearly two weeks by publisher 2 Left Thumbs due to lengthy build review times. Valve's website indicates that a review of a game's store presence typically takes 3-5 business days, but Valve suggests submitting the page for review at least 7 business days before the desired launch date. However, in recent times, Steam has been facing a surge in game submissions, with October's Steam Next Fest having 7,240 games, a 65.2 percent increase compared to June's offering. This increased workload on Steam may be causing delays, as developers suspect the issue stems from a \"slop\" clogging up the review queue, likely due to a significant number of games now requiring AI disclosures. Valve has not yet commented on the situation, but platform Itch.io has also experienced a rise in game submissions, with a doubling of game pages created per-day over the past two months.",
  "summary": "Many indie game developers have recently posted on social media about unexpectedly long approval wait times for their game submissions on Steam, with some of the approvals causing developers to miss their planned launch dates. For example, Studio Daimon, the team behind an upcoming title called Food Devils, had planned to launch the game in […]",
  "key_points": [
    "Indie games face launch date delays due to Steam backlog",
    "Steam review times increased to 3-5 business days",
    "Surge in game submissions may cause slop in review queue"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}