Anyone who wants to offer a season pass on Steam must now follow stricter guidelines.
It is “one of the most customer-friendly moves of the decade,” writes one user Moriarty on the X platform. Steam is taking precautions so that players are no longer so easily duped.
More specifically, communication regarding a season pass will be expanded. The studio must clearly publish what future content will be available in the Season Pass and publish respective release times. If developers don't stick to their promises, players will have an easier time getting their money back.
The change was discovered by the SteamDB owner and data miner Pavel Djundik on the Steamworks page.
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What exactly do the regulations look like?
Season Pass contents: Any content that will be available in the Season Pass must be featured. This includes a descriptive text about what players can expect from it.
Release dates: Each Season Pass content must have a release period. This can of course be an exact date, the quarter including the year or the season plus the year are also sufficient.
If this date is not met, the developer is allowed to postpone the release once – but only that a maximum of three months.
If promised content does not appear or is released more than three months later, players can receive a refund equal to the value of the DLC. How much unreleased DLC is worth is discussed internally at Valve.
»When you offer a season pass, you promise future content. […] If you are not willing to clearly communicate what content is included in each DLC AND when each DLC will be ready for release, you should not offer a Season Pass on Steam.«
Pavel Djundik
Incidentally, Steam could also intervene if the release date is ignored, although none of the players have complained. The consequences would therefore be to remove the season pass from Steam and give all players their money back for the respective content. Valve also reserves the right to intervene if the Season Pass content has not been released after one year.
