You should not pre-order gamesbut people still do it all the time. More and more people have gotten into the habit of pre-ordering DLC and paying in advance for content that won't be delivered for months or even years, if at all. Valve is now cracking down on the whole thing, tightening the rules for companies that sell everything from DLC packs to season passes.
steam will now require more transparency around the Season Pass and DLC content, including details on what is included and expected release dates. Late payments may be eligible for a partial refund. “By offering a season pass, you are promising future content,” the new guidelines for development partners say. “When you launch a Season Pass, you will be asked to set a start time for each content release in the Season Pass. This launch date is a commitment to both customers and Steam.”
Steam adds that while game development is complex and challenging, and delays sometimes occur, which are necessary and understandable, companies only have one opportunity to postpone the timing of DLC and Season Pass releases. “If you are unwilling 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,” the company writes.
Additionally, season passes must include at least one piece of content that is already available at launch, unless it is a currently unreleased game. Even if there are no customer complaints in a particular case, Steam reserves the right to issue automatic refunds to players for possible violations of the new rules. And if a DLC is canceled entirely, players will receive the “Value of the Unreleased DLC” refunded to their account, rather than relying on the in-game currency or other compensation that the companies promise instead.
It sounds like the sections on Steam store pages under the “Buy” button that list all the microtransactions included in a game are about to get even more chaotic, but at the very least it will hopefully encourage companies to be more forthcoming with their Promise to be more conservative and calculate.
