An early access launch checklist needs 35 checks across 5 blocks: build and branch, saves, min-spec performance, store page, and the first 48 hours. The last block matters most. Enshrouded shipped its first hotfix about 2 hours after launch and 5 hotfixes in roughly 50 hours. Most of those fixes were crashes, hardware compatibility and save data, which are exactly the bugs a pre-launch pass on someone else’s machine is meant to catch.
What does Valve require for an Early Access launch on Steam?
Valve’s rules fit in one table. Everything below comes from the Steamworks Early Access page (accessed 27 Oct 2026), the release process page (accessed 27 Oct 2026) and the user reviews page (accessed 27 Oct 2026). “Requires” means a rule or a mandatory step. “Recommends” means Valve’s own advice.
| Topic | What Steamworks says | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Playable state | Game must be playable, with at least a video trailer of real gameplay | Requires |
| Finished games | Do not use Early Access if only final bug testing is left | Requires |
| Promises | Do not promise completion dates or planned features | Requires |
| Questionnaire | Answer 6 questions: why EA, how long, how 1.0 differs, current state, pricing, community | Requires |
| Valve review | Store page and questionnaire are reviewed before release | Requires |
| Coming Soon | Page approved and in Coming Soon for at least 2 weeks | Requires |
| Store review time | Typically 3 to 5 business days; submit 7 days ahead | Recommends |
| Known issues | Disclose known issues, such as updates that break saves, wherever keys are sold | Requires |
| Price | Steam price no higher than elsewhere; no permanent discount | Requires |
| Store page upkeep | Revisit the page at least once a year | Recommends |
| Silent games | Store notice appears after 12 months with no default-branch build or update event | Store behavior |
| Leaving EA | Released games cannot return to Early Access; 30-day wait before price changes or discounts | Requires |
The table tells you what Valve checks. For dates, our Steam review timeline counts every Valve wait back from launch day in one 6-week calendar. The table says nothing about testing hours. Testing time depends on build size and milestone, and the QA hours calculator gives an estimate of testing hours from your genre, build size and milestone before you lock the date.
How do Steam reviews work during and after Early Access?
The Steamworks reviews page lists 5 rules that shape an Early Access launch. None of them describes a reset at 1.0.
- The store shows two scores: one for the past 30 days and one for the product’s lifetime.
- Only reviews from accounts that bought the game on Steam count toward the review score. Key activations are listed but excluded.
- A score of Mixed or above (40%+) is not a factor in algorithmic visibility. Below 40%, the game is less likely to be featured.
- Reviews written during Early Access get an Early Access label once the game fully releases.
- If a player edits an Early Access review after release, the label is removed.
The documentation does not say that Early Access reviews leave the lifetime score at 1.0. Plan as if the first 48 hours stay on the page for good. The 30-day score is the one a good 1.0 can move quickly.
What breaks the first Early Access reviews?
Three recent launches published their problems in their own Steam announcements, so the timeline can be rebuilt from primary sources. The same four themes come up each time. Connection crashes, hardware the team did not own, saves and missing settings. A Launch Health Check puts up to 2 testers and around 30 hours on your release candidate, which is enough to cover blocks 1 to 3 of the checklist below.
| Risk | What happened | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session and server list crash | Enshrouded Hotfix #1 targeted server list crashes | About 2 h after launch | Steam, 24 Jan 2024 |
| Older GPUs, older CPUs | “Failed to initialize the graphics system” on older AMD cards; non-AVX CPUs limited to 2-player hosting | Day 2 | Steam, 25 Jan 2024 |
| Save data | Fix for world and character saves that stopped updating | Day 3 | Steam, 26 Jan 2024 |
| Performance on low-end PCs and Steam Deck | Heart Machine called it the strongest feedback of launch week | Day 3 | Steam, 16 Jan 2025 |
| Missing settings | No in-game key rebinding, Xbox-only button prompts | Listed the day before launch | Steam, 17 Apr 2024 |
| Debug leftovers | Hotfix 1 “removed lingering dev tools” | Day 2 | Steam, 19 Apr 2024 |
Enshrouded’s own first-week post (accessed 27 Oct 2026) confirms 5 hotfixes between Wednesday’s release and Friday. No Rest for the Wicked sat at a “Mixed” 59% shortly after launch, with performance and key binding as the main complaints, according to PCGamesN (accessed 27 Oct 2026). Moon Studios then shipped 6 hotfixes between 19 and 26 April 2024, per its Steam announcements (accessed 27 Oct 2026).
In the Steam Launch Bug Index, October 2026 edition, 32.5% of the 83 September 2026 Early Access launches with at least 10 early reviews announced a patch within 24 hours (20.4% for full releases), and the median Early Access launch had 11.1% of its first-14-day reviews mention a bug, against 5.9% for full releases (Steam launches in numbers, computed 27 October 2026).
The checklist: 35 checks to copy into your launch doc
Each block has 7 items. Copy them into your tracker as they are, then delete what does not apply to your game.
Block 1: build and branch
- Write down the Steam build ID of the release candidate in the launch doc. Every bug report and hotfix note references it.
- Upload the release candidate to a password-protected beta branch and test it through the Steam client, never from the editor or a local folder. Before release, testers on that branch need Release State Override keys; our comparison of Steam Playtest vs demo vs beta branch covers the key limit and the wishlist side effect.
- Install it on a second PC that never had a dev build, with a clean Steam account.
- Note the previous good build ID. Steamworks upload docs (accessed 27 Oct 2026) describe rollback to a previous build in a few clicks, so know which build you would roll back to.
- Set the build live on the default branch by hand, with a second person watching. Steamworks branch docs (accessed 27 Oct 2026) say default builds never go live automatically.
- Strip debug menus, cheat keys and dev consoles from the shipping build.
- Show the version number in the main menu and match it to the build ID in the launch doc.
Block 2: saves and progression
- Start a new game, pass the first major checkpoint, quit through the menu, reload. Repeat with Alt+F4.
- If you promise save carry-over from a demo or playtest, load an old save on the release candidate.
- Play one full run of the current content on the release candidate and log every progression gate.
- Check Steam Cloud sync by continuing the same save on a second PC.
- In co-op, have the host quit mid-session and the client rejoin. Check what each side keeps.
- Give players a recovery path, such as save backups or “continue from last checkpoint”.
- Decide the save-wipe policy for future updates and write it in the questionnaire. Valve asks you to disclose updates that break saves.
Block 3: performance on min spec
- Run the build on hardware that matches the minimum spec on your store page, not on a dev workstation.
- Cover at least one older AMD GPU and one older Nvidia GPU.
- Check CPU instruction set dependencies such as AVX, and test hosting on a CPU without them.
- Run the busiest scene for 30 minutes and record frame times and memory.
- Test at 144 Hz or above. Enshrouded fixed a mouse wheel bug that only appeared above 60 fps.
- Ship graphics presets, resolution scale, key rebinding and sensitivity sliders.
- Decide whether Steam Deck is supported. If yes, play the full first session on a Deck.
Block 4: store page
- Answer all 6 Early Access questions, and match “current state” to what the build contains today.
- Write the roadmap as current plans with no dates or feature promises.
- Match the minimum spec on the page to the hardware you tested in block 3.
- Publish a gameplay trailer recorded from the current build.
- Post a known-issues list before launch. No Rest for the Wicked published one the day before release.
- Set the Early Access price with the 1.0 price in mind, since no permanent discounts are allowed and price changes lock discounts for 30 days.
- Submit the store page 7 days before you need it approved, and keep it in Coming Soon for at least 2 weeks.
Block 5: the first 48 hours
- Name one person who reads reviews, forums and Discord in shifts for 48 hours, and one who decides on hotfixes.
- Agree on a triage rule before launch: crashes, save loss and blocked progression go into a hotfix; balance waits for the first patch.
- Dry-run the hotfix pipeline once: build, upload to the beta branch, test, set live. Time it.
- Pin a known-issues thread and link it in every hotfix note. Enshrouded did this from Hotfix #3 on.
- Run a short regression pass on every hotfix before it goes to default. The patch day QA checklist has 34 points for this.
- Answer reviews sparingly with the official developer response. Valve notes that replies can draw more attention than the review itself.
- On day 2 or 3, post a plain update: what was fixed, what is known, what comes next. Heart Machine did this 2 days in.
How fast should the first hotfix ship?
Steamworks sets no deadline. The public examples set a bar. Enshrouded’s first fix landed in about 2 hours, No Rest for the Wicked called its first fix a “Day 2 hotfix”, and Hyper Light Breaker’s major hotfix shipped on day 3. A team that has never timed its pipeline should assume half a day per hotfix (editorial estimate) and plan shifts around that.
The fastest hotfix still lands after the first reviews. That is why blocks 1 to 3 happen before launch day. For how often launches end up needing a patch in the first days, see our day-one patch data.