Indie developers say Steam approvals now take weeks, not days
Multiple indie studios say Steam's store approval process has stretched from the stated three-to-five business days into waits of two to three weeks, pushing launches off schedule — in some cases past the point where a small team gets paid before January. Developers point to volume: roughly 4,000 games released on Steam in October alone, nearly half disclosing some use of generative AI. Valve has not confirmed a cause; it told Kotaku a blog post is coming. For players this mostly means quiet release-date slippage among smaller titles — the kind our Release Radar watches for.
Sources: Kotaku, original reporting, 3 Nov · Game Developer — Valve’s response