Key takeaways
- Valve's Steam approval process took two to three weeks in October, far exceeding the published three-to-five-day timeline, delaying numerous indie game releases.
- October saw roughly 4,000 games released on Steam with nearly 50 percent using generative AI, leading developers to blame AI slop for overwhelming Valve's review capacity.
- Small studios like Studio Daimon face financial consequences from delays, as Valve's one-month payment delay coincides with release windows closing before major AAA titles launch.
November 2026 arrives loaded with blockbusters. World of Warcraft: Forever launches tomorrow. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time releases hours later. In roughly two weeks, Grand Theft Auto VI arrives. For smaller studios, this timing meant a crucial calculation: publish before November or wait until December when the market quiets. Yet dozens of indie developers now fear they won’t get to choose. They’re stuck in an unprecedented backlog at Valve’s Steam approval process, and many blame a flood of AI-generated games overwhelming the platform.
The November Release Crunch
Indie developers face a stark choice: release before the AAA avalanche that consumes player attention and marketing oxygen, or wait until December when Ocarina of Time and GTA 6 have exhausted the market. Launching in November’s middle weeks is commercial suicide for small teams. Any delay in Steam approvals hits particularly hard under these time constraints.
Alfred Kamon, director of Studio Daimon, understood this dilemma intimately. Food Devils was initially scheduled for November 5 but the studio moved it forward just 24 hours before announcement when Ocarina of Time claimed that date. Now, nearly three weeks after submission on October 12, Food Devils still awaited approval. Pushing to December was impossible: GTA 6 would consume all available player attention. Yet November felt equally hopeless.
How Steam Approvals Broke Down
The Normal Process
Valve typically advises developers to submit pages at least seven business days before launch, with reviews taking three to five days. After feedback, re-review takes another few days. This timeline had held firm enough that developers structured marketing campaigns and release announcements around it. Developers gambled their timing on that guarantee.
October’s Reality
That standard collapsed in October. Throughout the month, developers posted on social media describing approvals taking two to three weeks without explanation. Caravarn Carnage: Fruity Road submitted October 16 and gained approval November 1. Ashen Legacy submitted October 15, waited over two weeks, and received approval October 31—just before its November 6 launch. Wheel Make It delayed its Halloween release by four days. Cubic Earth remained unable to launch, with its developer telling Kotaku the delay had been “incredibly disheartening” as organic Steam traffic from features dried up.
Valve later acknowledged “a significant increase in submissions,” noting reviews now extend to 12 business days. The company attributed most delays to re-reviewing games that failed initial checks and said it was adjusting processes and expanding pre-release checklists.
Food Devils’ Three-Week Wait
Kamon submitted on October 12 and heard nothing for a week. Following Valve’s published advice for slow reviews, he submitted a support ticket on October 24. Valve responded October 26 with concerns about sexual content. Kamon replied immediately. Seven days later, still waiting, Valve’s follow-up simply told him to wait for the review team.
Studio Daimon comprises nine people in Italy. The company spent four years developing Food Devils and previously released only Path of the Midnight Sun. Kamon told Kotaku the studio needed sales revenue before year’s end to survive. Valve’s one-month payment delay made pushing to December impossible. He had prepared for two or three days of content discussions based on past experience, not three weeks of silence. His team sacrificed weekends and all-nighters preparing for a launch window now rendered impossible by a system failure outside their control.
“Just before the release, everyone is crunching a lot just to finish everything, to do QA, to polish and to prepare all the content,” Kamon said. “Everyone in the team maybe even stayed up late or even during weekends. It was very, very hard. And despite everything, I think it’s sad because everyone made so many sacrifices to be here now today, and we still couldn’t make it.”
The AI Submission Surge
Volume and Scale
More games were released on Steam in 2026 through early November than in all of 2025, with two and a half months remaining. October alone saw roughly 4,000 games hit the platform. Nearly 50 percent of them disclosed using generative AI in development. This pace far exceeds Valve’s apparent processing capacity.
The AI Connection
Developers largely suspect Valve lacks capacity to sort through high volumes of quickly-generated, AI-assisted games, leaving smaller studios without industry connections to suffer delays while release windows collapse. More than 8,000 demos flooded Steam Next Fest in late October, prompting Valve’s first statement addressing AI concerns.
That statement emphasized Valve did not want to be “gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use.” Marc Wilkinson, a Valve representative, added that “We are fully aware of the situation, and a significant number of people are thinking about how to solve this problem.” Valve’s blog post omitted any mention of generative AI’s role in the submission surge, despite developers clearly connecting the dots. No developer has furnished proof that AI slop specifically causes the backup. What remains certain is that Valve flagged AI-generated content as a platform problem only after human developers had already suffered.
What Developers Actually Want
Honesty Over Speed
Kamon did not ask for impossible speed. He asked for honesty. He told Kotaku he wished Valve would tell developers when a review might take weeks, rather than promise three to five days and watch developers stake their marketing, announcements, and entire release strategy on that broken promise.
“I can also sympathize with those who have to review all these games,” he said. “But as a dev, at least I would like some honesty in the UI when you submit a game. Tell us it may take weeks. Just don’t promise us three to five days because then we make plans around the release date. We create hype. We announce everything. People are happy that the game is releasing and in the end, it doesn’t.”
He added it would have helped to receive increased Steam visibility as compensation for a launch sabotaged through no fault of his own. Until that gap closes, every indie developer watching their release date float away will do so under a three-to-five-day promise that has become fiction. The November crunch will pass. The underlying problem remains: a platform overwhelmed by submission volume and unclear how to address it.
Source: Kotaku
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Steam approvals taking so long in October 2026?
Valve acknowledged a significant increase in submissions and noted reviews now extend to 12 business days. Developers suspect nearly 50 percent of October's 4,000 releases used AI in development, overwhelming Valve's review capacity.
How long did Food Devils wait for approval?
Food Devils was submitted for review on October 12 and still awaited approval as of early November—nearly three weeks. Valve flagged sexual content concerns on October 26, and after director Alfred Kamon replied immediately, he remained frozen without further updates for seven days.
Why can't indie developers just wait until December to release?
November sees major AAA releases including Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GTA 6, which consume player attention and marketing coverage. December is even worse for indie games. Launching after GTA 6 means losing the November-December release window when players and reviewers are actively looking for games.
