Steam has changed its policy on DLC content and season passes, so now players are entitled to proper compensation if future plans fall through: 'Customers will be offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC'

SoftwarePlatformsSteamSteam has changed its policy on DLC content and season passes, so now players are entitled to proper compensation if future plans fall through: ‘Customers will be offered a refund for the value of unreleased DLC’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Beach front properties at sunset.

There’s been a significant change as to how Steam will require games to advertise expansion packs or DLCs on the platform. Thenew guidelinesclearly spell out what can be classified as new extra content and how publishers and developers should handle this future content to ensure that it actually benefits customers.

It also spells out the risks of promising DLCs and the like to players. Devs don’t just have to provide a launch time, but they need to work to fulfill that promise and release the game when originally intended. “Selling a Season Pass has risks—since you are promising the release of future content—you have to commit to completing that content on time. If customers don’t like the content you’re releasing in the Season Pass or the timing of that content release, that will be reflected in sales and reviews.”

While it’s not too common, there are a few games out there that have stumbled at the hurdle of DLCs. The first DLC that Cities: Skylines 2 released,the Beach Properties packs managed to really rile up playerswho thought that $10/ £8.49 for some buildings and new trees was a complete ripoff. Then there’s Stellaris, which has$200 worth of DLCs. The sheer amount of content here can be tricky for players to untangle, and it’s hard to know what is worth buying and what isn’t.

“Because a Season Pass is effectively a DLC pre-purchase, creating a Season Pass on Steam has many considerations and restrictions as outlined in the documentation on pre-purchases. For these reasons, we will not offer a Season Pass except in a few rare cases with partners with which we have a well-established relationship and that have a proven track record on Steam.”

(Image credit: Colossoal Order Ltd./Paradox Interactive)

Screenshot from Cities Skylines 2

There are also new guidelines for games wishing to make a season pass available for purchase on Steam. Now, games must list all the DLCs included in the pass, give a basic description for each DLC explaining to players what they can expect from them, and give a release date, which can be a quarter and year—season and year are also acceptable.

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