Early Access game not shown in EA categories – launch visibility lost, support unresponsive

[pam23]

Game marked as Early Access on store page, but missing from all EA listings since launch. Reported to Steam support – no reply after several days.

[pam23]

Hi all,
I’m writing this as a heads-up for other developers.

On August 15, I released my game The Secret of Velmora as an Early Access title.
The store page clearly shows the “Early Access Game” label.
However, the game was not included in any Early Access categories, such as:
- Store → Categories → Early Access → News & Trending
- or even the default EA listings visible on the homepage

Instead, it appeared under Full Release listings — which caused:
- confusion among players,
- loss of visibility in the EA discoverability funnel,
- and likely a significant impact on wishlist growth and post-launch traction.

I reported this to Steam Dev Support multiple times (starting Aug 15), but haven’t received any reply to this day (Aug 19).

One support agent did respond — but to a public comment — with an unrelated UI test involving filters, not the core issue.

I've attached a screenshot that clearly shows the mismatch:
- Game is marked as Early Access
- But shown in the Full Release section
- And missing from EA sections entirely

This isn’t meant to start a flame war — I just think it’s important that other devs know this can happen, and that support may not respond even in critical launch-related cases.

Let me know if anyone else has seen something similar.

I've attached a screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/MowOnEu

It shows:
- Game marked as Early Access
- Appears in Full Release section
- Missing from EA listings

[datCookie]

Your game was not showing in the list via either methods for me. But is searchable through direct search in the store and also through specific Early Access filters.

What I imagine this boils down to is the sheer number of titles being released every week, to the point that Steam just can't market them all constantly, unless they're popular and trending.

New games are likely to get buried constantly, although it is unfortunate that no one from support has provided an official answer.

[pam23]

Thanks for the comment – but just to clarify:

This isn’t about visibility being low because the game wasn’t popular or trending. The issue is categorical misplacement.

The Secret of Velmora was released on August 15 as an official Early Access title, approved and tagged accordingly.

That day, only a small handful of games were added to the Early Access → News & Trending sections (usually just a few titles, but I haven't seen more than 10–15).

However, Velmora did not appear in those listings at all, even though it did appear in Full Release sections.

In other words:
The game was labeled as Early Access but listed only under Full Releases.

That’s the core problem – it’s not about discoverability performance; it’s about not being listed where it was supposed to be, on day one.

And unfortunately, Steam support has not acknowledged this issue after multiple reports.

[Chika Ogiue]

You should ask this on the Steamworks development forum. We are just normal users here, not representatives of Valve.

[pam23]

Thanks — but just for clarity: we were sent here by Steam Support.

Here's the actual exchange:

Me:
"Hi, just a quick note before heading to sleep — I checked again and it still looks off on your side. The game is marked as Early Access, but in the store it keeps showing as a full release. Seems like it’s been stuck like that for hours, so maybe something is glitching on your end."

Steam Support (Tim):
"Thanks for your comments - we value feedback from the Steam community. I'm forwarding your comments on to the appropriate department.

Additionally, if you wish to share an opinion, suggestion, or idea with the community as well, please visit the Suggestions/Ideas section of the Steam Discussion forums.
This forum is regularly read by Valve's development team."

So we’re not here by mistake — we were explicitly redirected to the public forums by a support agent.

And regarding the Steamworks dev support:
Despite being a paying publisher, our direct tickets have been ignored since Friday – the day the game launched.
No response, no acknowledgment, not even a delay notice.

So yes — unfortunately, this public thread is currently the only place we’ve received any form of engagement.

[miamew3]

I can find you game by looking at: Store -> New Releases -> All New Releases
(Popular New Releases wont count unless you are selling well.)
As everything in New releases is auto sorted by release date, i found it far down the list, but if i add the tag early access, it jumps higher up and was a short scroll down to see it.


As for this method: Store -> Early Access -> New & Trending
If you hover over the title "New & Trending" you will see it says "Games that released recently and selling well". So if your game has little to zero sold then it wont show in this section.
Now i could try and find your game via Store->Early Access->All and filter the tag for ''Adventure'' but that shows me 4100+ games to look through.


So basically at the end of the day, the ''New & Trending'' sections comes down to how many copies you have sold. Maybe rethink your strategy for advertising your game so it gets more exposure pre-release to maximize the number of copies sold when it hits the store.


Edited to add:
Just tried again in Store->Early Access->All and filtered the tags for ''Adventure'', "Action" and ''Dungeon Crawler''. Your game was 19th in the list it brought up.

[fluxtorrent]

If you can't figure out the right place to post, good bet its user error on how you launched

[miamew3]

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

If you can't figure out the right place to post, good bet its user error on how you launched

The game has been launched in the correct listing, it just that it hasn't hit enough copies sold for it to show under ''new & trending'' sections of those listings. Shame steam support couldn't figure that out for op and they had to come here instead.

[fluxtorrent]

Originally posted by miamew3:

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

If you can't figure out the right place to post, good bet its user error on how you launched

The game has been launched in the correct listing, it just that it hasn't hit enough copies sold for it to show under ''new & trending'' sections of those listings. Shame steam support couldn't figure that out for op and they had to come here instead.

Why would steam support know that, they are NOT a point of contact for devs to begin with, they deal with billing issues, they are an outsourced company and NOT part of the steamworks program.

Which goes back to my original point. Pebcak

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by pam23:

Thanks — but just for clarity: we were sent here by Steam Support.

Steam support are assuming you're a customer. As a developer, you have other channels for your developer related issues. Use them.

[Faded]

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

If you can't figure out the right place to post, good bet its user error on how you launched

Read. The. Comments.

Thanks — but just for clarity: we were sent here by Steam Support.

Here's the actual exchange:

Me:
"Hi, just a quick note before heading to sleep — I checked again and it still looks off on your side. The game is marked as Early Access, but in the store it keeps showing as a full release. Seems like it’s been stuck like that for hours, so maybe something is glitching on your end."

Steam Support (Tim):
"Thanks for your comments - we value feedback from the Steam community. I'm forwarding your comments on to the appropriate department.

Additionally, if you wish to share an opinion, suggestion, or idea with the community as well, please visit the Suggestions/Ideas section of the Steam Discussion forums.
This forum is regularly read by Valve's development team."

So we’re not here by mistake — we were explicitly redirected to the public forums by a support agent.

My god. People get so overly zealous about "owning" others instead of actually reading the comments to better fill out the context behind their post. You had 5 hours to read that, but you skipped everything and said "your fault".

You have nothing productive or constructive to add. Only disses and negativity. Go reevaluate yourself man.

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by Faded:

Originally posted by fluxtorrent:

If you can't figure out the right place to post, good bet its user error on how you launched

Read. The. Comments.

Thanks — but just for clarity: we were sent here by Steam Support.

Here's the actual exchange:

Me:
"Hi, just a quick note before heading to sleep — I checked again and it still looks off on your side. The game is marked as Early Access, but in the store it keeps showing as a full release. Seems like it’s been stuck like that for hours, so maybe something is glitching on your end."

Steam Support (Tim):
"Thanks for your comments - we value feedback from the Steam community. I'm forwarding your comments on to the appropriate department.

Additionally, if you wish to share an opinion, suggestion, or idea with the community as well, please visit the Suggestions/Ideas section of the Steam Discussion forums.
This forum is regularly read by Valve's development team."

So we’re not here by mistake — we were explicitly redirected to the public forums by a support agent.

My god. People get so overly zealous about "owning" others instead of actually reading the comments to better fill out the context behind their post. You had 5 hours to read that, but you skipped everything and said "your fault".

You have nothing productive or constructive to add. Only disses and negativity. Go reevaluate yourself man.

He did read it. The Support answer is the one they give every time someone contacts Support with a matter they do not handle. They send people to the forums every single time with that exact message. It's their polite way of saying "please go away". Posting a suggestion will not get things like what the OP is dealing with solved.

Developers should not come to the general forums for help when it's about matters regarding publishing a game etc. They have their own places for that stuff. Like this, with discussions for Steamworks related questions etc. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks

The admins there are actual Valve employees, who can help the OP. Unlike Support or regular users on these forums.

[Faded]

Originally posted by Yasahi:

Originally posted by Faded:

Read. The. Comments.



My god. People get so overly zealous about "owning" others instead of actually reading the comments to better fill out the context behind their post. You had 5 hours to read that, but you skipped everything and said "your fault".

You have nothing productive or constructive to add. Only disses and negativity. Go reevaluate yourself man.

He did read it. The Support answer is the one they give every time someone contacts Support with a matter they do not handle. They send people to the forums every single time with that exact message. It's their polite way of saying "please go away". Posting a suggestion will not get things like what the OP is dealing with solved.

Developers should not come to the general forums for help when it's about matters regarding publishing a game etc. They have their own places for that stuff. Like this, with discussions for Steamworks related questions etc. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks

The admins there are actual Valve employees, who can help the OP. Unlike Support or regular users on these forums.

"If you have nothing good to add..." telling the user "it's their fault" does nothing. It accomplishes nothing other than establishing that you're a bit of a prick. Be helpful. Don't just be a rule quoting snob.

[pam23]

Originally posted by miamew3:

I can find you game by looking at: Store -> New Releases -> All New Releases
(Popular New Releases wont count unless you are selling well.)
As everything in New releases is auto sorted by release date, i found it far down the list, but if i add the tag early access, it jumps higher up and was a short scroll down to see it.


As for this method: Store -> Early Access -> New & Trending
If you hover over the title "New & Trending" you will see it says "Games that released recently and selling well". So if your game has little to zero sold then it wont show in this section.
Now i could try and find your game via Store->Early Access->All and filter the tag for ''Adventure'' but that shows me 4100+ games to look through.


So basically at the end of the day, the ''New & Trending'' sections comes down to how many copies you have sold. Maybe rethink your strategy for advertising your game so it gets more exposure pre-release to maximize the number of copies sold when it hits the store.


Edited to add:
Just tried again in Store->Early Access->All and filtered the tags for ''Adventure'', "Action" and ''Dungeon Crawler''. Your game was 19th in the list it brought up.

Thanks for taking the time to dig into it. I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't a misunderstanding of how New & Trending works — it's a clear misclassification error on Steam's side.

Let me explain:
- My game was released on August 15, very early morning.
- It was approved as Early Access, and the store page has always shown it as EA — you can check that directly.
- Yet, instead of showing up in Early Access → News & Trending, it was only visible under Full Releases → News & Trending.
- At the same time, several other games released hours later on the same day did appear correctly under Early Access → News & Trending.

So this isn’t about sales. In fact:
- One of those EA games had zero reviews, no trailer, no press coverage, no presence on Itch or social media, and definitely no built-up wishlists.
- Mine had ~200 wishlists, active Reddit/FB/Discord presence, a playable demo, and some early press. Not a massive hit, but clearly not invisible either.
- The issue is not ranking within a tab.

The issue is: my game wasn't even listed in the correct tab.

This visibility mismatch lasted 4 full days before I raised multiple tickets and began posting publicly.

That’s why this isn’t about performance. This is about:
- A backend failure.
- No communication from Steam support.
- No correction even after it's been brought to their attention.

And the damage to the launch window visibility is done.

Again, I appreciate your effort to help — just wanted to clarify what’s actually going on.

[d3str0y3r]

Originally posted by pam23:

Originally posted by miamew3:

I can find you game by looking at: Store -> New Releases -> All New Releases
(Popular New Releases wont count unless you are selling well.)
As everything in New releases is auto sorted by release date, i found it far down the list, but if i add the tag early access, it jumps higher up and was a short scroll down to see it.


As for this method: Store -> Early Access -> New & Trending
If you hover over the title "New & Trending" you will see it says "Games that released recently and selling well". So if your game has little to zero sold then it wont show in this section.
Now i could try and find your game via Store->Early Access->All and filter the tag for ''Adventure'' but that shows me 4100+ games to look through.


So basically at the end of the day, the ''New & Trending'' sections comes down to how many copies you have sold. Maybe rethink your strategy for advertising your game so it gets more exposure pre-release to maximize the number of copies sold when it hits the store.


Edited to add:
Just tried again in Store->Early Access->All and filtered the tags for ''Adventure'', "Action" and ''Dungeon Crawler''. Your game was 19th in the list it brought up.

Thanks for taking the time to dig into it. I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't a misunderstanding of how New & Trending works — it's a clear misclassification error on Steam's side.

Let me explain:
- My game was released on August 15, very early morning.
- It was approved as Early Access, and the store page has always shown it as EA — you can check that directly.
- Yet, instead of showing up in Early Access → News & Trending, it was only visible under Full Releases → News & Trending.
- At the same time, several other games released hours later on the same day did appear correctly under Early Access → News & Trending.

So this isn’t about sales. In fact:
- One of those EA games had zero reviews, no trailer, no press coverage, no presence on Itch or social media, and definitely no built-up wishlists.
- Mine had ~200 wishlists, active Reddit/FB/Discord presence, a playable demo, and some early press. Not a massive hit, but clearly not invisible either.
- The issue is not ranking within a tab.

The issue is: my game wasn't even listed in the correct tab.

This visibility mismatch lasted 4 full days before I raised multiple tickets and began posting publicly.

That’s why this isn’t about performance. This is about:
- A backend failure.
- No communication from Steam support.
- No correction even after it's been brought to their attention.

And the damage to the launch window visibility is done.

Again, I appreciate your effort to help — just wanted to clarify what’s actually going on.

Steam support cannot fix any of your issues. They do not have a control over Steamworks.

Steam support is for customer billing and account related problems only.

Steamworks related support is handled here.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks