Steam has already realized that being able to change the game's release date causes abuse. Now all changes have to be approved by Valve.
Unscrupulous developers realized many months or even years ago that by changing the release date of their game on Steam they could take advantage of the algorithm that promotes games to them. The store prefers to give visibility to games that are coming out soon and that has become the basis for a kind of hoaxes to consumers that damages the visibility of other games.
Steam can no longer be easily fooled with the release date
Let's say I'm a developer releasing a game this December. I already have the tab on Steam and the game is about to end. To promote the game I have seen that the trick of changing the launch date of the game in the internal database but not in the game file has been extended, and thus I tell the algorithm that my game is going to come out next week in order to appear on the list of future releases. I keep changing that internal date even after the game has officially come out because it stays in the Future Releases tab for longer.
This blatant fraud is doing a lot of damage to consumers and developers. All because that way it is more difficult to see what new games are going to arrive on Steam. But luckily Valve has realized this and that with all the money they earn from sales commissions, they could do something to benefit developers.
So now all changes will have to be approved by Valve. If by chance a game is significantly delayed, it must be shown that a game is going to be delayed and needs a legitimate date change. A simple move, which costs Valve virtually little but which developers who really want to publish games on Steam without using tricks are going to take advantage, and players will not see how the future releases tab is filled with games with fraudulent release dates.
Source: VG 247
