No Return, an upcoming horror game inspired by Silent Hill and PT, was supposed to launch on Tuesday, July 30, but the dev says Steam’s internal review process is preventing it from being available.
In an update shared on the game’s Steam storefront, No Return developer BlameTech says it’s “currently experiencing a delay due to slow review processes.”
A week ago, BlameTech released No Return’s official “Steam Launch Trailer” in anticipation of the game’s July 30 release date, but its Steam page still says “coming soon.”
“The game is ready to go live, but Steam’s review is taking longer than expected,” BlameTech says. “We are urgently contacting Steam to expedite the process. The exact release time will depend on Steam’s processing time. We will continue to communicate with Steam to urge them to speed up the review. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.”
No Return is the debut project from BlameTech and, from what I could gather after playing the demo back in June, a competent PT-like with its own unique identity steeped in Chinese folklore. The psychological horror game centers around a family man who returns from work to find his home transformed into an endless loop of hallways that gradually become more terrifying as they reveal fragments of his shattered memories.
Although Steam’s favorability with indie developers varies due to issues with visibility and the infamous 30% revenue cut it takes from sales, it seems to be pretty rare for it to full-on hold up a game from releasing on its release date. That makes it hard to predict exactly how long it’ll take for a game like No Return to become available, but at least according to BlameTech, the ball’s in Valve’s court.