On Steam, your account is linked the moment you start a new game

On Steam the game already knows who you are before you press New Game — but until now the account only attached itself partway through the opening, after the first conversation. So for the whole guided intro, Settings kept offering to 'Link Steam' even though there was nothing left to link.

Now the link happens the instant a new game starts, before the first tutorial step. Settings reads as connected from the very beginning, and the popup asking you to link an account no longer surfaces during the intro. If the link can't be made for some reason, the game carries on unlinked exactly as it did before and connects you later, so nothing gets held up.