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Valve Tells Developers About Updates to Steam Store

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Published: September 24, 2016 7:06 PM

An update just went live on the Steamworks community page, shared on Reddit by user /u/Xinasha and personally confirmed by our own sources that new updates are coming to the Steam Store. See the original post here.

Here's what Valve had to say about the update.

When we launched the Steam Discovery Update, we introduced a new and smarter Steam store built around personalization and recommendations.

In the time since the Discovery Update, we've iterated on the features and made improvements to support the goal of helping each customer find the titles they are most likely to enjoy playing. We think our progress in this direction has been really valuable in supporting a broader variety of gaming experiences big and small, while better serving individual customer tastes.

Here's everything that's part of the update, according to Valve's own Steam post.

  • Home Page Visual Refresh:  Mixing up how the front page appears, removing some visual clutter.
  • Additional Left Column Navigation: The left navigational column will be getting new direct links to main features of the Steam Store, such as New Releases, Top Sellars, Upcoming Titles, etc.
  • Friends Activity: A new section to the right of the front page will be dedicated to showing what your friends have been playing lately.
  • Top Selling New Releases: A brand new section will be added for when a new release becomes a top selling game.
  • Global Customer Preferences: A new feature that will allow customers to customize their Steam Store experience. Allowing them to opt to exclude certain products from being displayed, such as Videos, Early Access titles, Software, VR, etc.
  • Targeted Visibility For New Releases: New changes will be made to how new releases will be targeted to the appropriate customers. The goal is to show the specific customer new releases that will most likely appeal to them.
  • Targeted Visibility For Game Updates: Changes to how Update rounds will be made to be more direct to the customers who would want to see them. Customers who own the game or have it on their wishlist will be prioritized in showing the update.
  • New Steam Curator Options: Noticing that people are using Steam Curator to give information on a title, without necessarily recommending it, there will be new tools that will allow a curator to make a distinction about whether or not they are recommending, not recommending or just giving information about a title. This will also allow Valve to better understand what curated posts should be highlighted on the front page.
  • Curators In Main Capsule: The Main Capsule banner will be updated to include curators that the customer personally follows.
  • Improved Steam Curator Presence: There will be a new section on the Steam Home Page that is dedicated to recommendations from curators. This space will be for recommending more anything from popular releases to more "niche" titles. Additionally, there will be a new landing page to display many recommended titles from a curator.

The update is planned to roll out within the next few weeks and the developers are looking for feedback and opinions on the upcoming changes, as to make sure the update is as good as it can be.

jjacobs
| Former Staff Writer

 I've been playing games my whole life, mostly Nintendo and Playstation. My all time favorite game series are Pokemon, Infamous, Golden Sun and Persona