Valve plans to introduce a number of changes to its Steam store within the coming weeks.
This follows confirmation to a number of SteamWorks developers that include updates to Steam’s UI, customer preferences and targeted content.
Check out the full list of changes below:
Home Page UI Change
“The Steam home page will be getting a visual refresh to use bigger game images in some places, add(ing) some new ways of surfacing games, and removing some visual clutter.”
In other words, Steam’s front page should be looking much leaner going forward, with only specifically curated games (more on that below) being showed to the user.
This includes the introduction of an additional left column that “will be getting a new section of links to main destinations such as new releases, top sellers, recently updated, upcoming releases, and specials”.
“When logged in, there will also be links to sections for you such as popular among friends, recommendations by curators you follow, and your discovery queue.”
Friends Activity
“We’re adding a prominent new ‘Popular Among Friends’ section right to the home page that will highlight what your friends have been buying and playing.”
We’re not quite sure what this means for the traditional “Activity” page, but checking out what friends are doing can only be a good thing.
Preferences
This is a big one.
“We’re adding some new options for users to specify their preferences for which product types they wish to see across the entire home page, rather than managing each section individually.”
In effect, that means you can block out entire genres of games you no longer wish to see.
“This will let customers opt to exclude particular types of products, such as Early Access, Software, Videos, and VR from appearing on their Steam home page and on a couple (of) other browser pages.”
Targeted visibility
This point is aimed more directly with sellers, but ties in nicely with the above preference changes.
“This change should result in your title appearing to a smaller, but better targeted group of potential customers based on their preferences and tastes.”
“New releases will continue to be recommended to specific users on the Steam Home page and can appear in popular lists if doing well.”
Improved Steam Curator Presence
Curators will now actually be able to indicate whether their posts are a recommendation, a “not recommended”, or simply informational.
“When following one or more Steam Curators, users will see a specific section on the home page that highlights recent recommendations.”
“This space can include popular new releases or smaller niche titles depending on which curators the user is following.”
What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.
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I’d like a feature where they recommend games by looking at how much hours I’ve put into games I own.