In December last year, the Epic Games Store launched, giving PC gamers even more digital store options to choose from. Epic isn’t playing around and I, for one, think this lit a fire under Valve. They aren’t sitting around, however, as they have detailed a list of new Steam improvements and changes coming to Steam. Valve calls this only a “sneak peek” so there is more being planned, but the new Steam improvements and changes already sound quite good.
Related: The New Epic Games Store Refund Policy is Excellent
It was recently discovered that Steam now has over 30,000 games in total. This is absolutely massive and it is also somewhat of a problem at times. It’s a mess sorting through it all and seeing some “recommended for you” titles you wouldn’t be caught dead playing. Well, one of the things Valve is working on is a new recommendation engine powered by machine-learning. Then, there’s also plans to update the Steam library.
One of my favourite new Steam improvements revealed is that of Steam TV, as Valve plans to not limit the service to specific tournaments anymore, but to support all games. I had no issues during the launch of Steam TV and it was great to get away from that toxic Twitch.tv chat. Furthermore, the quality and stability of Steam TV were fantastic, so making this available for all games would be awesome.
Check out what Valve has revealed so far below:
- Store Discoverability: We’re working on a new recommendation engine powered by machine-learning, that can match players to games based on their individual tastes. Algorithms are only a part of our discoverability solution, however, so we’re building more broadcasting and curating features and are constantly assessing the overall design of the store.
- Steam China: We’ve partnered with Perfect World to bring Steam onshore into China. We’ll reveal more details about this in the coming months.
- Steam Library Update: Some long-awaited changes to the Steam Client will ship, including a reworked Steam Library, built on top of the technology we shipped in Steam Chat.
- New Events System: We’re upgrading the events system in the Steam Community, enabling you to highlight interesting activities in your games like tournaments, streams, or weekly challenges.
- Steam TV: We’re working on expanding Steam TV beyond just broadcasting specific tournaments and special events, in order to support all games.
- Steam Chat: We’re going to ship a new Steam Chat mobile app, so you can share your favourite GIFs with your friends while on the go.
- Steam Trust: The technology behind Trusted Matchmaking on CS: GO is getting an upgrade and will become a full Steam feature that will be available to all games. This means you’ll have more information that you can use to help determine how likely a player is a cheater or not.
- Steam PC Cafe Program: We are going to officially ship a new PC Cafe Program so that players can have a good experience using Steam in hundreds of thousands of PC Cafes Worldwide.
Valve explained that the list of new Steam changes and improvements only contain “some of the notable ones” they plan to ship this year.
What do you think about Valve’s plans for new Steam improvements and changes for 2019? Let us know in the comment section below.
