So we’ve known that Steam is getting a full makeover for a while, but now the new layout has been revealed.
As you can see, it’s pretty different. Although it’s important to note that the makeover doesn’t affect the store or other parts of the interface – just the main part where you store your games.
Valve gave us a sneak peek at the new library view during GDC. There’s larger game thumbnails, more categories, vertical thumbnails, and tags. The tags have been in the store for a while, but now they’re much more prominent, plus you can search through your library much easier using these.
Valve’s Alden Kroll said: “The biggest thing we’re introducing is the Steam library homepage. This provides an opportunity for players to see ‘what else is happening in the games that I play?'”
Our favourite part is the new activity feed, which shows what your friends are playing.
A while back, Valve announced the makeover. Posting on Steam Community, they shared the following plans for 2019:
“While we feel like we’ve accomplished a lot in 2018, there’s still a ton more work to do, features to build, and hard problems to solve. Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the more notable things we plan to ship this year:
- 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 favorite 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.”
PC Gamer reports that we can expect a beta release this summer.