Steam library overhaul coming on September 17th, revamps with shelves, events and more
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It’s been a hell of a long time coming but the Steam library revamp is finally on its way. Valve has been teasing a Steam overhaul for what feels like years now, and from September 17th Steam beta branch users will be able to try out all of the new features for themselves.
The Steam Library Beta starts on Tuesday, September 17th. If you want to try it out then all you need to do is head to your Steam preferences and opt in to the beta build. This will mean your client needs updating more often (every other day, usually) but you will be at the tip of the Steam-y spear, so to speak.
As for what the new Steam library brings to the table, it’s a complete visual and UX overhaul. Steam libraries have been fairly stagnant for a decade now but this update is focused on putting lovely artwork front and centre. Your library of games still runs down the left-hand side of the screen but you’re now delivered a more digestible view of updates to your games, your recent games, what your friends have been playing, and your customisable shelves for filtering games.
Events within games are being given a similar overhaul. You’ll now be able to see at a glance what recent updates have been added, as well as what special events are up and coming. As an aside, this should be a great way to identify which games have basically been abandoned too. We’re looking at you, Nier Automata.
“Odds are, you’ve got games in your library that had incredible updates or limited-time events and you never even knew,” explains Valve. “Well, those days are over. We wanted to strike a balance between an in-library event feature that let you know about all the great things happening with the games you already own without bombarding you with notifications.
“Showcasing these updates is valuable to players and also developers. If you’re a dev, it hasn’t been easy to let someone know that you’ve just shipped a big update to your game, especially if they’ve moved on to something else. Now it is. Starting today, developers will have access to all new event creation tools that will feed directly into the new library.”
This sort of two-way communication between developers and players sure does put Epic’s Store even further in the shade. Within Steam you can now quickly and easily see exactly what’s happening, what’s changing, and what things you shouldn’t be missing out on. On the Epic Store? Not so much.
That’s it for now, but you’ll be able to try it all out for yourselves by opting into the Steam public beta branch come September 17th.
