Good looking

Apr 22, 2010 17:11 GMT  ·  By

Valve has announced that it plans to push out a new look for the Steam client for all users on Monday, April 26. The new interface has been in a open beta stage since February and is designed to make it easier to navigate, and comes complete with new features, planned support for the Mac and the addition of game news feeds from major online magazines.

The people at Valve thanked all those who took part in the beta saying “The number of you who participated exceeded all our expectations, and so far you've created 25 thousand posts to the beta user forums. As a result of your participation, the Steam team has had the feedback required to make the new Steam client more reliable and useful than ever.”

The change comes on Monday and because of the sheer volume of gamers who are using Steam for their PC gaming needs, some problems might be on the horizon. Valve encourages everyone to opt in for the beta now in order to get the files they need for the upgrade and be sure that everything goes alright on Monday.

Steam initially begun as a simple patch and content delivery system that Valve only wanted to use for its own videogame launches but since then, it has become arguably the biggest player in the digital distribution business on the PC.

Most publishers put their games on Steam at the same time they come out in retail and players value the fact that they can access them anytime, anywhere by logging into their Steam account. There are also a variety of community features, which allow gaming friends to connect and play together. Steam's success has also attracted critics, with some saying that it might be a budding monopoly and while others that the creation of Steamworks might be anti-competitive.