14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has finished listing the major improvements it made to the Community section of its Steam digital distribution service and entered the whole feature into a closed beta stage.
Valve’s Steam is extremely popular and, in order to facilitate a better communication between its 40 million users, the studio started showing off the different features it’s going to add to the Community section earlier this week.
The feature list is now complete and Valve has confirmed that the new Steam Community has entered a closed beta stage.
As of right now, invitations have been sent to the first 50,000 users who earned the Pillar of the Community badge. They also received another invitation, which they can give to one of their friends.
More people will be invited into the beta until it’s released publicly for every Steam user.
In case you forgot, here are the main new features that will soon be available in the Steam Community section.
Game Hubs - Every game on Steam now has a Game Hub, which provides a quick way for users to browse the best of a variety of content as rated by the community at large. Each Game Hub also includes a game-specific discussion area where players can talk about their favorite Steam games.
Group Updates - Player-created groups have been redesigned so it's now easier to see what a group is all about and who is participating in it. Groups now also include public and private discussion areas where they can remain in touch with their own communities.
My Content Updates - The content you've created now lives in one central place with new viewing options including an "image wall" layout that showcases your top-rated content. Also new is the ability to mark screenshots, videos, and workshop items as Favorites to save or share with friends.
Friend Activity - The new feed makes it easy to view, rate, and comment on the content and activities of your friends in a visually-rich and interactive presentation. Players can also broadcast game-specific status updates to start a conversation with their friends, directly in the activity feed. In case you don’t have an invitation and want to see what the hub system will look like, the Team Fortress 2 Game Hub is now available for everyone to admire at this link.