14 DAY TRIAL // Valve issued an update to the Steam storefront, and alongside the blue hue that now graces the interface, the company introduced a long-requested feature, the ability for users to act as curators of the available content.
For most developers, getting their game on Steam used to mean a ticket to success, with the mere presence out there being correlated with a huge spike in sales not even a year or two back.
In the meantime, things have been growing increasingly crowded, and the online distribution platform now boasts 100 million registered users, a figure that double in the last two years, as well as over 3700 games, a significant portion of which were added in the last twelve months.
Why Discovery is important
With the digital store getting flooded by more and more small-scope indie titles, getting your game on Steam no longer had the effects of making your creation an instant best-seller. Many developers decried the increasing momentum of publishing new items, stating that their time on the New Releases page was less than a day, after which they would fall into anonymity.
This, in addition to the fact that gaming is such a diverse medium that most of the content was seen as fluff by community members, led to many users requesting that Valve implements a better system to sort through the games.
While the Steam Discovery update is still fresh and has a long way to go, it's reportedly already having an impact on some of the games that were previously harder to find.
After the update, notable Internet gaming celebrities created recommended lists of games and gained an impressive following, enabling a potentially huge new audience to get to the listed titles.
The effects are palpable
PCGamesN reports that the Steam Discovery update is already having a positive impact for some developers, citing New World Interactive as an example. The developer relies mostly on social media and recommendations from its players to reach new users, and since the update, visits to their store page and sales figures have risen significantly.
"Since the update yesterday, we've added more than 3,000 members to the official game group, presumably from people clicking the Follow button on the Store page. We're gaining around 100 members per hour," Creative Director Andrew Spearin notes on his blog.
The developer also reported that store page visits jumped considerably after the update, and that sales also rose way beyond what the studio was seeing on a regular week day. He also believes that although noted celebrities who are curating game lists do have an impact, most of the attention comes from the recommendation system on the store's front page.
In any case, it's good to see Valve getting involved and assisting people in finding new games.