Valve leaves 2020 with a another feature for Steam to end. The twelfth experiment called by Steam Labs »Discovery of offers«, should make it easier for you to find reduced titles. It is based a little on the extended version presented on December 10th Browse search.
How does the new search work?
You were able to browse the offers for a genre during the autumn sales. A possibility that, according to Valve, was also very well received. This works again in the winter sale, but has been expanded.
How can you filter games now? After you have selected a genre, you can define your desired title even more precisely and, for example, set a specific graphic style or mood. So Steam only shows you all those titles that rely on realism or an ego perspective.
Only sales are listed: This search only shows you games that are currently reduced. You cannot use these filters to find titles that are still at full price.
What is Steam Labs?
Valve combines a number of experimental features under the term “Steam Labs”. These are initially called some kind of public beta tested before the developer decides to publish or discard them.
Steam Labs started in 2019 and has already expanded the Steam client with numerous features. And it wasn’t until 2020 that Valve released an overview of the Successes and failures of his experiments.
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Steam got tons of new features, but some fell by the wayside
If this sounds a little familiar, you may have already tested Valve’s tenth experiment. The rummage search lets you browse the entire Steam catalog by genre, topic or even browse a game mode. After this initial definition, you can also refine this search and thus easily find titles that are still unknown.
Valve had been testing another feature for some time, but released it this year: The News Hub. You can use it to conveniently access the News about your favorite games, or even follow the news from certain gaming websites.
What does the future hold?
The development of Steam will continue in 2021. Valve is keeping a low profile and usually just surprises with the release of new features, but their efforts clearly show a certain course. We looked at how the platform could develop.
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Steam preview 2021: the future doesn’t just lie on Windows
We not only go into experiments such as Steam Labs, but also numerous functions of the client and their development often wrongly ignored becomes.