Valve has revealed a beta for the Steam Community Update. The beta had also been announced at GamesCom. Steam, currently, is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC and Mac games and digital entertainment, with over 40 million accounts around the world and over 2,000 titles on offer.
The new beta will allow players to check out the features in advance and test them before it's released to the public. What's more, the update is available for everyone who earned the 'Pillar of Steam' Community Badge, which should be quite a lot of people.
This update focuses on highlighting and enabling the best user-created screenshots, videos, and Workshop items for games across Steam while making it easier for the community to discuss their favorite games.
"The New Steam Community is all about showing off the best content that gamers have created," said Emily Kent at Valve. "With over 89 million screenshots, videos, Steam Workshop maps, levels, mods, and items, plus news articles and product updates, the community has created an unbelievable wealth of content around their favorite games."
Below is the list of features brought about by the new update.
- Game Hubs -Every game on Steam now has a Game Hub, which provides a quick way for users to browse through of a variety of best-rated content as grade by the community. 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 individuals 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. Another new feature 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.
