Steam release huge improvements to store that gamers label 'phenomenal'

Steam has made a long-awaited improvement to its store, but it could be terrible news for your ever-expanding backlog of games.

Valve’s Steam store has been around for well over two decades, having launched in September 2003. It began its ascension as the standard of digital storefronts when it exclusively launched Half-Life 2 the following year.

In 2005, Steam opened its stores to third-party games, and today, it’s by far the largest store of its kind, continuing to set the standard that Xbox and PlayStation strive to achieve. However, no matter how refined the experience is, it’s still not perfect and much like everything in life, there’s always room for improvement.

Steam just made gifting and buying games much easier

The first improvement made to the Steam store via its latest update is that gifting has been vastly improved. Now, you can share your wishlist and can purchase a game directly from a friend’s wishlist, either for yourself or to buy it for them.

You can also buy it for a friend as a surprise by using their email address, perhaps similar to when you buy and send a digital gift card. That friend will just have to make sure to redeem the game code within 30 days, otherwise, it will be automatically refunded to you.

The second improvement made to Steam this week is that you can purchase games without needing an account. Games can be purchased via the guest checkout, much like what you see on my retail websites. Also, you don’t even need to be friends on Steam to gift a game.

Additionally, games on your wishlist will have a green “Demo Available” button to let you know that you can try before you buy. Moreover, when hovering the cursor over a wishlisted game, a “micro trailer” will play, giving you a quick glimpse at the game you’re tempted to buy for yourself or a friend.

Furthermore, you can now search for a specific category of games using a tag. So, for example, if you saw an action RPG that tickled your fancy in a recent event, just use the tags “action” and “RPG”, and it will help narrow down your search.

That all being said, as great as these new features are, they do have a major caveat: it’s now easier for us to buy games, adding to our ever-expanding “pile of shame” backlog, and thus, depleting our constantly decaying bank balance. Steam’s summer and winter sales be damned!

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What is the community saying about the latest Steam store update?

“Phenomenal change,” declared Zarturael. “Most people have enormous lists; this should help a great deal.”

“This makes me so freaking HAPPY, thank you guys,” said an overjoyed Kishikku.

“As somebody who loves indie games, the 'demo available' labels and notifications are HUGE for me. Thanks!” added OzoneTheLynx.

“Awesome update! Now announce Half-Life 3,” demanded Isaiah, on all our behalfs.

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