Steam is “refreshing” the look of its digital storefront “to make it even easier for you to find new games by displaying more content and information.”
The new look, available now for beta testers, builds on the improvements made a few months back, and includes “higher resolution game art for better visual clarity.”
“Those of you with higher resolution monitors will notice the new store home is wider and more responsive,” Valve explained in an update. “If you’re viewing the store home on Steam Deck or in Big Picture mode you’ll also see these updates.”
Here’s a full list of what’s new:
Steam storefront updates:
Overall Design Refresh: Over the years [Valve] introduced new sections and added new ways for you to discover and learn about games, and this update aims to make the store home feel more cohesive. Each section has a distinct set of tools and information to give users many ways to explore the diverse catalog of games on Steam. A goal of this visual refresh is to strike a balance between providing more consistency in UI elements, while allowing the unique nature of each section to show through.Featured & Recommended: There is now more detailed information highlighting the reason a game is being recommended to you; plus a user review round-up. When hovering over a game’s cover art, the game’s micro-trailer will play for a quick peak at the action. We also added a sneak-peek of the adjacent games in the carousel.Option to disable: Micro-trailer hovers and animated marketing assets can be disabled in Store Settings for users with motion sensitivity.Discounts & Events: Now uses larger game artwork.Updated Discovery Queue: A quicker way to browse titles in your Discovery Queue without leaving the page.Better Hover States: A short description is presented along with other relevant information. The UI is updated to provide better contrast and legibility. Infinite Scroll: Refreshed design to bring this part of the store home in line visually and functionally with the rest of the sections.
New Sections
Your Wishlist: This section, as you might guess, features games on discount from your wishlist. DLC for Your Games: This section will feature DLC that’s on discount for games from your library.
“Gorgeous redesign. Looks fantastic on my widescreen OLED. So excited to see what all of these changes are leading up to with the new hardware release. Praise Gaben,” wrote one happy tester, but others were not so convinced. “Honestly, as both a developer on Steam and a player, I think it looks too much like a mobile store,” responded someone else. “The old version looked far superior.”
“It looks cool, but in my opinion, there’s too much stuff happening,” added another. “I prefer things to be smaller like they were before. Would be cool if you just added an option for a more compact view. If not that stuff, that’s bothering me, the whole UI looks great, and I like where the Steam store is heading.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
