Play Games
1 month ago
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Steam demos are changing, as Valve tackles an increasing number of developers releasing free games on its store in their place. The creator of the leading PC gaming storefront says it is responding to “trends in feedback from both developers and players about the process and functionality” of demos. The new system will enable demos to be shown as a separate store page, and they’re going to become more prominent across the store.
If you use Steam a lot, you’ve probably noticed a big increase of ‘prologue’ and ‘chapter one’ editions of new games over the past year. While plenty of developers still launch traditional demos, many set up a separate page that offers what is essentially a demo, but is presented instead as a free Steam game. This gives it more prominence on the storefront, allowing it to show up among the new and notable releases in particular, as well as appear when users are searching for free games to play.
In response, Valve is now treating Steam demos differently, in an attempt to better match the demands of devs. Demos now have the option to be displayed as a separate store page from the main game, allowing developers to more clearly specify exactly what’s included in the demo, along with a link back to the full version of the game. Users will also be able to leave reviews for demos specifically on their new pages.
On the player side, you’ll notice demos appearing much more frequently in the store. They’ll now act much like free PC games, meaning they can appear on the homepage in the new and trending section along with the relevant tag and category pages. “We’ve also made some changes to the thresholds for free products to appear in those sections to better balance them with paid products,” Valve adds.
You can now add demos to your Steam library without immediately installing them, will have the ability to install them even if you own the full game, and they can be removed from your library either by uninstalling them or by using the ‘remove from account’ option in the right-click menu. Finally, Valve has introduced a new option to receive email or mobile notifications when a game you have wishlisted launches a demo.
All of that should make it easier than ever before to keep track of the best upcoming PC games, but if you can’t wait until then to play something new then have a look to see when the next Steam sale begins.
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