In order to improve the experience for PC gamers, Valve rolled out a newSteamupdate on May 5 that brought a significant quality of life change to the service. Because theSteamdesktop and mobile clients will not require a separate update in order to receive this change, users will be able to see what the difference is, and what it can do for them, right away.
Recently, a newbeta build of the Steam desktop clientgave users the ability to take notes during gameplay via rich text formatting and save their notes for later, including during offline play sessions, as well as have separate overlays open while a game is running. This will allow users to have a browser window open in the overlay for their personal use, be it for watching videos or looking up a guide if they’re stumped while playing a game. As for what else gamers can look up, the recent Steam update can make that job a little easier.
RELATED:Ukraine’s Military Is Using the Steam Deck in an Interesting Way
With the May 5 update, the Steam store’s search function has been changed to improve the auto-suggestion feature when looking up a game or a developer. Valve stated that the change to the search feature was made after seeing what gamers tend to search for when using Steam on both desktop and mobile. For example, if a user was to search for games fromtheFinal Fantasyseries, the results for the top games in the franchise will appear in the drop-down menu, along with the series' main hub page on Steam. This method also applies to tags for genres such as roguelikes and action RPGs. Plus, the update will make up for typos as best it can, so players that make a mistake when searching should be able to find what they want.
While the update is now available for both desktop and mobile, thisupdate also extends to the Steam Deckby association. Valve’s handheld device recently turned a year old and is showing no signs of slowing down thanks to continued revisions and improvements to the device by both Valve and by users that have the means to do so.
However, both Valve and the Steam Deck are now facing stiff competition fromthe Asus ROG Ally, which is capable of running Windows 11 and can run Steam and other storefronts as a result. It remains to be seen what else Valve will do to continue refining the user experience.
