Steam community features debut today

Valve has announced the official launch of the Steam community.

As reported earlier, Valve updated Steam with community features this summer-the most extensive update since the service was launched in 2004.

The beta allowed users to create a Steam ID and personal profile with an avatar and favorites, statistics, a friends list, and groups. The final version also has integrated instant messaging, text and voice chat, and an event scheduler.

The community update is free of charge for downloading within any game in Steam's library or within the Steam client itself.